THE  FIRST  CENTURY  OF  THE  REPUBLIC. 


THE    EIBST    CENTUEY 


OF 


THE   KEPUBLIC: 


A   REVIEW  OF  AMERICAN  PROGRESS 


BY 

THE  REV.  THEODORE  P.  WOOLREY,  P.P.,  LL.P. ;  F.  A.  P.  BARXARP,  LL.D. ;  HON.  PA  VIP 
A.  WFLLS;  HON.  FRANCIS  A.  WALKER;  PKOF.  T.  STERRY  HUNT;  PROF.  WIL 
LIAM  G.  SUMNER ;  EPWARP  ATKINSON ;  PROF.  THEOPORE  GILL ; 
EPWIN  P.  WHIPPLE;  PROF.  W.  H.  BREWER;  EUGENE  LAW 
RENCE  ;  THE  REV.  JOHN  F.  HURST,  D.D. ;  BENJAMIN 
VAUGHAN  ABBOTT ;  AUSTIN  A.  FLINT,  M.P. ; 
S.  S.  CONANT ;  EPWARP  H.  KNIGHT ; 
AND   CHARLES   L.  BRACE. 


NEW    YORK: 
HARPER    &    BROTHERS,    PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN    SQUARE. 
1876. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1876,  by 

HAKPER    &    BROTHERS, 
Tn  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


PUBLISHERS'  ADVERTISEMENT. 


HISTOKY,  as  it  is  usually  written,  touches  only  the  state.  The  grand 
eur  of  state  affairs  and  the  magnitude  of  national  vicissitudes,  on  the 
one  hand,  and,  on  the  other,  the  ambition  of  political  leaders  and  the  an 
tagonism  of  parties — transferred,  it  may  be,  in  some  mighty  crisis,  from 
the  peaceful  senate  to  the  martial  camp — afford  the  material  and  the  per 
sonages  of  a  drama  so  exciting,  and  of  so  popular  a  character,  that  the 
writer  who  most  skillfully  embodies  these  elements  becomes  the  peer  of 
the  statesmen  and  military  heroes  whom  he  has  glorified.  But  this  social 
form  or  structure  which  we  call  the  state,  while  it  enfolds  all  other  social 
forms,  and  sets  its  imposing  seal  upon  the  modest  undertakings  in  indus 
try,  art,  and  learning,  which  constitute  the  life  of  the  people,  yet  does 
it  receive  from  this  popular  life  all  of  its  vitality,  dignity,  and  meaning. 
Especially  is  this  true  of  the  republican  form  of  polity,  because  that  form 
more  immediately  and  perfectly  represents  the  people. 

The  thoughtful  publicist,  therefore,  who,  from  a  retrospect  of  the  past 
century  should  seek  to  estimate  our  present  condition  as  a  nation,  or  our 
outlook  for  the  future,  would  direct  his  attention  not  to  our  political  an 
nals,  but  to  the  industrial,  aesthetic,  intellectual,  and  moral  development 
of  our  people.  He  would  not  refer  to  state  papers,  to  the  congressional 
record,  to  the  history  of  the  great  parties  that  have  upon  various  issues 
divided  the  nation,  nor  to  our  military  capabilities  as  manifested  in  three 
great  wars.  His  inquiries  would  relate  rather  to  the  part  taken  by  the 
American  people  in  the  remarkable  material  progress  of  the  last  hundred 
years, — to  their  inventions,  their  manufactures,  their  development  of  the 
resources  of  the  soil — agricultural  and  mineral, — their  commercial  activity, 
their  increase  in  population,  their  educational  institutions,  their  advance 
ment  in  science  and  art,  their  literature,  their  humane  enterprises,  and 
their  moral  and  religious  culture;  while  in  such  a  review  he  could  not 

M1O4380 


8  PUBLISHERS'  ADVERTISEMENT. 

ignore  the  important  political  experiment  undertaken  by  this  people  in 
the  formation  and  maintenance  of  the  union  of  states  under  a  federal  con 
stitution. 

The  work  here  submitted  to  the  reader  is  precisely  such  a  review  as 
we  have  above  indicated,  of  our  progress  during  the  first  century  of  our 
national  life — the  result  of  inquiries  undertaken  not  by  one,  but  by  a  score 
of  publicists,  each  one  of  whom  is,  in  the  field  occupied  by  him,  a  special 
ist  of  the  highest  authority.  Such  a  work,  considered  as  the  production 
of  a  single  writer,  would  be  impossible,  since  in  nearly  every  department 
the  review  is  the  condensation  of  the  results  of  life-long  research  and  spe 
cial  study.  A  perusal  of  the  table  of  contents,  including  the  subjects  of 
inquiry  and  the  names  of  the  authors,  will  discover  the  value  and  impor 
tance  of  the  work  as  a  comprehensive  literary  exposition  of  the  century. 
The  grand  exhibition  at  Philadelphia  is  international,  and  not  entirely 
American ;  it  is  limited  to  the  display  of  the  material  symbols  of  progress ; 
and  it  is  confined  almost  entirely  to  the  results  of  present  activity  in  the 
various  fields  included  in  its  representation.  The  exposition  attempted  in 
this  work  is  an  indispensable  supplement  to  that  exhibition.  It  connects 
the  present  with  the  past,  showing  the  beginnings  of  great  enterprises, 
tracing  through  consecutive  stages  their  development,  and  associating 
with  them  the  individual  thought  and  labor  by  which  they  have  been 
brought  to  perfection.  It  connects  with  the  outward  fact  its  formative 
idea.  It  is,  moreover,  in  the  main  American ;  though,  in  certain  fields,  it 
was  found  impossible  to  wholly  separate  American  from  European  enter 
prise  without  violent  dislocation. 

Nearly  all  of  the  papers  here  published  were  originally  contributed 
to  Harper's  Magazine"  the  scheme  of  the  entire  series,  and  the  plan,  to 
some  extent,  of  each  paper  having  been  determined  upon  before  a  sin 
gle  word  was  written.  These  papers  during  their  serial  publication  have 
elicited  the  approbation  of  intelligent  readers  throughout  the  country. 
The  successful  execution  of  a  project  of  such  magnitude,  and  involving 
so  important  contributions  from  so  many  of  the  most  eminent  writers 
of  America,  has  been  generally  accepted  not  only  as  adequate  to  the 
great  anniversary  occasion  that  suggested  it,  but  also  as  an  unprecedented 
event  in  the  annals  of  periodical  literature.  Occasional  articles  in  a  mag 
azine  are  usually  of  merely  temporary  importance ;  but  these  papers,  con 
taining  information  never  hitherto  collected  and  organized  into  one  his 
torical  body,  are  a  valuable  contribution  to  the  permanent  history  of  our 


PUBLISHERS'   ADVERTISEMENT.  9 

country.  An  unusually  large  amount  of  space  was  given  to  the  depart 
ment  of  Mechanical  Progress,  but  not  disproportionate^  when  it  is  con 
sidered  how  characteristic  of  the  century  has  been  the  advance  in  this 
field,  and  how  largely  other  progress  has  depended  upon  it.  The  same 
consideration  justifies  the  elaborate  and  extended  treatise  on  Scientific 
Progress.  In  the  department  of  American  Literature,  too,  it  was  im 
possible  to  present  a  satisfactory  review,  or,  indeed,  any  thing  beyond 
mere  generalization,  within  the  limits  allotted  to  most  of  the  papers. 
Each  of  these  longer  treatises,  including  also  those  on  Population  and 
Monetary  Development,  is  in  itself  a  volume  of  valuable  information. 

The  scheme  of  the  work  is  as  novel  as  it  is  comprehensive,  no  similar 
undertaking  having  ever  been  attempted.  While  it  is  not  overweighted 
with  cyclopedic  details,  it  traces,  in  every  field  of  industrial  and  mental 
activity,  the  larger  outlines  of  progress. 

The  results  of  this  retrospect  of  a  century's  growth,  in  those  fields 
which  suggest  a  comparison  between  our  own  and  the  contemporaneous 
development  of  other  countries,  are  such  as  to  awaken  a  feeling  of  just 
pride  in  every  American  citizen.  And  the  reflections  naturally  deduced 
from  these  results,  as  to  the  characteristic  features  of  our  people,  contra 
dict  those  which  are  drawn  from  a  superficial  review  of  the  social  and 
political  abuses  of  the  day,  and  are  re-assuring  as  to  the  hopeful  future  of 
the  Republic. 

A  carefully  prepared  analytical  Index  renders  the  contents  of  the  vol 
ume  available  for  reference,  and  gives  it  its  full  value  as  a  comprehensive 
review  of  American  progress. 

Franklin  Square,  New  York,  July  20,  1876. 


CONTENTS. 


i. 

INTRODUCTION:    COLONIAL  PROGRESS. 
BY  EUGENE  LAWRENCE. 

THE  DECLARATION  OF  INDEPENDENCE.  —  CHARACTER  or  THE  SIGNERS.  —  THE  CONDITION 
OF  THE  COLONIES.  —  WEALTH  AND  POPULATION,  —  SOCIAL  AND  POLITICAL  CHARAC 
TERISTICS.  —  COLONIAL  AGRICULTURE,  MANUFACTURES,  AND  COMMERCE.  —  THE  SLAVE- 
TRADE.  —  WESTERN  PIONEERS  AND  THE  SAVAGES.  —  EDUCATION  .  AND  RELIGION.  — 
JOURNALISM  AND  GENERAL  LITERATURE  ..................................................  Page  17 

II. 

MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 
BY  EDWARD  H.  KNIGHT. 

MECHANICAL  PROGRESS  A  CHARACTERISTIC  FEATURE  OF  THE  CENTURY.  —  AGRICULTURAL 
IMPLEMENTS.  —  THE  STEAM-ENGINE  AND  ITS  APPLICATIONS.  —  STEAM  NAVIGATION.  — 
THE  LOCOMOTIVE.  —  COTTON  MANUFACTURE.  —  IRON.  —  ENGINEERING.  —  WOOD-  WORK 
ING.  —  ELEVATORS.  —  DOMESTIC  MACHINERY.  —  SAFES.  —  FIRE-ARMS  AND  ORDNANCE.  — 
r.  —  ELECTROPLATING.  —  ELECTRIC  LIGHT.  —  FIRE  -  ENGINES.  —  ATMOS 


PHERIC  RAILWAY.  —  BALLOONS.  —  WEIGHING  -  MACHINES.  —  GAS.  —  SILVER.  —  ICE.  — 
SUGAR.  —  PORCELAIN.  —  GLASS.  —  PAPER.  —  INDIA  K  i  inn  :u.  —  METEOROLOGICAL  IN 
STRUMENTS.  —  ANAESTHETICS.  —  ARTIFICIAL  LIMBS.  —  AQUARIA.  —  MATCHES.  —  MUSICAL 
INSTRUMENTS.  —  TYPE  -  FOUNDING.  —  TYPE  -  SETTING  MACHINES.  —  STEREOTYPING.  — 
ELECTROT  YPING.  —  THE  PRINTING-  PRESS.  —  FOLDING  -  MACHINES.  —  ADDRESSING  -  MA 
CHINES.  —  PRINTING  FOR  THE  BLIND.  —  ENGRAVING.  —  LITHOGRAPHY.  —  PHOTOGRA 
PHY.  —  PHOTOLITHOGRAPHY.  —  MISCELLANEOUS  PHOTO  -  PROCESSES.  —  PHOTOMICOG- 
RAPHY  ............................................................................................................  39 

ILLUSTRATIONS.  —  Patent-office,  Washington  ;  Newcomeu's  Steam-engine  ;  Watt's  double-acting  Steam- 
engine,  1769  ;  Rude  modern  Plows  ;  The  Origin  of  the  Hoe  and  the  Plow  ;  American  Plow  of  1776  : 
Plows,  1785-1874  ;  Howard  Wheel-plow  ;  Fowler's  Steam-plow  ;  Reaping  in  Gaul,  first  to  fourth  Century 
A.n.  ;  Gladstone's  Reaper,  England,  1806  ;  Bell's  Reaper,  England,  1S26  ;  "Champion  "  self-raking  Reap 
er;  Meikle's  Thresher,  1786  ;  American  Threshing-machine;  English  Threshing-machine  ;  Single-acting 
Cornish  Pumping-engine  ;  Symington's  Steamboat,  "Charlotte  Dundas;"  Fulton's  Steamboat,  "Cler- 
mont,"  1807;  Bell's  Steamboat,  "Comet,"  1812;  Screw  Steamship  "City  of  Peking  ;"  Trevethick  and 
Vivian's  Locomotive,  1805  ;  Evans's  Locomotive  ;  Blenkinsop's  Locomotive,  1811  ;  Hedley's  Locomo 
tive,  1813;  Dodd's  and  Stephenson's  Locomotive,  1815;  Stephenson's  Locomotive,  1829:  English  Loco 
motives;  American  Locomotive  (two  views);  WMtufiv.'ajCpttciu-gin  ;  Spinning  -  wheel  ;  HargreavesV 
Spinning-jenny;  Arkwright's  Spinning-machine  ;  Mule  SplDnei^'c^ompton's  fancy  Loom  ;  Iron  Fur 
nace  of  the  Kols,  Hindostan  ;  Modern  Blast-furnace;  Puddling-fnrnace;  Danks's  Mechanical  Puddler: 
Rolling-mill  for  Iron  Bars;  Nasmyth's  double  -frame  Steam-hammer;  Bessemer  Plant;  Perkins's 
Transferring-press  and  Roller-die  ;  Whitworth's  Millionth  Measuring-gauge  ;  Caisson  at  Copenhagen  ; 
Caisson  of  the  East  River  Bridge,  New  York;  Floating  Derrick,  New  York;  Floating  Dock  "Bermu 
da;"  Perronet's  Chain  -pumps,  France;  Current  Water-wheel,  London  Bridge,  1731;  Heading  of  the 
Excavation,  Hallett's  Point  Reef,  East  River,  New  York;  Iron  Arch  Bridges;  The  Illinois  and  St.  Louis 
Bridge  ;  Iron  Truss  and  Lattice  Bridges  ;  Portable  Circular  Saw;  Band  Saw;  Moulding-machine  ;  Gen 
eral  Wood-worker  ;  Blanchard's  Spoke  Lathe;  Singer  Sewing-machine;  Lamb's  Knitting-machine;  Tay 
lor's  Machine  Gun  ;  Morse  Apparatus,  Circuit  and  Battery  ;  Morse  Key  ;  Morse  Register  ;  Duplex  Tele- 


12  CONTENTS. 

ILLUSTRATIONS — Continued. 

graph;  Electroplating;  Electric  Light;  Steam  Fire -engine,  "Washington,  No.  1 ;"  Diagram  of  Gas 
works  ;  Stetefeldt's  Roasting  -  furnace  ;  Carre's  Apparatus  for  Ice -making;  Modern  Sugar  Process; 
Centrifugal  Filter;  Glass -making  in  Egypt;  Successive  Stages  of  Cylinder  Glass;  Pulping- engine ; 
The  Barograph ;  Condell's  Artificial  Arm  ;  Egyptian  and  Cuneiform,  Ideographic  and  Syllabic  Char 
acters  ;  Phonetic  Languages  of  Asia ;  Phoenician  and  Egyptian  Writing;  Bruce's  Type-casting  Ma 
chine;  Casting-pan;  Stereotyping  —  Plaster  Process:  Moulding-press — Clay  Process;  Beating-table— 
Papier-mache  Process ;  Stereotype  Mould-drying  Press — Paper  Process  ;  Black-leading  Machine ;  Elec- 
trotyping-press ;  Electrotyping  Bath  and  Battery;  Benjamin  Franklin's  Press;  Lord  Stanhope's  Press; 
"Columbian"  Press;  "Washington"  Press;  Principles  of  Action  of  Power -presses ;  Adams  Press; 
Campbell's  Single-cylinder  Press ;  Gordon  Job  Press ;  Walter's  Perfecting-press ;  Bullock  Perfecting- 
press;  "Victory"  Perfecting-press  and  Folding-machine;  "Hoe"  Web  Perfecting-press;  Chambers's 
Folding -machine;  Addressing- machine ;  Lithographing  Hand-press;  Hoe's  Lithographic  Printing- 
machine;  Bellows  Camera;  Enlarging  Solar  Camera;  Stereoscopic  Camera ;  Osborne's  Copying  Came 
ra  and  Table ;  Woodward's  Micro-photographic  Apparatus ;  The  Lord's  Prayer. 

III. 

PROGRESS  IN  MANUFACTURE. 

BY  THE  HON.  DAVID  A.  WELLS. 

WHAT  ARE  MANUFACTURES? — SOURCES  OF  INFORMATION. — PROGRESS  FROM  1607  TO 
1776.  —  CAUSE  OF  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION.  —  PROGRESS  SINCE  THE  REVOLU 
TION. — NUMBER  OF  PERSONS  EMPLOYED  IN  MANUFACTURE. — SOCIAL  CONDITION  OF 
LABORERS Page  147 

IV. 

AGRICULTURAL    PROGRESS. 
BY  PROFESSOR  WILLIAM  H.  BREWER. 

EARLY  INTRODUCTION  OF  FOREIGN  PLANTS. — RELATION  OF  MECHANICAL  PROGRESS  AND 
SCIENTIFIC  DISCOVERY  TO  ARCHITECTURE.  —  CHANGES  IN  THE  USE  OF  AGRICUL 
TURAL  IMPLEMENTS.  —  APPLICATION  OF  CHEMISTRY  TO  AGRICULTURE.  —  IMPROVE 
MENT  IN  FERTILIZERS.  —  DRAINING  AND  IRRIGATION.  —  GRAZING  AND  STOCK-RAIS 
ING. — THE  CHEESE  FACTORY  SYSTEM 174 

V. 

THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  OUR  MINERAL  RESOURCES. 
BY  PROFESSOR  T.  STERRY  HUNT. 

DISTRIBUTION  OF  COAL. — THE  PETROLEUM  INDUSTRY. — IRON  MINES  AND  IRON  MANU 
FACTURE. — COPPER-MINING. — GOLD  AND  SILVER 185 

VI. 

COMMERCIAL  DEVELOPMENT. 
BY  EDWARD  ATKINSON. 

THE  TRUE  FUNCTION  OF  COMMERCE. — ADAM  SMITH'S  "  WEALTH  OF  NATIONS." — LESSONS 
FROM  THE  HISTORY  OF  THE  DUTCH  REPUBLIC. — ABOLITION  OF  RESTRICTIONS  UPON 
COMMERCE  BETWEEN  THE  STATES.  —  OTHER  INJURIOUS  RESTRICTIONS  STILL  EN 
FORCED. —  OUR  GREAT  CENTRES  OF  MANUFACTURE  AND  AGRICULTURE.  —  OUR  NA 
TIONAL  COMMERCE.  —  CONCENTRATION  OF  POPULATION  IN  CITIES  AND  TOWNS. — 
INFLUENCE  OF  COMMERCIAL  ACTIVITY  UPON  MODERN  LIFE...,  200 


CONTENTS.  13 

VII. 

GROWTH  AND  DISTRIBUTION  OF  POPULATION. 

BY  THE  HON.  FRANCIS  A.  WALKER. 

THE  EARLY  SETTLEMENTS,  1607-1660. — SETTLEMENTS  IN  NEW  YORK,  NEW  JERSEY,  AND 
PENNSYLVANIA,  1660-1688.  —  SETTLEMENT  OF  GEORGIA,  1733. — WESTERN  SETTLE 
MENTS,  1754-1790.  — POPULATION  IN  1776.— THE  FIRST  CENSUS,  1790.  —  EXTENSION 
OF  SETTLEMENTS  SINCE  1790. — CITIES. — THE  CENTRE  OF  POPULATION. — THE  ARITH 
METICAL  PROCESS  OF  THE  NATIONAL  GROWTH. — THE  GEOGRAPHICAL  PROCESS  OF 
THE  NATIONAL  GROWTH. — THE  PACIFIC  COAST  SETTLEMENTS. — THE  POST-OFFICE. 
—  OUR  FOREIGN  ELEMENTS.  —  INTERSTATE  MIGRATION.  —  THE  POPULATION  OF 

1870 Page  211 

Ii.i  CSTKATIONS Map  showing  the  Acquisition  of  Territory,  1776-1868;  Map  showing  the  Progress 

of  Settlement  East  of  the  100th  Meridian ,  Map  showing  Progress  Westward  of  the  Centre  of  Popula 
tion  from  Baltimore,  1800-1870 ;  Maps  Illustrating  Interstate  Migration;  Map  showing  Density  of 
Population. 


VIII. 

MONETARY  DEVELOPMENT. 

BY  PROFESSOR  WILLIAM  G.  SUMNER. 


BARTER  CURRENCY  IN  THE  COLONIES. — EARLY  PAPER  CURRENCY. — FINANCIAL  MEAS 
URES  OF  THE  FIRST  AND  SECOND  CONTINENTAL  CONGRESSES. — THE  BANK  OF  NORTH 

AMERICA. — THE  FINANCIAL  SITUATION  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  REVOLUTION. — ES 
TABLISHMENT  OF  THE  TREASURY  DEPARTMENT.  —  THE  NATIONAL  BANK,  1791.— PAS 
SAGE  OF  THE  MINT  LAWS,  1786.  —  FINANCIAL  RESULT  OF  THE  EUROPEAN  WARS, 
1791-1815.  —  EFFECT  OF  THE  WAR  OF  1812.— THE  UNITED  STATES  BANK,  1816.— 
PRESIDENT  JACKSON'S  OPPOSITION  TO  THE  BANK.  —  SUSPENSION  OF  SPECIE  PAY 
MENTS  IN  1837. — SITUATION  OF  THE  BANKS  IN  1840. — PAPER  MONEY  TN  THE  WEST. 
— DISCOVERY  OF  GOLD  IN  CALIFORNIA. — THE  PANIC  OF  1857. — FINAN^AL  LEGISLA 
TION  DURING  THE  ClVIL  WAR. — TlIE  NATIONAL  BANK  ACT  OF  1863.— TlIE  PRESENT 

SITUATION...  ....  238 


IX. 

THE  EXPERIMENT  OF  THE  UNION,  WITH   ITS  PREPARATIONS. 
BY  T.  D.  WOOLSEY,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

MORAL  AND  HISTORICAL  INFLUENCES. — THE  ENGLISH  COLONIES  IN  AMERICA. — AUSPI 
CIOUS  TIME  OF  THE  EMIGRATIONS.  —  EQUALITY  OF  CONDITION  AMONG  THE  SET 
TLERS. —  PREPARATIONS  FOR  UNION. — THE  CONFEDERATION.  —  THE  CONSTITUTOR 
—  SECTIONAL  DIFFERENCES. — THE  CIVIL  WAR. — RECONSTRUCTION.  —  SOURCES  OF 
DANGER  OPENED  UP  BY  THE  WAR.  —  CONCENTRATION  OF  POWER  IN  THE  FED 
ERAL  GOVERNMENT.  —  UNIVERSAL  SUFFRAGE.  —  THE  INFLUX  OF  FOREIGNERS.  — 
FINANCIAL  DELUSIONS.  —  POLITICAL  CORRUPTION.  —  THE  NEED  AND  HOPE  OF  RE 
FORM...  ..  260 


14  CONTENTS. 

X. 

EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS. 
BY  EUGENE  LAWRENCE. 

EARLY  ATTENTION  GIVEN  TO  THE  SUBJECT.  —  THE  AMERICAN  PLAN  OF  EDUCATION. — 
COMMON  SCHOOLS  IN  NEW  ENGLAND. — THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  FREE  SCHOOLS  IN  NEW 
YORK. — THE  SECTARIAN  QUESTION. — THE  COMMON-SCHOOL  SYSTEM  IN  PENNSYLVA 
NIA. — EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS  IN  THE  SOUTH. — EDUCATION  AND  THE  PRESS. — 
THE  EDUCATIONAL  PROBLEM  OF  TO-DAY. — GENERAL  TENDENCY  OF  AMERICAN  EDU 
CATION Page  279 

XL 

SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS. 
I.    THE    EXACT    SCIENCES. 

TVr  V    A    P    TtARTJATfl^p^T.T.Tl 

AID  RENDERED  BY  GOVERNMENT  TO  SCIENTIFIC  INVESTIGATION.  —  SCIENTIFIC  ASSOCIA 
TIONS. — AMERICAN  CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  MATHEMATICAL  SCIENCE. — ASTRONOMY. — 
PHYSICAL  ASTRONOMY. —  COMETS. —  AURORAS. — METEORIC  ASTRONOMY. — METEOR 
OLOGY. — SOUND. — LIGHT  AND  HEAT. — THE  SPECTRUM. — PHOTOGRAPHY. —  PRODUC 
TION  OF  COLD. — THE  MICROSCOPE. — ELECTRICITY  AND  MAGNETISM. — VOLTAIC  IN 
DUCTION.  —  MAGNETO  -ELECTRICITY. — INDUCTION  COILS.  —  STATIC  ELECTRICITY.  — 
CHEMISTRY 294 

II.   NATURAL  SCIENCE. 
BY  PROFESSOR  THEODORE  GILL. 

FIRST  STEPS. — SOCIETIES  AND  LOCAL  DEVELOPMENT. — GENERAL  EXPLORATIONS. — MIN 
ERALOGY. — BOTANY. — ZOOLOGY. — PALEONTOLOGY. — GEOLOGY 337 

XII. 

A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 
BY  EDWIN  P.  WHIFFLE. 

COLONIAL  THOUGHT  AS  REPRESENTED  BY  JONATHAN  EDWARDS  AND  BENJAMIN  FRANK 
LIN. —  THE  AUTHORS  OF  THE  "FEDERALIST:"  HAMILTON,  MADISON,  AND  JAY. — 
FISHER  AMES.  —  POETS,  1776-1810:  TIMOTHY  DWIGHT,  PHILIP  FRENEAU,  JOHN 
TRUMBULL,  FRANCIS  HOPKINSON,  ROBKUT  TREAT  PAINE,  JUN.,  JOEL  BARLOW. — 
EARLY  WRITERS  OF  FICTION:  SUSANNA  ROWSON,  HUGH  HENRY  BRACKENRIDGE, 
CHARLES  BROCKDEN  BROWN. — THEOLOGICAL  WRITERS  OF  THE  CALVINISTIC  SCHOOL. 
— ETHAN  ALLEN'S  "  REASON,  THE  ONLY  ORACLE  OF  MAN." — TOM  PAINE'S  WRITINGS. 
— ENGLISH  REVIVAL  OF  LETTERS,  1810-1840. — WORDSWORTH'S  INFLUENCE  IN  AMER 
ICA. — WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT. — RICHARD  HENRY  DANA. — WASHINGTON  ALLSTON. 
— WASHINGTON  IRVING. — JA^ES  FENIMPRE  CQQPER. — JOSEPH  RODMAN  DRAKE. — 
FITZ- GREENE  HALLECK. — JAMES  K.  PAULDING.— REACTION  AGAINST  PURITANISM 
AND  CALVINISM  IN  NEW  ENGLAND. — WILLIAM  ELLERY  CHANNING. — ANDREWS  NOR 
TON. —  ORVILLE  DEWEY. — JOHN  G.  PALFREY. — RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON. — THEO- 


CONTENTS.  15 

DORE  PARKER. — HENRY  WADSWORTH  LONGFELLOW. — JOHN  GREENLEAF  WHITTIER. 
— OLIVER  WENDELL  HOLMES. — JAMES  EUSSELL  LOWELL. — JULIA  WARD  HOWE. — 
CHARLES  SPRAGUE. — NATHANIEL. PaRtfKR  WIT.T is. — JAMES  (}.  PERCIVAL. — EDGAR 
ALLAN  POE. — BAYARD  TAYLOR. — GEORGE  WILLIAM  CURTIS. — HISTORY  AND  BIOG 
RAPHY:  JARED  SPARKS,  THE  ADAMSES,  HAMILTON,  GEORGE  BANCROFT,  RICHARD 
HILDRETH,  WILLIAM  H.  PRESCOTT,  JOHN  LOTHROP  MOTLEY,  JOHN  FOSTER  KIRK, 
GEORGE  W.  GREENE,  JOHN  W.  DRAPER,  JAMES  PARTOX,  HENRY  WILSON,  W.  T. 
SHERMAN,  GEORGE  TICKNOR,  WILLIAM  R.  ALGER. — POLITICAL  ORATORS  :  JOHN  C. 
CALHOUN,  DANIEL  WEBSTER,  CHARLES  SUMNER,  EDWARD  EVERETT,  ABRAHAM  LIN 
COLN. — ESSAYISTS  AND  HUMORISTS  :  HENRY  D.  THOREAU,  A.  BRONSON  ALCOTT,  WALT 
WHITMAN,  GEORGE  H.  DERBY,  CHARLES  F.  BROWNE,  S.  L.  CLEMENS,  BRET  HARTE, 
WILLIAM  D.  HOWELLS,  CHARLES  DUDLEY  WARNER,  THOMAS  BAILEY  ALDRICH. — LATER 
AMERICAN  NOVELISTS  :  NATHANIEL  HAWTHORNE,  HARRIET  BEECHER  STOWE,  CATHER 
INE  M.  SEDGWICK,  WILLIAM  WARE,  R.  B.  KIMBALL,  DONALD  G_.  MITCHELL,  SYLVESTER 
JUDD,  THOMAS  W.  HIGGINSON,  MARIA  S.  CUMMINS,  ELIZABETH  STUART  PHELPS,  J.  W. 
DE  FOREST,  EDWARD  EVERETT  HALE,  LOUISA  M.  ALCOTT,  MRS.  A.  D.  T.  WHITNEY, 
WILLIAM  G.  SIMMS,  THEODORE  WINTHROP,  J.  G.  HOLLAND,  MARY  J.  HOLMES,  MARIAN 
HARLAND,  AUGUSTA  EVANS  WILSON. — REMARKABLE  POEMS. — THEOLOGICAL  WRIT 
ERS. — MISCELLANEOUS Page  349 

XIII. 

PROGRESS   OF  THE   FINE  ARTS. 
BY  S.  S.  CONANT. 

EARLY  AMERICAN  ARTISTS. — Jonx  WATSON  AND  JOHN  SMYBERT. — ABSENCE  OF  PUBLIC 
GALLERIES  OF  PAINTINGS.  —  THE  AMERICAN  ART  UNION,  1839.  —  THE  NATIONAL 
ACADEMY  OF  DESIGN,  NEW  YORK  CITY. — ACADEMY  OF  ART  IN  PHILADELPHIA. — 
PAINTING  IN  WATER -COLOR. — THE  ARTISTS'  FUND  SOCIETY. — PORTRAIT  -  PAINTERS  : 
BENJAMIN  WEST,  JOHN  SINGLETON  COPLEY,  CHARLES  WILSON  PEALE,  J.  W.  JARVIS, 
CHESTER  HARDING,  GILBERT  CHARLES  STUART.  —  PROMINENT  PAINTERS  OF  THE 
PRESENT  CENTURY. — HISTORICAL  PAINTERS:  Jjjyg^JTRmiByii,  WASHINGTON  ALL- 
STON,  EMANUEL  LEUTZE.  —  LANDSCAPE  PAINTERS.  —  GENRE  PAINTERS. — AMERICAN 
SCULPTORS  :  HORATIO  GREENOUGH,  THOMAS  CRAWFORD,  HIRAM  POWERS,  J.  Q.  A. 
WARD. — ENGRAVING. — DRAWING  ON  WOOD. — CARICATURE 399 

ILLUSTRATIONS.— Paul  Revere  ;  John  Singleton  Copley  ;  Benjamin  West ;  Gilbert  Stuart ;  Colonel 
John  Trnmbnll ;  Alexander  Anderson  ;  Rembrandt  Peale  ;  Washington  Allstou  ;  Thomas  Sully;  Pro 
fessor  Morse ;  Henry  luman  ;  Thomas  Cole ;  Horatio  Greeuough ;  Hiram  Powers ;  Thomas  Crawford ; 
John  F.  Keusett. 

XIV. 

MEDICAL  AND  SANITARY  PROGRESS. 
BY  AUSTIN  FLINT,  M.D. 

EDUCATIONAL  INSTITUTIONS. — MEDICAL  ASSOCIATIONS. — MEDICAL  LITERATURE. — THE 
GREAT  MEDICAL  EVENTS  OF  THE  CENTURY. — VACCINATION. — DISCOVERY  OF  AUS 
CULTATION. — MEDICAL  USE  OF  THE  THERMOMETER. — AMERICAN  CONTRIBUTIONS  TO 
MEDICAL  PROGRESS. — OVARIOTOMY. — HUNTER'S  OPERATION. —  BEAUMONT'S  OBSER 
VATIONS  IN  RELATION  TO  DIGESTION. — ANAESTHESIA.  —  IMPORTANT  IMPROVEMENTS 

IN  PRACTICAL  SURGERY. — AMERICAN  CONTRIBUTIONS  TO  THE  MATERIA  MEDICA. — 
GENERAL  INDICATIONS  OF  PROGRESS...  ..  416 


16  CONTENTS. 

XV. 

AMERICAN   JURISPRUDENCE. 

BY  BENJAMIN  VAUGHAN  ABBOTT. 

THE  AMERICAN  LIBRARY  OF  LAW. — JURISPRUDENCE  IN  COLONIAL  TIMES. — WRITTEN 
CONSTITUTIONS. — THE  TWOFOLD  SYSTEM  OF  COURTS. — OUR  ADMIRALTY  JURISDIC 
TION. — PATENTS  AND  COPYRIGHTS. — EXTRADITION  OF  CRIMINALS. — BANKRUPTCY. — 
THE  CALIFORNIA  LAND  CLAIMS. — RIGHTS  OF  MARRIED  WOMEN. — HOMESTEAD  AND  EX 
EMPTION  LAWS. — MECHANICS'  LIEN  LAWS. — PROTECTION  OF  ANIMALS. — REFORMED 
PROCEDURE. — CODES  AND  REVISED  STATUTES. — A  BRIEF  RETROSPECT Page  434 

XVI. 

HUMANITARIAN  PROGRESS. 

BY  CHARLES  L.  BRACE. 

THE  PRISONS.  —  OVERCROWDING  OF  FORMER  PRISONS. — -IMPRISONMENT  OF  DEBTORS. — 
SEVERITY  OF  PENALTIES. — COUNTY  PRISONS. — REFORM  OF  THE  PRISON  SYSTEM  IN 
THE  UNITED  STATES. — RELIGIOUS  INSTRUCTIONS. — SECULAR  TEACHING. — LIBRARIES. 
— THE  TREATMENT  OF  CRIMINAL  AND  UNFORTUNATE  CHILDREN. — PREVENTION  OF 
CHILDREN'S  CRIMES. — TREATMENT  OF  LUNATICS 454 

XVII. 

RELIGIOUS    DEVELOPMENT. 

BY  THE  REV.  JOHN  F.  HURST,  D.D. 

RELIGIOUS  ANTECEDENTS  OF  THE  EARLY  SETTLERS. — LOVE  OF  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY  ONE 
OF  THE  MOTIVES  TO  REVOLUTION. — RELIGION  AND  POLITICS  IN  THE  REVOLUTION. — 
INDEPENDENCE  OF  THE  CLERGY. — OUR  DENOMINATIONAL  LIFE. — THE  PROTESTANT 
BODIES. — ROMAN  CATHOLICISM  IN  AMERICA. — HOME  MISSIONS. — GREAT  RELIGIOUS 
REVIVALS. — PRACTICAL  CHARACTER  OF  OUR  RELIGIOUS  DEVELOPMENTS. — THE  UNI 
TARIAN  PROTEST. — THE  SCHOOL  QUESTION. — CONCLUSION 473 


THE  FIRST  CENTURY  OF  THE  REPUBLIC, 


i. 

INTRODUCTION.— COLONIAL  PROGRESS. 


FIFTY-ONE  doubtful  and  divided  men, 
of  infinite  variety  in  opinions,  educa 
tion,  and  character,  met  in  the  hot  days  of 
July,  1776,  in  that  plain  room  at  Philadel 
phia  where  was  decided  the  chief  event  of 
modern  history,  to  found  a  republic.  They 
were  about  to  reverse  all  the  inculcations  of 
recent  experience,  and  to  enter  at  once  upon 
a  new  era  of  uncertainty.  From  all  the 
models  of  the  past  they  could  borrow  little, 
and  they  overleaped  barriers  that  had  af 
frighted  all  former  legislators.  Not  Crom 
well  and  Hampden,  not  the  plebeians  of 
Rome  and  the  Demos  of  Athens,  not  the  re 
publicans  of  Venice  nor  the  Calvinists  of 
Holland  and  Geneva,  had  ventured  upon  that 
tremendous  stride  in  human  progress  that 
would  alone  satisfy  the  reformers  of  Amer 
ica.  Educated  in  the  strict  conceptions  of 
rank  and  caste  which  even  Massachusetts 
had  cultivated  and  Virginia  carried  to  a 
ludicrous  extreme,  they  threw  aside  the  ar 
tificial  distinction  forever,  and  declared  all 
men  equal.  One  sad  exception  they  made, 
but  only  by  implication.  Rousseau  had 
said  that  men  born  to  be  free  were  every 
where  enslaved ;  but  Adams  and  Jefferson 
demanded  for  all  mankind  freedom  and  per 
fect  self-control.  Yet  still  the  same  dark 
shade  rested  upon  their  conception  of  inde 
pendence.  But  in  all  other  matters  they 
were  uniformly  consistent.  In  all  other 
lands,  in  all  other  ages,  the  church  had  been 
united  to  the  state.  The  American  reform 
ers  claimed  a  perfect  freedom  for  every 
creed.  Men  trained  in  the  rigid  prelatical 
rule  of  Virginia  and  the  rigorous  Calvinism 
of  Massachusetts  joined  in  discarding  from 
their  new  republic  every  trace  of  sectarian 
ism.  Religion  and  the  state  were  severed 


for  the  first  time  since  Constantine.  Of  the 
many  important  and  radical  changes  that 
must  take  place  in  human  affairs  from  the 
prevalence  of  the  principles  they  enunci 
ated  a  large  part  of  the  assembly  were  prob 
ably  unconscious.  Yet  upon  one  point  in 
their  new  political  creed  all  seemed  to  be 
unanimous.  The  people  were  in  future  to 
be  the  only  sovereigns.  The  most  heterodox 
of  all  theories  to  European  reasoners,  the 
plainest  contradiction  to  all  the  experience 
of  human  history,  they  set  forth  distinctly, 
and  never  wavered  in  its  defense.  The  En 
glish  Commons  had  been  content  to  derive 
all  their  privileges  from  the  condescension 
of  the  crown.  The  people  of  France  were 
the  abject  slaves  of  a  corrupt  despotism. 
Two  or  three  democratic  cantons  in  Switzer 
land  alone  relieved  the  prevalence  of  a  rigid 
aristocracy.  All  over  Germany,  Italy,  and 
Scandinavia  the  people  were  so  contemned, 
derided,  and  oppressed  as  scarcely  to  de 
serve  the  notice  of  the  ruling  classes.  The 
few  ruled  over  the  many,  and  slavery  was 
the  common  lot  of  man.  Nor  when  the  re- 
formei-s  of  America  proclaimed  the  sover 
eignty  of  the  despised  people,  torn  and  dis 
membered  by  the  tyranny  of  ages,  could 
they  hope  to  escape  the  reproach  of  wild 
enthusiasm,  or  to  be  looked  upon  as  more 
than  idle  dreamers. 

Yet  the  chiefs  of  the  republican  party 
were  men  so  resolute,  pure,  sagacious,  as  to 
deserve  the  esteem  of  the  most  eminent  of 
the  Europeans.  Touched  by  a  secret  pang 
of  admiration  for  an  integrity  which  he  did 
not  share,  the  historian  Gibbon,  in  the  midst 
of  a  stately  review  of  the  miseries  and  the 
joys  of  all  mankind,  confessed  the  sentiment 
while  he  clung  to  his  salary  and  his  place. 


18 


INTRODUCTION.— COLONIAL  PKOGKESS. 


Robertsoii  and  Hume,  bo^nd  M  the  scheme 
of  royalty  by  pension?,  honors,  and  official 
station,  dropped  &  sigli  for  ihat  independ 
ence  which  they  were'he've'r'  to  know.  Adam 
Smith  lent  the  Americans  a  full  and  gen 
erous  sympathy.  Fox,  Burke,  and  Barre", 
Wilkes,  and  even  Chatham,  joined  the  brill 
iant  but  narrow  circle  of  the  friends  of 
America.  On  the  Continent  philosophers 
and  poets,  princes  and  statesmen,  watched 
with  a  singular  attention  the  revolt  of  the 
New  World  against  the  traditions  of  the 
Old.  Voltaire  from  his  Swiss  retreat,  or  in 
the  assemblies  of  Paris,  rejoiced  over  "  Frank 
lin's  republic."  Vergennes  was  amazed  at 
the  blindness  of  the  English  ministry,  and 
the  folly  of  their  king.  And  when  the  story 
of  Bunker  Hill  and  of  the  rising  fame  of 
Washington  came  like  a  sudden  illumination 
over  the  Atlantic,  all  Europe  began  to  study 
with  critical  interest  the  characters  and  the 
histories  of  the  men  who  had  already  shown 
a  consciousness  of  their  natural  rights  and 
a  power  to  defend  them.  The  congress  of 
deputies  at  Philadelphia  was  no  longer  an 
obscure  and  isolated  assemblage;  it  was 
plainly  laboring  upon  a  grand  political  prob 
lem  under  the  scrutiny  of  all  mankind. 

In  the  following  sketch  of  the  progress  of 
the  colonies  up  to  the  period  of  freedom  I 
shall  endeavor  to  describe  the  country  as  it 
appeared  to  Adams  and  Jefferson,  Chatham 
and  Burke,  its  poor  resources,  its  savage  ter 
ritory,  its  isolated  and  divided  people.  Noth 
ing,  indeed,  gives  iis  a  clearer  view  of  the 
mental  vigor  of  our  ancestors  than  that  they 
should  have  foreseen  and  secured  the  union 
of  so  many  distant  settlements  into  one 
grand  nation,1  and  should  have  predicted 
with  John  Adams  that  the  day  of  independ 
ence  was  the  opening  of  a  new  era  of  hope 
for  millions  yet  to  come.  A  notion  had  pre 
vailed  among  Europeans  that  America  could 
only  be  the  parent  of  degenerate  and  feeble 
races.  Buffon  had  suggested  and  Raynal 
confirmed  the  theory.  No  man  of  intellect- 


i  "  A  voluntary  association  or  coalition  of  the  col 
onies,  at  least  a  permanent  one,  is  almost  as  difficult 
to  be  supposed ;  for  fire  and  water  are  not  more  heter 
ogeneous  than  the  different  colonies,"  says  Burnaby, 
Pinkert.,  vol.  xiii.  p.  751.  Yet  in  1742  Kalm  saw  the 
coldness  of  the  people  toward  England.  Pinkert., 
vol.  xiii.  p.  461.  He  was  even  told  that  in  thirty  or 
forty  years  they  would  form  a  separate,  independent 
etate. 


ual  ability,  no  poet,  philosopher,  or  states 
man,  Raynal  said,  has  yet  appeared  in  the 
New  World.  Franklin,  Washington,  the  two 
Adamses,  Jefferson,  rose  up  before  mankind 
almost  while  he  spoke.  Yet  whoever  sur 
veyed  the  slow  advance  of  civilization  in 
the  wilderness  under  the  restraints  and  dis 
couragements  of  the  English  control  might 
scarcely  wonder  at  the  doubts  of  the  French 
philosophers,  or  hardly  see  in  the  long  chain 
of  feeble  settlements  the  future  homes  of  civ 
ilization. 

At  the  founding  of  the  republic  the  colo 
nists  were  accustomed  to  boast  that  their 
territory  extended  fifteen  hundred  miles  in 
length,  and  was  already  the  seat  of  a  power 
ful  nation.  But  of  this  vast  expanse  the 
larger  part  even  along  the  sea-coast  was  still 
an  uninhabited  wilderness.1  Although  more 
than  a  century  and  a  half  had  passed  since  the 
first  settlements  in  Massachusetts  and  Vir- 
'ginia,  only  a  thin  line  of  insignificant  towns 
and  villages  reached  from  Maine  to  Georgia. 
In  the  century  since  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence  a  whole  continent  has  been  seamed 
with  railroads  and  filled  with  people,  but  the 
slow  growth  of  the  preceding  century  had 
scarcely  disturbed  the  reign  of  the  savage  on 
his  native  plains.  On  the  coast  the  province 
of  Maine  possessed  only  a  few  towns,  and  an 
almost  unbroken  solitude  spread  from  Port 
land  to  the  St.  Lawrence.  A  few  hardy  set 
tlers  were  just  founding  a  State  among  the 
Green  Mountains  destined  to  be  the  home  of 
a  spotless  freedom.  In  New  York,  still  infe 
rior  to  several  of  its  fellow-colonies  in  popu 
lation,  the  cultivated  portions  were  confined 
to  the  bay  and  shores  of  the  Hudson.  The 
rich  fields  of  the  Geuesee  Valley  and  the  Mo 
hawk  were  famous  already,  but  the  savages 
had  checked  the  course  of  settlement.  It 
was  not  until  many  years  after  the  war  of 
independence  that  the  fairest  part  of  New 
York  was  despoiled  of  its  wealth  by  a  care 
less  agriculture.  Schenectady  was  a  front 
ier  town,  noted  for  a  mournful  doom,  and 
even  Albany  and  Kingston  were  not  wholly 
secure  from  the  stealthy  invasions  of  the  In 
dian.  Pennsylvania,  a  frontier  State,  com 
paratively  populous  and  wealthy,  protected 
New  Jersey  and  Delaware  from  their  as 
saults  ;  but  Pittsburg  was  still  only  a  mili- 

i  Holmes,  Annals.    Bancroft.    Gordon.    Ramsay. 


THE  COUNTRY  AND  THE  PEOPLE. 


19 


tary  post,  and  the  larger  part  of  the  popula 
tion  of  the  colony  was  gathered  in  the  neigh 
borhood  of  the  capital.1  Woods,  mountains, 
and  morasses  filled  up  that  fair  region  where 
now  the  immense  wealth  of  coal  and  iron 
has  produced  the  Birmingham  of  America.1 

The  southern  colonies  had  grown  with 
more  rapidity  in  population  and  wealth  than 
New  York  and  Pennsylvania.  Virginia  and 
the  Caroliuas  had  extended  their  settlements 
westward  far  into  the  interior.  Some  emi 
grants  had  even  wandered  to  Western  Ten 
nessee.  Daniel  Booue  had  led  the  way  to 
Kentucky.  A  few  English  or  Americans  had 
colonized  Natchez,  on  the  Mississippi.  But 
the  settlers  in  Kentucky  and  Tennessee  lived 
with  rifle  in  hand,  seldom  safe  from  the  at 
tacks  of  the  natives,  and  were  to  form  in  the 
war  of  independence  that  admirable  corps 
of  riflemen  and  sharp-shooters  who  were 
noted  for  their  courage  and  skill  from  the 
siege  of  Boston  to  the  fall  of  CornwalliS. 
The  Virginians  were  settled  in  the  Tennes 
see  mountains  long  before  the  people  of  New 
York  had  ventured  to  build  a  village  on  the 
shores  of  Lake  Erie  or  the  Peiinsylvanians 
crossed  the  Alleghauies.  But  still  even  Vir 
ginia  is  represented  to  us  about  this  period 
as  in  great  part  a  wilderness.3  Its  own  lands 
were  yet  uncultivated,  and  its  territory  near 
ly  clothed  in  forests.  And  in  general  we  may 
conclude  that  the  true  boundary  of  the  well- 
settled  portions  of  the  allied  colonies  did  not 
in  any  degree  approach  the  interior  of  the 
continent.  In  the  North  the  line  of  culti 
vated  country  must  be  drawn  along  the 
shores  of  the  Hudson  River,  omitting  the  dis 
persed  settlements  in  two  or  three  inland 
districts.  The  Delaware  and  a  distance  of 
perhaps  fifty  miles  to  the  westward  included 
all  the  wealth  and  population  of  Pennsyl 
vania.  The  Alleghanies  infolded  the  civil 
ized  portions  of  Virginia,  and  North  and 
South  Carolina  can  not  be  said  to  have 
reached  beyond  their  mountains.  So  slowly 
had  the  people  of  North  America  made  their 
way  from  the  sea-coast. 

But  little  was  known*  of  the  nature  of  the 

1  Before  1795  there  were  few  settlements  north  of 
the  Ohio.  Cincinnati  had  then  only  ninety-four  cab 
ins,  and  five  hundred  inhabitants. 

3  Hist  Col.  Penn.,  Day,  p.  59. 

3  Winterbotham,  U.  S.,  L    Great  part  of  Virginia  is 
n  wilderness,  says  Burnaby,  Pinkert.,  xiii.  p.  716. 

4  Holmes.    Bancroft    The  French  Jesuits  had  ex- 


country  spreading  from  the  borders  of  Penn 
sylvania  and  Virginia  to  the  Mississippi.  It 
was  called  the  Wilderness.  It  was  usually 
painted  in  the  fairest  colors  by  those  who 
had  explored  it.  The  table -land  near  the 
Ohio  was  supposed  to  be  one  of  the  fairest 
and  most  fertile  portions  of  the  world;1  the 
rich  plains  of  Kentucky  might  support  a  na 
tion  ;  and  the  forests,  the  meadows,  and  the 
valleys  lay  waiting  to  be  possessed.  But  the 
fear  of  the  savage  still  guarded  the  tempting 
region.  The  dark  and  bloody  ground  had 
no  charm  for  the  pacific  settler ;  the  wilder 
ness  was  pathless,  and  it  was  a  journey  of 
twelve  days  in  wagons  from  Baltimore  to 
Pittsburg.  But  of  the  immense  and  impen 
etrable  regions  beyond  the  Mississippi  our 
ancestors  had  scarcely  formed  a  conception.3 
It  was  a  land  of  fable,  where  countless  hosts 
of  savages  were  believed  to  rule  over  endless 
plains,  and  to  engage  in  ceaseless  battles. 
Long  afterward  it  was  thought  that  the  vast 
tide  of  the  Missouri  might  in  some  way  min 
gle  with  the  waters  of  the  Pacific.3  The  great 
Northwest,  now  the  granary  of  the  world, 
the  peaks  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  the 
rivers  of  Columbia  were  all  unknown ;  nor 
could  the  most  acute  observer,  shut  up  in 
the  narrow  limits  of  the  Hudson  and  the  Del 
aware,  suppose  that  within  a  hundred  years 
the  Atlantic  would  be  joined  to  the  Pacific 
by  frequent  highways,  or  that  the  frightful 
solitude  beyond  the  great  river  would  be 
the  centre  of  a  throng  of  vigorous  republics. 
Within  the  cultivated  districts  a  popula 
tion  usually,  but  probably  erroneously,  esti 
mated  at  three  millions  were  thinly  scatter 
ed  over  a  narrow  strip  of  land.  The  num 
ber  can  scarcely  be  maintained.  The  New 
England  colonies  could  have  had  not  more 
than  800,000  inhabitants ;  the  middle  colonies 
as  many  more  ;  the  southern  a  little  over  a 
million.  New  York  had  a  population  of 


plored  the  country,  and  hoped  to  rule  it.  Parkman, 
Pioneers. 

i  "The  Ohio,"  says  Winterbotham,  i.  189— twenty 
years  later— "is  the  most  beautiful  river  on  earth;" 
but  as  late  as  1819  Michigan  was  thought  to  be  a 
worthless  waste,  and  Cass  first  explored  its  rich  fields. 
Life  of  Cass,  p.  79. 

*  St  Louis  was  settled  in  1763,  but  was  still  a  small 
frontier  town,  scarcely  known  to  the  colonists. 

3  New  York  Hist  Magazine,  August,  1871.  "  The 
Missouri  has  been  navigated  for  2500  miles  ;  there  ap 
pears  a  probability  of  a  communication  by  this  chan 
nel  with  the  western  ocean."  This  was  said  in  1803. 


20 


INTRODUCTION.— COLONIAL  PROGRESS. 


248,000,  and  was  surpassed  by  Virginia, 
Pennsylvania,  Massachusetts,  Maryland,  and 
was  at  least  equaled  if  not  exceeded  by 
North  Carolina.  Its  growth  had  been  sin 
gularly  slow.  The  small  population  of  the 
union  was  composed  of  different  races  and 
of  almost  hostile  communities.  There  was 
a  lasting  feud  between  the  Dutch  at  Albany 
and  the  people  of  New  England,  for  it  was 
believed  that  the  former  had  held  a  corre 
spondence  with  the  Indians  during  the  re 
cent  war,  and  purchased  the  spoil  taken 
from  the  New  England  villages.  The  Ger 
mans  settled  in  Pennsylvania  retained  their 
national  customs  and  language,  and  were  al 
most  an  alien  race.  Huguenot  colonies  ex 
isted  in  several  portions  of  the  country.  The 
north  of  Ireland  had  poured  forth  a  stream 
of  emigrants.  Swedish  settlements  attract 
ed  the  notice  of  Kalm  along  the  Delaware. 
In  North  Carolina  a  clan  of  Highlanders  had 
brought  to  the  New  World  an  intense  loyal 
ty  and  an  extreme  ignorance.  The  divisions 
of  race  and  language  offered  a  strong  obsta 
cle  to  any  perfect  union  of  the  different  col 
onies.  But  a  still  more  striking  opposition 
existed  in  the  political  institutions  of  the 
various  sections.  In  the  South  royalty, 
aristocracy,  and  the  worst  form  of  human 
slavery  had  grown  up  together.  In  no  part 
of  the  world  were  the  distinctions  of  rank 
more  closely  observed,  or  mechanical  and 
agricultural  industry  more  perfectly  con 
temned.  In  New  England  the  institutions 
were  democratic,  and  honest  labor  was 
thought  no  shame.  In  the  South  episcopa 
cy  was  rigorously  established  by  law ;  in 
New  England  a  tolerant  Puritanism  had 
succeeded  the  persecuting  spirit  of  Cotton 
Mather  and  Winthrop. 

In  the  period  before  the  Revolution  it  was 
the  custom  to  look  upon  the  southern  colonies 
as  the  land  of  wealth  and  material  splendor. 
Their  soil  produced  the  chief  exports  of  the 
New  World;  their  system  of  agriculture, 
however  abhorrent  to  the  feelings  of  the 
more  cultivated  Northerner,  was  attended 
by  a  remarkable  success ;  their  population 
grew  rapidly ;  they  held  a  ruling  position 
among  the  colonies  in  the  eyes  of  all  stran 
gers.  Virginia  had  so  far  surpassed  all  the 
other  colonies  as  to  seem  almost  the  mother 
and  mistress  of  the  whole.  Her  own  people 
had  named  her  the  "  ancient  dominion,"  and 


her  progress  was  so  rapid  as  to  suffer  no  hope 
that  New  York  or  Massachusetts  could  ever 
rival  her  wealth  and  power.  The  popula 
tion  of  Virginia  alone  was  half  a  million — 
more  than  twice  that  of  New  York.1  Her 
exports  of  tobacco,  corn,  and  other  produc 
tions  reached  a  value  of  nearly  three  mill 
ions  of  dollars.  Her  ample  territory  was 
penetrated  by  navigable  rivers,  and  it  was 
supposed  that  the  James  and  the  Potomac 
must  at  some  time  form  the  outlets  for  the 
commerce  of  the  West — a  hope  from  which 
the  Hudson  seemed  forever  cut  off  by  the 
difficulties  of  transport  from  Albany  to  the 
lakes.2  But,  with  all  its  advantages,  Virginia 
was  weighed  down  by  influences  that  care 
ful  observers  saw  must  lead  to  a  speedy 
decay.  No  colony,  indeed,  was  apparently 
less  likely  to  become  the  founder  of  a  re 
public  and  the  patron  of  human  equality. 
Through  all  its  earlier  history  Virginia  had 
been  noted  for  its  intense  loyalty  to  the  Stu 
arts  and  its  hatred  of  every  element  of  re 
form.  The  planters  of  Virginia  ruled  over 
their  abject  commonalty  with  a  severity  that 
the  English  aristocracy  had  never  for  many 
generations  equaled.  All  those  feudal  re 
strictions  and  abuses  which  the  Massachu 
setts  colonists  had  come  to  the  New  World 
to  avoid  had  been  brought  over  to  Virginia 
by  its  earlier  settlers,  and  fostered  into  more 
than  European  strength.  The  church  estab 
lishment  was  supported  by  the  colony,  and 
all  religious  toleration  was  unknown,  at  least 
to  the  constitution.  Nowhere  had  ecclesi 
astical  tyranny  been  so  fostered  by  the  gov 
ernment.  The  industrial  classes  of  Virginia 
had  been  kept  by  law  in  stolid  ignorance, 
when  Connecticut  had  enforced  the  educa 
tion  of  all  its  citizens.  Governor  Berkeley 
had  boasted,  in  1671,  that  the  colony  had  nei 
ther  printing-presses,  colleges,  nor  schools, 
and  had  prayed  there  might  be  none  there 
for  at  least  a  hundred  years.  His  wish  had 
nearly  been  fulfilled.  In  1771  the  common 
alty  of  Virginia  were  noted  for  their  igno 
rance  and  brutality ;  the  gentry  alone  con- 

1  Holmes,  1732,  Annals  and  Note.  The  population 
of  Virginia  was  estimated  very  differently  by  different 
observers ;  but  Holmes  inclines  to  the  largest  num 
ber.  The  census  of  1790  seems  conclusive.  It  gives 
Virginia  876,000,  while  New  York  had  but  340,120, 
Pennsylvania  434,373.  See  Ramsay. 

*  Winterbotham  discusses  the  question,  and  decides 
in  favor  of  the  Potomac. 


VIRGINIA. 


21 


trolled  the  politics  and  managed  the  finances 
of  the  colony.  Virginia,  too,  had  been  the 
first  of  all  the  colonies  to  import  slaves,1  and 
had  set  an  example  that  had  been  too  eager 
ly  followed.  She  had  practiced  both  white 
and  colored  slavery.  The  English  govern 
ment  had  early  made  her  borders  a  convict 
colony,  and  the  records  bear  frequent  ac 
counts  of  highway  robbers  who  had  been 
reprieved  that  they  might  go  to  Virginia; 
and  on  one  occasion  London  sends  "  one  hun 
dred  of  its  worst  disposed  children,  of  whom 
it  was  desirous  of  being  disburdened,"  to  be 
apprenticed  in  the  colony.3 

The  ruling  class  in  Virginia  were  the 
planters.  They  were  often  cultivated  and 
intelligent  men,  who  had  been  educated  in 
English  universities  or  in  the  best  schools 
of  their  native  land.  Their  possessions  were 
immense,  and  had  usually  come  to  them 
from  their  ancestors.  Entails  prevented 
any  division  of  the  family  property,  and  it 
was  a  common  complaint  at  the  time  that 
all  the  land  of  Virginia  was  held  by  a  few 
hands.  Mechanical,  agricultural,  or  com 
mercial  pursuits  were  forbidden  by  custom 
to  the  planting  class.  It  was  thought  be 
neath  a  member  of  the  great  families  to  en 
gage  in  trade,  and  Scotch  emigrants  and  for 
eign  adventurers  pursued  a  gainful  traffic, 
engrossing  the  wealth  of  the  country,  while 
the  land-owner  slumbered  in  indolence  and 
fell  into  poverty  on  his  ancestral  estate.  The 
towns  of  Virginia  were  small  and  wretched, 
fever-stricken  and  neglected.  The  wealth 
of  the  ruling  families  was  wasted  in  build 
ing  immense  mansions  in  the  solitude  of 
their  plantations,  where  they  emulated  the 
splendors  of  the  English  country-seats,  and 
exercised  a  liberal  hospitality.  One  of  the 
wealthiest  of  the  landed  proprietors  was 
Lord  Fairfax,  the  early  patron  of  Washing 
ton.  In  his  youth  he  had  cultivated  letters, 
and  it  was  even  rumored  that  he  had  writ 
ten  for  the  /Spectator.  His  estate  in  Virginia 
contained  more  than  five  millions  of  acres.3 
The  fine  mansion,  Belvoir,  seated  among 


1  Gordon,  1.  56.  Mr.  Bancroft  has  traced  with  his 
usual  accuracy  and  force  the  course  of  this  infamous 
traffic.  Hildreth,  i.  565. 

3  Calendar,  State  Papers,  English,  1618,  1623,  p.  10, 
118, 552. 

3  Sabine,  Am.  Royalists.  Fairfax  and  Sparks.  Life 
of  Washington. 


the  fairest  scenery  of  the  Potomac,  where 
he  lived  with  his  brother,  and  Greenway 
Court,  which  he  built  in  the  Shenandoah 
Valley,  where  he  died,  in  1782,  were  scenes 
of  frequent  festivity.  But  the  accomplished 
lord  was  ardently  loyal ;  his  property,  val 
ued  at  £98,000,  was  confiscated  at  his  death, 
and  the  land  he  had  selfishly  withheld  was 
divided  among  the  people.  The  fair  widow 
whom  Washington  had  wooed  and  won  with 
stately  assiduity  was  also  a  large  landed 
proprietor.  But  the  Revolution  broke  up 
the  system  of  entails,  and  gave  a  new  im 
pulse  to  the  prosperity  of  the  colony. 

Notwithstanding  the  establishment  of 
episcopacy,  the  growth  of  dissent  had  been 
rapid  in  Virginia,  and  at  the  opening  of  the 
colonial  struggle  the  Dissenters  were  more 
numerous  than  Churchmen.  That  valuable 
race,  the  Scotch-Irish,  had  settled  in  large 
numbers  within  its  borders.  Education,  too, 
had  made  some  progress.  William  and  Ma 
ry's  College,  sluggish  as  had  been  its  advance, 
had  sent  out  many  cultivated  men.  Liberal 
principles  and  a  love  of  freedom  had  never 
been  wanting  to  the  people.  Eminent  Vir 
ginians  had  already  become  shocked  at  the 
fatal  results  of  slavery,  and  there  were  no 
stronger  advocates  of  abolition  than  Jeffer 
son  and  Lee.  Throughout  the  whole  colony 
there  was  a  plain  desire  for  enlarged  polit 
ical  progress,  and,  happily  for  Massachusetts, 
her  wrongs  were  felt  nowhere  more  deeply 
than  among  the  Virginia  reformers.  Nor 
was  the  project  of  independence  any  where 
more  favorably  received  than  by  that  large 
class  of  the  population  who  had  felt  in  their 
own  lives  the  evils  of  a  tyrannical  govern 
ment.  Her  immense  territory,  which  reach 
ed,  at  least  in  theory,  over  the  mountains  to 
the  Mississippi,  and  through  the  whole  val 
ley  of  the  Ohio,  her  wealth  and  commerce,  her 
population,  greater  than  that  of  any  other 
colony,  and,  above  all,  the  rare  abilities  and 
patriotism  of  her  citizens,  made  Virginia  the 
centre  of  reform,  and  perhaps  the  most  effect 
ive  instrument  in  binding  the  whole  coun 
try  into  a  perfect  union.  Happy  had  she 
followed  the  teachings  of  Jefferson1  and  the 
example  of  Carter,  and  destroyed  slavery 
when  she  cast  aside  feudalism. 


1  Jefferson  proposed  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  Vir 
ginia,  but  found  it  expedient  to  withdraw  his  project. 


22 


INTKODUCTION.— COLONIAL  PROGRESS. 


Less  corrupted  by  European  traditions 
than  Virginia — a  land  where  the  English 
and  the  German,  the  Swiss,  the  Scotch-Irish, 
Quakers,  the  children  of  Skye,  and  the  sad 
hosts  of  Africa  were  mingled  strangely  to 
gether — North  Carolina  had  early  shown  a 
wider  liberality  of  thought  than  her  power 
ful  neighbor.  Caste  and  rank  had  less  prev 
alence  ;  her  people  were  industrious,  and  her 
prosperity  great.  North  Carolina  was  al 
ready  the  fifth  colony  in  importance;  the 
population  reached  nearly  two  hundred  and 
fifty  thousand.1  South  Carolina,  less  popu 
lous,  but  with  nearly  twice  as  many  slaves  as 
whites,  was  noted  for  the  haughty  manners 
of  its  planters,  the  ignorance  of  its  people, 
the  high  education  of  some  of  its  leading 
men,  their  open  dislike  for  slavery.  No 
South  Carolinian  of  any  intelligence  at  this 
period  but  lamented  that  so  dark  a  stain  rest 
ed  upon  his  native  colony.  Maryland,  too, 
possessed  a  weight  in  the  country  in  1775  that 
must  seem  strange  to  the  modern  politician. 
It  possessed  a  larger  population  than  either 
New  York  or  the  Caroliuas.  Its  Roman 
Catholic  planters  were  sometimes  intelli 
gent  and  liberal.  Maryland  still  belonged 
to  the  heir  of  the  Calvert  family,  but  its 
people  cared  little  for  a  degenerate  race 
whose  early  excellence  had  faded  away.  A 
colony  of  Scots  from  the  north  of  Ireland 
had  settled  at  Baltimore,  and  were  probably 
of  greater  value  to  the  rising  State  than 
most  of  its  planters  and  all  its  proprietors. 
But  slavery,  an  established  church,8  a  pro 
prietary  government,  a  rigid  division  of 
rank  and  caste,  had  apparently  linked  Ma 
ryland  so  closely  to  Virginia  and  the  South 
in  politics  as  to  give  little  room  for  the 
progress  of  freedom.  It  was,  indeed,  the 
first  colony  to  express  a  wish  to  withdraw 
the  declaration  of  independence  when  sud 
den  reverses  fell  upon  the  republican  armies. 

The  four  New  England  colonies,  separa 
ted  from  the  South  by  an  immense  distance, 
and  a  journey  of  many  days,  and  sometimes 
weeks,  by  sea  or  land,  were  altogether  dif 
ferent  from  their  neighbors  in  politics.3 


1  I  have  usually  adopted  Ramsay's  numbers,  which 
eeem  confirmed  by  the  first  census,  1. 146. 

s  Episcopacy  was  rigorously  established  in  Mary 
land  after  1688. 

3  Dwight,  New  England,  paints  some  years  later  the 
virtues  of  his  countrymen.  In  Connecticut,  he  says, 


Two  of  them,  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Isl 
and,  were  free  from  all  internal  control  from 
England,  elected  their  own  governors,  and 
practiced  a  democratic  republicanism.1  In 
Connecticut,  at  least,  all  men  were  already 
equal,  all  were  educated,  and  slavery  was 
abolished  practically.  In  Massachusetts  the 
governor  was  appointed  by  the  English  king, 
but  his  salary  was  regulated  by  the  province ; 
yet  the  Massachusetts  people  had  been  rapid 
ly  advancing  in  political  knowledge ;  mental 
cultivation  had  always  marked  their  chief 
men.  Their  Puritan  clergy  had  produced 
many  of  the  early  authors  of  America ;  they 
were  usually  wise,  austere,  and  patriotic. 
Liberty,  even  in  that  imperfect  form  in 
which  it  existed  under  a  colonial  rule,  had 
shown  its  fairest  results  in  New  Eugland. 
The  people  were  prosperous,  the  govern 
ment  well  administered,  the  courts  pure,  the 
clergy  respected,  the  general  morality  above 
that  of  any  other  community.  The  senti 
ment  of  human  equality  had  already  pre 
vailed  over  the  influence  of  English  caste 
and  Puritan  theocracy ;  a  bold,  free  nation 
had  arisen,  not  quite  so  numerous  as  the 
Dutch,  who  had  defied  the  arms  of  Philip 
II.,  or  the  Swiss,  who  had  overthrown  the 
Hapsburgs,  yet  capable  even  alone  of  found 
ing  a  republic  that  not  all  the  powers  of  the 
Old  World  could  overthrow.  Its  population 
was  purely  English,  its  manners  republican 
and  plain,  its  people  accustomed  to  labor 
and  to  reflect. 

The  middle  colonies  were  less  democratic 
than  New  England.  New  York,  like  Vir 
ginia,  had  been  Aveighed  down  by  a  sys 
tem  of  entails  and  by  immense  landed  es 
tates  that  limited  immigration.  It  is  stated 
that  the  German  colonists  were  so  badly 
treated  by  its  land-owners  that  they  imbibed 
a  lasting  hostility  for  its  people,  moved  away 
in  large  bodies  to  Pennsylvania,  and  pre 
vailed  upon  all  their  countrymen  to  follow 
them.  They  hoped  to  make  Pennsylvania  a 
new  Germany.3  A  kind  of  colonial  aristocra 
cy  had  grown  up  in  New  York.  Its  Dutch 

"there  is  a  school-house  sufficiently  near  every  man's 
door,"  i.  178.  See  Hildreth,  i.  508. 

1  Palfrey,  New  England,  ii.  567,  568,  notices  the  un 
exampled  liberality  of  the  two  charters. 

2  Large  numbers  of  Scotch-Irish  also  came  to  Penn 
sylvania  about  1773.     Holmes,  Ann.,  ii.  187.     They 
came  from  Belfast,  Galway,  Newry,  Cork,  3500,  with 
no  love  for  England. 


COLONIAL  PROGRESS  IN  AGRICULTURE. 


23 


population  were,  however,  attached  to  free 
dom,  and  the  presence  of  a  royal  governor 
and  council  had  not  tended  to  increase  the 
respect  for  English  institutions.  Strong 
religious  differences  had  already  agitated 
the  people.  The  Episcopal  Church  was  op 
posed  to  the  Presbyterian,  and  Calvinism 
led  on  the  way  to  independence.  In  Penn 
sylvania  the  proprietary  government  was 
conservative,  and  opposed  to  violent  meas 
ures.  New  Jersey,  rich,  highly  cultivated, 
and  prosperous,  was  strongly  affected  hy  its 
Presbyterian  college  at  Princeton,  and  was 
naturally  opposed  to  prelatical  England.  It 
is  indeed  curious  to  notice  how  largely  the 
religious  element  entered  into  the  dispute 
between  the  king  and  the  colonies.1  The 
English  revolution  of  1688  was  re-enacted 
in  America,  and  King  George  dethroned  be 
cause  it  was  feared  that  he  meant  to  assail 
the  consciences  of  the  people.  Men  felt  that 
should  the  king  succeed  in  conquering  them, 
he  would  have  a  prelate  in  every  colony,  and 
a  rigid  rule  against  progressive  dissent.  In 
the  middle  colonies  the  Presbyterians  led 
the  way  to  freedom ;  in  the  southern  the 
liberal  Churchmen,  Huguenots,  and  Scotch 
Presbyterians.  Thomas  Paine,  in  his  famous 
argument  for  separation,  relied  much  upon 
the  fact  that  the  people  of  America  were  in 
no  sense  English,  but  rather  a  union  of  dif 
ferent  races  met  for  a  common  purpose  in 
the  New  World,  and  resolute  chiefly  to  be 
free.  It  was  this  common  aim  that  produced 
that  harmony  which  was  so  seldom  inter 
rupted  between  the  various  inhabitants  of 
the  different  colonies,  and  which  formed 
them  at  last  into  one  nation. 

In  the  course  of  a  century  within  their 
narrow  fringe  of  country  the  colonists  had 
transformed  the  wilderness  into  a  fertile  and 
productive  territory.2  Agriculture  was  their 
favorite  pursuit.  Travelers  from  Europe 
were  struck  with  the  skill  with  which  they 
cultivated  the  rich  and  abundant  soil,  the 
fine  farm-housea  that  filled  the  landscape, 
the  barns  overflowing  with  harvests,  the  cat 
tle,  the  sheep.  The  northern  and  middle 


1  J.  Adams  to  Morse,  December  2,  1815;  and  see 
Gordon,  i.  143.  Mr.  Whitefleld  tells  the  colonists  in 
1764  their  danger. 

3  Burnaby,  Pinkert.,  xiii.  731,  notices  the  flourishing 
condition  of  Pennsylvania,  and  observes  that  its  court 
eous  people  are  "great  republicans," 


colonies  were  famous  for  wheat  and  corn.1 
Pennsylvania  was  the  granary  of  the  nation. 
In  New  Jersey  the  fine  farms  that  spread 
from  Trenton  to  Elizabethtown  excited  the 
admiration  of  the  scientific  Kalm.a  Long 
Island  was  the  garden  of  America,  and  all 
along  the  valleys  opening  upon  the  Hudson 
the  Dutch  and  Huguenot  colonists  had  ac 
quired  ease  and  opulence  by  a  careful  agri 
culture.  The  farm-houses,  usually  built  of 
stone,  with  tall  roofs  and  narrow  windows, 
were  scenes  of  intelligent  industry.  While 
the  young  men  labored  in  the  fields,  the 
mothers  and  daughters  spun  wool  and  flax, 
and  prepared  a  large  part  of  the  clothing  of 
the  family.  The  farm-house  was  a  manu 
factory  for  all  the  articles  of  daily  use. 
Even  nails  were  hammered  out  in  the  win 
ter,  and  the  farmer  was  his  own  mechanic. 
A  school  and  a  church  were  provided  for  al 
most  every  village.  Few  children  were  left 
untaught  by  the  Dutch  dominie,  who  was 
sometimes  paid  in  wampum,  or  the  New  En 
gland  student,  who  lived  among  his  patrons, 
and  was  not  always  fed  upon  the  daintiest 
fare.  On  Sunday  labor  ceased,  the  church- 
bell  tolled  in  the  distance,  a  happy  calm  set 
tled  upon  the  rural  region,  and  the  farmer 
and  his  family,  in  their  neatest  dress,  rode 
or  walked  to  the  village  church.  The  farm 
ing  class,  usually  intelligent  and  rational, 
formed  in  the  northern  colonies  the  sure  re 
liance  of  freedom,  and  when  the  invasion 
came  the  Hessians  were  driven  out  of  New 
Jersey  by  the  general  rising  of  its  laboring 
farmers,  and  Burgoyne  was  captured  by  the 
resolution  of  the  people  rather  than  by  the 
timid  generalship  of  Gates. 

The  progress  of  agriculture  at  the  South 
was  even  more  rapid  and  remarkable  than 
at  the  North.  The  wilderness  was  swiftly 
converted  into  a  productive  region.  The 
coast,  from  St.  Mary's  to  the  Delaware,  with 
its  inland  country,  became  within  a  century 
the  most  valuable  portion  of  the  earth.  Its 
products  were  eagerly  sought  for  in  all  the 
capitals  of  Europe,  and  one  noxious  plant 
of  Virginia  had  supplied  mankind  with  a 
new  vice  and  a  new  pleasure.  It  would  be 

i  Burnaby,  p.  734.  "  The  country  I  passed  through," 
he  says  of  New  Jersey,  "  is  exceedingly  rich  and  beau 
tiful." 

a  Kalm,  Pinkert.,  vol.  xiii.  p.  448,  notices  the  rich 
farm?  near  Trenton, 


24 


INTRODUCTION.— COLONIAL  PEOGRESS. 


useless  to  relate  again  the  story  of  the  growth 
of  the  tobacco  trade.  Its  cultivation  in  Vir 
ginia  was  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  man. 
Tobacco  was  to  Virginia  the  life  of  trade 
and  intercourse ;  prices  were  estimated  in 
it ;  the  salaries  of  the  clergy  were  fixed  at 
so  many  pounds  of  tobacco.  All  other  prod 
ucts  of  the  soil  were  neglected  in  order  to 
raise  the  savage  plant.  Ships  from  England 
came  over  annually  to  gather  in  the  great 
crops  of  the  large  planters,  and  Washington, 
one  of  the  most  successful  of  the  Virginia 
land-owners  and  agriculturists,  was  accus 
tomed  to  watch  keenly  over  the  vessels  and 
their  captains  who  sailed  up  the  Potomac  to 
his  very  dock.1  The  English  traders  seem 
to  have  been  often  anxious  to  depreciate  his 
cargoes  and  lower  his  prices.  Virginia  grew 
enormously  rich  from  the  sudden  rise  of  an 
artificial  taste.  From  1624,  when  the  pro 
duction  of  tobacco  was  first  made  a  royal 
monopoly,  uutil  the  close  of  the  colonial  pe 
riod  the  production  and  the  consumption 
rose  with  equal  rapidity,  and  in  1775,  85,000 
hogsheads  were  exported  annually,  and  the 
sale  of  tobacco  brought  in  nearly  $4,000,000 
to  the  southern  colonies.2  This  was  equal  to 
about  one-third  of  the  whole  export  of  the 
colonies.  Happily  since  that  period  the 
proportion  has  rapidly  decreased,  and  more 
useful  articles  have  formed  the  larger  part 
of  the  export  from  the  New  World  to  the 
Old. 

One  of  these  was  rice.  A  Governor  of 
South  Carolina,  it  is  related,  had  been  in 
Madagascar,  and  seen  the  plant  cultivated 
in  its  hot  swamps.3  He  lived  in  Charleston, 
on  the  bay,  and  it  struck  him  that  a  marshy 
spot  in  his  garden  might  well  serve  for  a 
plantation  of  rice.  Just  then  (1694)  a  ves 
sel  put  in  from  Madagascar  in  distress, 
whose  commander  the  Governor  had  former 
ly  known.  Her  wants  were  liberally  re 
lieved.  In  gratitude  for  the  kindness  he  re 
ceived  the  master  gave  the  Governor  a  bag 
of  rice.  It  was  sown,  and  produced  abun 
dantly.  The  soil  proved  singularly  favora 
ble  for  its  culture.  The  marshes  of  Georgia 
and  South  Carolina  were  soon  covered  with 
rice  plantations.  A  large  part  of  the  crop 

1  Washington  to  his  factors. 

3  Pitkin,  Commerce  U.  8.    Doyle,  American  Colo 
nies,  1869,  has  gathered  together  many  useful  details. 
3  The  legend  is  told  by  Pitkin,  101,  and  Ramsay. 


was  exported  to  England.  In  1724,  100,000 
barrels  were  sent  out  from  South  Carolina 
alone.  lu  1761,  the  value  of  its  rice  crop 
was  more  than  $1,500,000.  Its  white  popu 
lation  could  not  then  have  been  more  than 
45,000,  and  it  is  easy  to  conceive  the  tide  of 
wealth  that  was  distributed  annually  among 
its  small  band  of  planters.  They  built  cost 
ly  mansions  on  the  coasts  and  bays,  lived  in 
fatal  luxury,  were  noted  for  their  wild  ex 
cesses,  and  often  fell  speedy  victims  to  the 
fevers  of  the  malarious  soil.  Indigo,  sugar, 
molasses,  tar,  pitch,  and  a  great  variety  of 
valuable  productions  added  to  the  wealth 
of  the  South.  But  cotton,  which  has  grown 
through  many  vicissitudes  to  be  the  chief 
staple  of  British  and  American  trade,  was, 
at  this  period,  only  cultivated  in  small  quan 
tities  for  the  use  of  the  farmers.  It  was 
spun  into  coarse  cloths.  But  it  was  not  un 
til  Whitney's  invention,  in  1793,  that  it  could 
be  readily  prepared  for  commerce,  and  to  the 
inventive  genius  of  Connecticut  the  South 
ern  States  owe  the  larger  part  of  their  wealth 
and  political  importance. 

Extensive  as  had  been  the  results  of  the 
labors  of  the  American  farmer  at  this  period, 
he  had  achieved  the  conquest  of  the  wilder 
ness  in  the  face  of  dangers  and  obstacles 
that  seemed  almost  overwhelming.  None 
of  the  appliances  of  modern  agriculture  lay 
at  his  command.  His  tools  were  rude  yet 
costly,  his  plow  a  heavy  mass  of  iron,  his 
cattle  expensive,  and  at  first  scarcely  to  be 
obtained.  The  fevers  and  malaria  of  the 
new  climate,  the  sharp  frosts,  the  unknown 
changes,  even  the  not  infrequent  earthquakes 
and  celestial  phenomena,  must  have  covered 
him  with  alarm.  Before  him  lay  the  dark 
and  pathless  wilderness,  behind  him  the 
raging  seas.  A  whole  ocean  separated  him 
from  his  kind.  In  front  the  savage  hovered 
over  the  advancing  settlements,  and  not  sel 
dom  filled  the  thin  line  of  cultivated  country 
from  Albany  to  Savannah  with  the  tidings 
of  fearful  massacres.  Often  the  frontier 
families  came  flying  from  their  blazing 
homes,  scarred  and  decimated,  to  seek  shel 
ter  from  the  unsparing  foe.  Yet  more  cruel 
or  more  unfriendly  than  the  terrors  of  the, 
wilderness,  the  climate,  or  even  the  sav 
age,  seemed  to  the  colonists  the  conduct  of 
their  royal  government  in  England.  In 
stead  of  aiding  the  struggling  settlers  in 


ENGLISH  RESTRICTIONS  ON  COMMERCE. 


25 


their  contest  for  life,  it  had  treated  them  as 
objects  of  suspicion  and  dislike.  A  fear  that 
they  might  plan  at  some  future  time  a  sepa 
ration  from  the  mother  country  governed  all 
the  English  legislation.1  Hence  laws  were 
early  imposed  upon  them  that  might  well 
have  checked  the  whole  progress  of  their 
agriculture.  They  were  forced  to  purchase 
all  their  supplies  from  England.  They  were 
scarcely  permitted  to  have  any  commercial 
intercourse  with  any  foreign  country,  or  even 
with  each  other.2  They  were  obliged  to  send 
all  their  tobacco,  sugar,  indigo,  rice,  furs,  ores, 
pitch,  and  tar  directly  to  England,  and  there 
accept  the  price  the  English  traders  were 
willing  to  give.  It  was  forbidden  them  even 
to  send  their  produce  to  Ireland.  These  jeal 
ous  restrictions  must  have  kept  many  an  acre 
from  being  planted,  and  prevented  that  rap 
id  progress  which  free  trade  could  alone  in 
cite.  Franklin  showed  clearly  that  in  this 
way  the  colonies  had  always  paid  a  heavy 
tax  to  England,  of  far  greater  value  than 
any  stamp  act  could  ever  give,  and  that  the 
English  merchants  and  traders  had  already 
grown  rich  by  the  onerous  burdens  they  had 
laid  on  America.3  Had  the  colonial  ports 
been  opened  to  foreign  traffic,  every  article 
must  have  risen  in  price,  or  the  demand  for 
it  increased  beyond  conception.  But  the 
English  had  always  treated  the  colonists 
with  a  severity  like  that  which  Spain  once 
practiced  in  South  America,  and  which  she 
now  exercises  over  the  Creoles  of  Cuba.  Cor 
rupt  and  worthless  Englishmen  were  sent  out 
as  governors,  councilors,  judges,  and  even 
clergymen.  They  looked  with  disdain  on 
the  colonists  they  plundered,  and  hastened 
back  to  England  to  defame  the  reputation 
of  the  abject  race.  It  is  plain  that  most 
Englishmen  looked  upon  the  Americans  as 
serfs.  They  had  no  rights  that  Parliament 
could  not  abrogate,  and  no  security  even 
for  their  own  earnings.  England  plunder 
ed  the  American  farmer  almost  at  will, 
and  robbed  of  his  just  profits  the  sturdy 
laborer  in  the  valleys  of  Vermont,  and  the 

1  England  now  treats  her  colonies  with  the  gentle 
ness  advised  by  Burke  and  Franklin,  and  her  authors 
condemn  the  old  tyranny  as  strongly  as  Americans. 
Mr.  Doyle,  of  Oxford,  has  produced  a  careful  essay  on 
the  progress  of  the  colonies,  1869. 

3  Ships  might  sail  for  wines  to  Madeira  and  some 
Spanish  ports,  under  certain  restrictions. 

3  Franklin  to  Shirley,  December,  1754. 


wealthy  rice  planter  in  the  swamps  of  South 
Carolina. 

The  commerce  of  the  colonies  flourished 
equally  with  their  agriculture.  It  was  chief 
ly  in  the  northern  colonies  that  ships  were 
built,  and  that  hardy  race  of  sailors  formed 
whose  courage  became  renowned  in  every 
sea.  But  the  English  navigation  laws 
weighed  heavily  upon  American  trade.  Its 
ships  were,  with  a  few  exceptions,  only  al 
lowed  to  sail  to  the  ports  of  Great  Britain. 
No  foreign  ship  was  suffered  to  enter  the 
American  harbors.  The  people  of  England 
were  resolved  to  prevent  all  foreign  inter 
ference  in  the  trade  of  the  colonies,  and  the 
American  ports  were  rigidly  shut  out  from 
the  commerce  of  the  world.  Isolated  from 
the  great  centres  of  traffic,  and  even  from 
exchanging  many  articles  with  each  other, 
bound  by  a  most  oppressive  monopoly,  re 
strained  by  a  selfish  policy,  the  colonists  yet 
contrived  to  build  large  numbers  of  ships, 
and  even  to  sell  yearly  more  than  a  hun 
dred  of  them  in  England.  The  ship-yards 
of  New  England  were  already  renowned. 
Boston,  New  York,  and  Philadelphia  were 
seats  of  an  important  trade.  On  the  island 
of  Nantucket  the  whale-fishery  had  been  es 
tablished  that  was  to  prove  for  a  brief  pe 
riod  the  source  of  great  profit,  and  a  school 
of  accomplished  seamen.  The  spermaceti- 
whale  was  still  seen  along  the  American 
coast,  but  the  New  England  whaler  had 
already  penetrated  Hudson  Bay,  and  even 
pierced  the  antarctic.  The  Revolutionary 
War  broke  up  the  trade,  and  the  English 
captured  two  hundred  of  its  ships,  besides 
burning  the  oil  stored  on  the  island.1  In 
consequence  of  the  rigid  navigation  laws, 
smuggling  prevailed  along  all  the  American 
coast,  and  swift  vessels  and  daring  sailors 
made  their  way  to  the  ports  of  France  and 
Spain  to  bring  back  valuable  cargoes  of 
wine  and  silks.  Boston  was  the  chief  seat 
of  ship-building,  and  its  fast-sailing  vessels 
were  sent  to  the  West  Indies  to  be  exchanged 
for  rum  and  sugar.  In  17432  it  was  estima 
ted  that  New  England  employed  one  thou 
sand  ships  in  its  trade,  besides  its  fishing 
barks.  But  when  the  laws  were  more  strict 
ly  enforced,  the  shipping  trade  of  Boston  de- 


i  Pitkin.     Mrs.  Farrar's  Recollections,  p.  2,  whose 
father  was  a  chief  sufferer.       '  Holmes,  Annals,  1743. 


INTRODUCTION.— COLONIAL  PROGRESS. 


dined.  British  war  vessels  watched  the  co 
lonial  ports,  and  cut  off  that  large  source  of 
wealth  which  the  colonists  had  found  in  an 
illicit  commerce  with  Spain  and  the  West 
India  Islands,  and  it  was  with  no  kindly 
feeling  that  New  England  and  New  York 
saw  the  gainful  traffic  destroyed  which  had 
brought  them  in  a  stream  of  French  and 
Spanish  gold.1  The  rude  English  officials 
not  seldom  made  illegal  seizures.  Every  cus 
tom-house  officer  was  turned  into  an  inform 
er,  and  no  cargo  seemed  altogether  secure. 
There  was  no  redress  except  in  an  appeal  to 
England.  Yet  the  American  commerce  still 
flourished,  even  within  the  narrow  limit  to 
which  it  was  confined,  and  the  colonists  bore 
with  admirable  patience  the  exactions  and 
restrictions  to  which  they  were  subjected  in 
order  that  New  York  and  Boston  might  not 
compete  with  London  and  Bristol.  In  fact, 
the  navigation  laws  had  prevented  altogeth 
er  that  natural  and  healthy  growth  which 
might  have  made  the  colonial  sea-ports  even 
in  1775  considerable  cities.  But  twenty-four 
thousand  tons  of  shipping  were  built  in  the 
colonies  in  1771,  and  the  whole  exports  were 
in  1770  three  millions  of  pounds  sterling,  and 
the  imports  about  two  and  a  half  millions. 
It  was  noticed  that  the  value  of  the  tobacco 
exported  was  one-fourth  larger  than  that  of 
the  wheat  and  rye.2  The  rise  of  American 
commerce  had  seemed  wonderful  to  Burke, 
Barre",  and  all  those  Englishmen  who  were 
capable  of  looking  beyond  the  politics  of 
their  own  narrow  island ;  but  no  sooner  had 
America  become  free  than  its  trade  doubled, 
trebled,  and  soon  rose  to  what  in  1775  would 
have  seemed  incredible  proportions.  New 
York,  Boston,  and  Philadelphia  became  at 
once  large  cities,  and  England  was  enriched 
by  American  freedom. 

One  gainful  source  of  traffic  to  the  coloni 
al  and  British  merchants  had  been  the  slave- 
trade.  Immense  numbers  of  these  unwill 
ing  emigrants  were  forced  upon  the  colonial 
markets,  chiefly  by  the  inhuman  policy  of 
England.  A  strong  feeling  of  disapproba 
tion  for  this  species  of  merchandise  had  ear 
ly  grown  up  in  the  minds  of  the  Americans, 
and  Pennsylvania,  New  England,  and  even 
South  Carolina  were  anxious  to  discourage 
it  by  imposing  a  heavy  tax  on  slaves.  But 


Gordon,  i.  153.          a  M'Pherson.    Pitkin,  p.  11. 


the  English  Parliament  abrogated  all  their 
humane  legislation.  No  sentiment  of  Chris 
tian  mercy  seems  to  have  moved  the  bishops, 
lords,  and  accomplished  statesmen  who  held 
the  control  of  the  American  trade.  The  En 
glish  merchants  insisted  upon  their  mon 
strous  traffic.  In  one  year  six  thousand 
slaves  were  brought  to  South  Carolina;  fif 
teen  thousand  were  forced  upon  all  the  colo 
nies.  It  is  at  least  an  indication  of  the 
higher  degree  of  civilization  to  which  the 
inhabitants  of  the  New  World  had  attained 
that  they  were  the  first  to  exclaim  against 
the  horrors  of  slavery,  and  that  they  taught 
the  English  intellect  one  of  the  most  strik 
ing  principles  of  modern  progress.  If  in 
any  particular  men  have  risen  beyond  the 
cruel  selfishness  of  the  earlier  ages,  it  is  in 
the  recognition  of  the  principle  that  human 
slavery  shall  no  more  be  tolerated.  The 
Peunsylvanians  as  early  as  1713  protested 
against  the  barbarous  traffic.1  One  of  the 
chief  grievances  of  New  England  was  that 
the  English  were  resolute  to  force  slaves 
upon  them;  and  when  the  colonies  became 
free,  they  proceeded  at  once  to  indicate 
a  period  after  which  no  more  Africans 
should  be  imported  into  America.  They 
were  the  first  to  fix  the  ban  of  civilization 
upon  an  infamous  traffic,  which  had  been 
sanctioned  by  the  usages  of  all  ages.  If 
they  did  not  abolish  slavery  itself,  it  was  be 
cause  the  cruel  legislation  of  English  states 
men  had  implanted  the  evil  so  deeply  in  the 
midst  of  the  new  nation  that  nothing  but  a 
fearful  civil  convulsion  could  eliminate  and 
destroy  it. 

In  manufactures  the  colonists  can  be  said 
to  have  made  but  little  progress.  The  En 
glish  government  had  rigorously  forbidden 
them  to  attempt  to  make  their  own  wares. 
A  keen  watch  had  been  kept  over  them,  and 
it  was  resolved  that  they  should  never  be 
suifered  to  compete  with  the  artisans  of  En 
gland.  The  governors  of  the  different  colo 
nies  were  directed  to  make  a  careful  report 
to  the  home  government  of  the  condition  of 
the  colonial  manufactures,  in  order  that  they 
might  be  effectually  destroyed.3  From  their 
authentic  but  perhaps  not  always  accurate 
survey  it  is  possible  to  form  a  general  cou- 

i  Memoirs  Hist.  Soc.  Pcnn.,  vol.  i.  part  i.  p.  362. 
George  Fox  had  always  disapproved  of  slavery. 
»  Report  of  Board  of  Trade. 


PROGRESSIVE  MANUFACTURE. 


27 


ception  of  the  slow  advance  of  this  branch 
of  labor.  South  of  Connecticut,  we  are  told, 
there  were  scarcely  any  manufactures.  The 
people  imported  every  thing  that  they  re 
quired  from  Great  Britain.  Kalm,  indeed, 
found  leather  made  at  Bethlehem,  in  Penn 
sylvania,  as  good  as  the  English,  and  much 
cheaper.  He  praises  the  American  mechan 
ics;  but,  in  general,  we  may  accept  the  re 
port  of  the  governors  that  all  manufactured 
articles  employed  in  the  family  or  in  trade 
were  made  abroad.  Linens  and  fine  cloths, 
silks,  implements  of  iron  and  steel,  furniture, 
arms,  powder,  were  purchased  of  the  London 
merchants.  But  this  was  not  always  the 
case  in  busy  New  England.  Here  the  jeal 
ous  London  traders  discovered  that  iron 
foundries  and  even  slitting-mills  were  al 
ready  in  operation ;  that  fur  hats  were  manu 
factured  for  exportation  in  Connecticut  and 
Boston ;  that  the  people  were  beginning  to 
supply  their  own  wants,  and  even  to  threat 
en  the  factories  of  England  with  a  danger 
ous  rivalry.  The  English  traders  petitioned 
the  government  for  relief  from  this  colonial 
insubordination,  and  Parliament  hastened  to 
suppress  the  poor  slitting -mills  and  hat 
manufactories  of  our  ancestors  by  an  express 
law.1  The  hatters,  who  seem  to  have  espe 
cially  excited  the  jealousy  of  their  London 
brethren,  were  forbidden  to  export  hats  even 
to  the  next  colony,  and  were  allowed  to  take 
only  two  apprentices  at  a  time.  Iron  and 
steel  works  were  also  prohibited.  Wool  and 
flax  manufactures  were  suppressed  by  strin 
gent  provisions.  American  factories  were 
declared  "nuisances."  No  wool  or  manu 
facture  of  wool  could  be  carried  from  one 
colony  to  another ;  and,  what  was  a  more 
extraordinary  instance  of  oppression,  no 
Bible  was  suffered  to  be  printed  in  America.3 
Under  this  rigid  tyranny  American  manu 
factures  had  sunk  into  neglect.  Massachu 
setts  had  ventured  to  offer  a  bounty  on 
paper-making,  and  some  Scottish-Irish  had 
introduced  the  manufacture  of  linen ;  iron 
furnaces  had  been  erected  in  various  parts  of 
the  country,  and  its  immense  mineral  wealth 
was  not  altogether  unknown.  But  it  is  safe 
to  conclude  that  from  Maine  to  Georgia  no 
species  of  artistic  manufactures  existed  with 
in  the  colonial  limits.  The  farm-house  and 


Pitkiu,  7. 


the  spinning-wheel  were  the  only  centres  of 
a  native  industry  which  the  British  Parlia 
ment  could  not  suppress.  Of  those  two 
great  sources  of  American  progress,  coal  and 
iron,  the  latter  had  assumed  some  impor 
tance.  Pennsylvania,  New  Jersey,  and  Vir 
ginia  had  begun  to  produce  pig-iron  in  an 
imperfect  state.  The  ore  might  be  exported 
to  England,  and  even  Ireland,  and  it  was 
already  known  that  the  colonies  could  pro 
duce  such  large  quantities  of  the  metal  as 
would  supply  their  own  wants,  and  perhaps 
those  of  Europe.1  As  they  were  not  suffered 
to  manufacture  even  a  nail  or  a  pin,  a  wheel 
or  a  plow,  England  made  immense  profits  by 
returning  the  raw  iron  to  America  in  various 
articles  of  trade.  Coal  was  known  to  exist 
within  the  colonies,  and  was  mined  in  Vir 
ginia.2  Speculative  observers  foresaw  the 
day  when  furnaces  and  factories  might 
spring  up  along  the  banks  of  the  Delaware 
and  the  Potomac,  and  the  mineral  wealth  of 
the  country  be  made  to  contribute  to  the 
prosperity  of  the  colonies.  But  of  that  im 
mense  and  inexhaustible  store-house  of  the 
finest  coal  the  world  possesses  which  lies  in 
the  Lehigh  Valley  and  upon  Mauch  Chunk 
Mountain  our  ancestors  could  have  had  no 
conception.  No  one  supposed  that  beneath 
the  rude  and  pathless  forest,  on  lands  that 
seemed  destined  to  perpetual  sterility,  cov 
ered  with  savages,  and  terrible  even  to  the 
hunter,  there  lay  mines  richer  than  Golcon- 
da,  and  stores  of  wealth  beyond  that  of  Or- 
muz  and  the  Ind.  Or  had  any  statesman  of 
1775  ventured  to  predict  that  on  the  site  of 
Fort  Pitt,  in  the  heart  of  a  terrible  wilder 
ness,  at  the  junction  of  two  impetuous 
streams,  was  to  spring  up,  within  a  century, 
a  city  where  coal  and  iron,  lying  together  in 
its  midst,  should  be  the  source  of  a  bound 
less  opulence,  he  would  have  lost  forever  all 
reputation  for  discretion.  The  journey  from 
the  Delaware  to  Pittsburg  was  long  the  ter 
ror  of  the  Western  settler. 

It  was  long  after  the  Revolution  that  a 
hunter  who  had  been  out  all  day  on  Mauch 


1  Kalm,  Pinkcrt.,  xiii.  p.  473.  Pennsylvania,  he 
thought,  could  supply  all  the  globe  with  iron,  BO  eas 
ily  was  it  procured.  "But  coals  have  not  yet  been 
found  in  Pennsylvania  [p.  405],  though  people  pretend 
to  have  seen  them  higher  up,"  he  says. 

3  M'Farlane,  Coal  Regions.  The  mines  near  Rich 
mond  were  worked  long  before  the  anthracite  bed  of 
>  Bancroft,  v.  266.  I  Pennsylvania  was  discovered,  p.  514. 


28 


INTRODUCTION.— COLONIAL  PROGRESS. 


Chunk  Mountain,  and  had  found  no  game, 
and  who  was  returning  weary  and  disheart 
ened  to  his  cabin,  with  no  means  to  purchase 
food  for  his  family,  struck  with  his  foot  as 
he  passed  along  a  black  crystal.  He  stooped 
and  examined  it.1  The  first  specimen  of  that 
priceless  mineral  which  has  transformed  the 
wilderness  into  a  populous  nation,  and  con 
tributed  to  the  comfort  of  millions,  lay  be 
fore  him.  The  rain  fell  fast.  The  hunter 
was  tired  and  hungry.  Yet  he  took  up  the 
apparently  worthless  stone  and  carried  it 
with  him  to  his  cabin.  Mauch  Chunk  then 
lay  bare  and  bleak,  the  haunt  of  wild  beasts 
and  savage  men,  and  had  not  the  hunter  pre 
served  his  shining  mineral,  might  still  have 
hidden  its  secret  stores  for  another  decade. 
He  showed  the  specimen  to  a  friend ;  it  was 
taken  to  Philadelphia.  The  mountain  was 
explored,  and  a  company  formed  to  work  the 
mine.  But  it  was  at  first  unsuccessful,  and 
many  years  elapsed  before  Pennsylvania  be 
came  conscious  of  its  hidden  treasures,  and 
discovered  that  it  possessed  mines  richer 
than  those  of  the  Incas  and  perennial  fount- 
aius  of  industrial  progress.  The  unlucky 
discoverer,  it  seems,  reaped  little  profit  from 
his  good  fortune.  His  land  was  taken  from 
him  by  a  prior  claim.  He  died  in  poverty. 
Great  companies,  possessed  of  enormous  cap 
ital,  and  spanning  with  their  combined  rail 
roads  half  the  continent,  now  encircle  the 
Mauch  Chunk  Mountain  with  their  avenues 
of  trade.  Coal  has  been  found  heaped  upon 
the  sides  of  the  hills,  and  compressed  in  huge 
masses  in  the  valleys.  The  richest  and  al 
most  the  only  bed  of  anthracite  in  the  world 
has  been  discovered  beneath  the  path  of  the 
solitary  hunter. 

The  wild  men  of  the  woods  and  marshes 
were  to  our  ancestors  objects  of  interest  as 
well  as  terror.3  In  the  earlier  period  of  the 
colonial  history  their  numbers  had  been  ex 
aggerated,  and  it  was  believed  that  a  hun 
dred  thousand  painted  savages  might  at 
some  moment  throw  themselves  on  the  white 
settlements.  But  it  was  found  at  length 
that  one  nation  was  alone  formidable,  and 
that  an  Indian  empire  had  risen  beneath  the 
shadows  of  the  forest  that  resembled  in  its 

1  Mem.  Penn.  Hist.  Soc.,  i.  part  ii.  p.  317. 

2  The  Indians  had  the  vanity  of  all  feeble  intellects, 
and  thought  themselves  the  superiors  of  all  mankind. 
Golden,  i.  3. 


extent,  its  cruelty,  and  its  love  of  glory  the 
most  renowned  of  European  sovereignties 
and  conquerors.  In  the  seventeenth  century 
the  Six  Nations  had  their  seat  in  that  fair 
and  fertile  portion  of  New  York  that  reaches 
from  Albany  to  Lake  Erie.  Ouondaga  was 
their  capital.  A  single  sachem  ruled  with  un 
disputed  authority  over  the  obedient  league.1 
A  passion  for  conquest  and  a  love  of  martial 
fame  had  led  this  singular  confederacy  to 
exploits  of  daring  that  seem  almost  incred 
ible.  They  held  in  a  kind  of  subjection  all 
the  territory  from  Connecticut  to  the  Mis 
sissippi.  The  wild  tribes  of  Long  Island 
obeyed  the  commands  of  Onondaga;  and 
even  the  feeble  Canarsie,  on  its  distant 
shore,  trembled  at  the  name  of  the  Mohawk. 
Under  the  shade  of  the  endless  forests,  over 
the  trackless  mountains,  and  across  rapid  riv 
ers,  the  war  parties  of  the  Six  Nations  had 
pressed  on  to  the  conquest  of  Pennsylvania 
and  New  Jersey,  and  all  Virginia  yielded  to 
their  arms.2  They  fought  with  the  Chero- 
kees  on  the  dark  and  bloody  ground  of  Ken 
tucky.  The  Illinois  fled  before  them  on  the 
fair  prairies,  now  the  granary  of  the  conti 
nent.  The  savages  seem  to  have  resembled 
the  extinct  races  whose  bones  are  found  in 
the  prehistoric  caves  of  Kent  and  Dordogne. 
They  were  cruel,  and  rejoiced  in  the  tortures 
of  their  captives.  Their  wigwams  were 
filthy  and  smeared  with  smoke,  adorned  with 
scalps,  and  hung  with  weapons  of  war.  Cun 
ning  and  deceit  formed  a  large  part  of  their 
tactics.  They  rejoiced  to  fall  upon  their  ene 
mies  by  night  and  massacre  the  flying  in 
habitants  of  the  blazing  wigwams.  Yet  in 
their  rude  society  the  savages  manifested 
the  elements  of  all  those  impulses  and  pas 
sions  that  mark  the  civilization  of  Europe.3 
They  were  fond  of  fine  dress,  and  their  wom 
en  produced  rich  leather  robes,  glittering 
with  decorations  in  colored  grasses  and 
beads,  head  coverings,  adorned  with  feath 
ers,  and  moccasins  of  singular  beauty.  They 
danced,  they  sang,  with  a  skill,  vigor,  and 
precision  that  Taglioni  might  have  envied 
or  a  Patti  approved.  The  Iroquois  boast- 

1  Schoolcraf  t,  Notes  on  the  Iroquois,  p.  88.    Onon 
daga  was  the  seat  of  government  from  the  earliest 
period. 

2  Morgan,  League  of  the  Iroquois,  p.  13.    They  pen 
etrated  to  Virginia  in  1607 ;  in  1660-1700  the  French 
assailed  them. 

3  Schoolcraft,  135-139.    Morgan,  384. 


THE  INDIANS. 


29 


ed  that  they  had  themselves  invented  twen 
ty-six  different  dances.  They  exchanged 
visits  from  wigwam  to  wigwam,  and  prac 
ticed  a  courtesy  that  might  have  instructed 
Paris.  They  had  their  orators,  who  polished 
their  sentences  with  the  accuracy  of  Cicero. 
With  a  simple  faith  they  worshiped  the  Su 
preme  Spirit ;  and  yearly,  in  February,  when 
the  germs  of  life  were  opening,  met  to  re 
turn  thanks  to  their  Maker  that  he  had 
preserved  their  lives  for  another  year.  A 
white  dog  was  sacrificed,  prayers  were  of 
fered,  hymns  of  thanksgiving  sung,1  and 
on  the  wild  shores  of  the  Seneca  or  Cayuga 
lake  a  natural  worship  hallowed  the  savage 
scene. 

Of  the  numbers  of  the  Indian  tribes  it  is 
of  course  impossible  to  form  any  exact  esti 
mate.  But  it  is  believed  that  in  the  height 
of  their  power  the  Six  Nations  never  possess 
ed  more  than  seventeen  thousand  warriors, 
and  that  in  the  year  1774  they  had  scarcely 
two  thousand.  Their  whole  number  was 
then  estimated  at  ten  thousand  souls.2  Their 
wars  with  the  French  and  with  the  native 
races  had  rapidly  reduced  their  strength. 
It  was  stated  by  Tryon  at  this  time  that  the 
wilderness  from  Lake  Erie  to  the  Mississip 
pi  could  furnish  twenty-five  thousand  war 
riors,  and  was  inhabited  by  one  hundred 
and  thirty  thousand  Indians.  In  the  South 
the  Cherokees  were  the  ruling  race,  and 
might,  with  their  allies,  produce  several 
thousand  men.  It  was  with  these  fierce  and 
relentless  warriors  that  the  English  hoped 
to  devastate  the  long  line  of  frontier  settle 
ments  from  Lake  Ontario  to  the  Savannah. 
Twenty  thousand  Indians,  it  was  thought, 
would  fall  upon  the  unprotected  colonists, 
and  with  the  scalping  knife  and  the  musket 
force  them  to  submit  to  the  British  king. 
Nothing  more  incited  the  colonies  to  inde 
pendence  than  this  unheard-of  barbarity. 
It  was  when  all  the  distant  settlements  were 
threatened  by  an  Indian  invasion  that  they 
resolved  upon  perfect  freedom  ;  and  even  the 
patient  Washington  when  he  heard  the  news 
could  not  restrain  his  malediction  upon  the 
cruel  tyrant,  and  urged  an  instant  separa- 

1  Morgan,  39.    They  even  confessed  their  sins  of  the 
past  year,  we  are  told.     Their  belief  in  witchcraft, 
omens,  dreams,  is  told  by  Schoolcraft,  p.  141.    They 
had  a  vampire,  he  thinks. 

2  Campbell,  Tryon  County,  p.  24  and  note. 


tion.1  In  periods  of  peace  the  Indians  had 
afforded  the  colonies  au  important  branch 
of  trade.  Furs  and  skins  were  exported  in 
large  quantities  to  Europe,  and  the  most 
successful  trappers  were  the  Six  Nations, 
who  brought  their  wares  to  Albany,  and  the 
less  warlike  tribes  who  dealt  with  the  mer 
chants  of  Fort  Pitt.  Gold  and  silver  were 
of  no  value  to  the  savages.  They  would 
only  receive  their  payment  in  wampum  or 
strings  of  shells3 — a  currency  that  passed 
freely  over  all  the  continent — or  in  powder, 
shot,  and  muskets,  rum,  and  sometimes  arti 
cles  of  dress.  A  fine  uniform  or  a  glitter 
ing  coat  was  sometimes  exchanged  for  large 
tracts  of  land.  A  string  of  peri  winkle  shells, 
purple  or  white,  was  valued  at  a  dollar ;  and 
the  first  church  in  New  Jersey,  it  is  related, 
was  built  and  paid  for  from  contributions 
in  wampum.3  New  York  and  Albany  in 
the  early  Dutch  period  had  almost  adopted 
the  currency  of  the  savage.  There  are,  in 
deed,  marked  traces  of  the  influence  of  In 
dian  customs  and  superstitious  among  the 
whites.  Their  omens,  dreams,  and  intense 
belief  in  witchcraft,  their  incantations  and 
spells,  seem  to  have  convinced  Cotton  Mather 
and  the  New  England  divines  of  their  close 
connection  with  the  spirit  of  evil,*  and  help 
ed  to  increase  the  sense  of  a  present  Satan 
in  the  neighboring  forests.  To  the  wild 
hunters  of  the  border  the  savages  taught 
their  keen  study  of  nature,  their  caution, 
and  their  iinpassiveuess.  The  frontiers-men 
borrowed  their  moccasins,  hunting  shirts  of 
leather,  and  caps,  their  patience  of  cold  and 
hunger,  and  rivaled  them  at  last  in  the  pur 
suit  of  game.  At  the  close  of  the  Revolu 
tion  the  power  of  the  Six  Nations  was  broken 
forever.  They  had  taken  the  side  of  the  En 
glish,  except  only  the  friendly  Oneidas,  and 
the  last  of  the  Mohawks  found  a  refuge  in 
Canada.5  The  other  tribes  sold  their  pos 
sessions,  and  nearly  all  moved  away.  Can- 
andaigua,  Cayuga,  Oneida,  Onondaga,  gave 
names  to  flourishing  white  colonies  from 
New  England,  and  with  the  destruction  of 

'  Washington  to  Reed.  Reed,  Original  Letter,  p.  66. 
He  denounces  "the  tyrant  and  his  diabolical  minis 
try."  a  Schoolcraft,  p.  358. 

3  Golden,  i.  11,  notices  that  they  had  no  slaves.  They 
adopted  the  captives  they  saved  alive. 

*  Satan  was  believed  to  haunt  the  New  England 
woods  in  the  form  of  a  "little  black  man."  Cotton 
Mather.  *  Morgan,  p.  30. 


30 


INTRODUCTION.— COLONIAL  PROGRESS. 


the  Indian  rule  New  York  rose  rapidly  to  the 
first  place  in  population  and  power  among 
its  sister  States. 

Next  to  the  Indians,  along  that  wide  fringe 
of  border  land  that  skirted  the  banks  of  the 
Hudson,  the  declivities  of  the  Alleghanies, 
and  the  western  counties  of  the  Carolinas  on 
the  brink  of  the  Wilderness,  lived  the  hardy 
race  of  the  pioneers.  The  home  of  the  woods 
man  was  usually  a  log-cabin ;  his  chief  wealth 
his  musket  and  a  family  of  healthy  chil 
dren.  Far  away  from  the  centres  of  civili 
zation,  more  familiar  with  the  manners  of 
the  wigwam  than  of  the  city,  generous,  fan 
ciful,  fond  of  nature,  and  of  the  trees  and  riv 
ers,  mountains  and  plains,  around  him,  al 
ways  ready  for  change  and  new  adventure, 
the  pioneer  lived  in  ceaseless  excitement, 
and  sank  at  last  to  rest  under  the  green  sod 
of  some  untried  land.  His  life  was,  indeed, 
never  secure  from  the  treacherous  assaults 
of  the  wild  men  of  the  woods.  The  Indians 
were  as  fickle  as  they  were  mobile  and  act 
ive.  The  pioneers,  trained  in  constant 
watchfulness,  produced  some  of  the  most 
noted  and  possibly  the  most  eminent  of  the 
men  of  the  Revolution.  Washington  him 
self  was  in  his  early  youth  educated  in  the 
arts  of  frontier  life.  Poor,  self-instructed, 
accurate,1  truthful,  at  nineteen  he  had  as 
a  surveyor  studied  the  wilderness  west  of 
the  Alleghanies,  and  learned  the  life  of  the 
woods.  At  a  later  period  he  traveled  on  foot 
with  a  pack  on  his  shoulders  from  Winches 
ter  to  the  Ohio,  through  the  heart  of  the  for 
est.  Later  still  he  led  the  provincial  troops 
through  the  woods  and  mountains,  and  be 
came  famous  as  a  commander;  and  when 
the  fate  of  freedom  rested  on  him  alone,  his 
experience  in  the  forest  and  the  wilderness 
guided  him  to  the  victories  of  Trenton  and 
Princeton.  Daniel  Boone,  the  founder  of  a 
State,  was  a  more  accurate  example  of  this 
wayward  class.  From  his  cottage  on  the 
Yadkin,  where,  surrounded  by  wife,  children, 
and  comparative  ease,  he  might  well  have 
lived  content,  an  irresistible  desire  to  ex 
plore  the  mysterious  wilderness  drew  him 
away.  He  climbed  the  tall  Cumberland 
Mountains,  and  saw  with  a  kind  of  rapture, 
he  relates,  the  lovely  plains  of  Kentucky, 


1  The  careful  drawings  of  the  self-taught  Washing 
ton  show  the  methodical  nature  of  his  miud.  See 
Sparks,  Life. 


the  buffaloes  cropping  the  rich  meadows,  the 
flowers  blooming  in  the  waste.1  He  descend 
ed  into  the  paradise,  was  captured  by  some 
Indians,  who  came  upon  him  and  his  compan 
ion  from  a  cane-brake,  escaped,  was  found 
by  his  brother  in  the  wilderness,  to  his  un 
speakable  joy  ;  and  when  his  brother  left  him, 
built  a  hut,  and  lived  alone,  he  declares,  in 
inexpressible  happiness.  From  the  summit 
of  some  commanding  hill  he  delighted  to 
trace  the  windings  of  the  Kentucky  through 
its  ample  plains,  or  hunted  for  his  daily  food 
through  the  teeming  woods.  "  Through  an 
uninterrupted  scene  of  sylvan  pleasures,"  he 
writes,  "I  spent  my  time."2  He  resolved 
to  return  to  North  Carolina  for  his  family, 
and  found  a  settlement  in  the  smiling  waste. 
He  sold  his  farm.  With  wife  and  children 
and  a  small  band  of  settlers,  he  climbed 
again  the  wild  Cumberland  Mountains.  The 
Indians  attacked  the  small  party,  his  son  fell 
in  battle,  but  the  ardent  pioneer  persisted  in 
his  vision,  and  founded  Boonesborough,  on 
the  banks  of  the  Kentucky,  in  the  wilderness 
he  loved  so  well.  A  small  stockade  was  built. 
It  was  attacked  by  the  Indians.  Boone  was 
taken  prisoner  in  a  warlike  expedition,  but  in 
stead  of  torturing  him,  the  Shawanese  adopt 
ed  him  into  their  tribe  and  treated  him  as  a 
brother.  Again  he  escaped,  and  in  his  wood 
en  fort  at  Boonesborough  sustained  a  siege 
that  had  nearly  proved  successful.  The  sav 
ages  were  repulsed,  peace  and  liberty  came 
together,  and  the  bold  pioneer  died  in  the 
scene  he  had  looked  upon  with  rapture,  the 
founder  of  a  new  nation,  and  surrounded  by 
a  grateful  people.3 

Such  were  the  men  who  led  the  way  to 
the  frontier  settlements,  who  first  crossed 
the  Alleghanies,  who  penetrated  beneath  the 
shadow  of  Lookout  Mountain,  or  ventured 
into  Cherry  Valley,  when  the  Six  Nations 
still  ruled  over  Western  New  York.  They 
formed  a  long  line  of  isolated  colonies,  and 
disputed  with  the  savages  the  possession  of 
the  wilderness.  Behind  them,  protected  by 
their  necessary  vigilance,  the  more  peaceful 
settlers  cultivated  their  ample  farms  and 
lived  in  prosperous  ease.  Yet  the  border 


1  Filson's  Kentucky.    Boone'a  Narrative. 

2  Narrative,  p.  36. 

»  Filson,  p.  49.  "He  lived  at  last,"  it  is  said,  "in 
peace,  delighted  by  the  love  and  gratitude  of  his  coun 
trymen." 


THE  CLERGY. 


31 


land  was  never  safe  from  a  hostile  invasion. 
When  the  English  first  incited  the  savage 
tribes  to  a  general  rising  the  whole  frontier 
was  penetrated  by  a  series  of  murderous  at 
tacks.  The  settlers  on  the  outskirts  of  North 
and  South  Carolina  fled  from  their  blazing 
homes  or  perished  iu  an  imspariug  massa 
cre.  The  Indians  who  followed  Burgoyue 
filled  New  York  with  slaughter.  Vermont 
and  New  Hampshire  trembled  before  their 
threats.  Cherry  Valley  armed  iu  its  de 
fense.1  The  fate  of  Wyoming  has  been  told 
in  immortal  song.  The  shores  of  the  Hud 
son  were  no  longer  safe.  Brandt  and  his 
band  of  savages  penetrated  into  Orange 
County,  and  the  massacre  of  Minisiuk  alarm 
ed  the  Huguenot  farmers  in  the  rich  valleys 
of  the  Shawangunk  and  the  Dutch  in  the 
hill  country  around  Goshen.  As  the  savages 
pressed  on  into  Orange  County  they  came  to 
a  school-house  which  was  yet  filled  with  its 
children.  They  took  the  school-master  into 
the  woods  and  killed  him.  They  clove  the 
skulls  of  several  of  the  boys  with  their  tom 
ahawks  ;  but  the  little  girls,  who  stood  look 
ing  on  horror-struck  and  waiting  for  an  iu- 
stant  death,  were  spared.  A  tall  savage — it 
was  Brandt — dashed  a  mark  of  black  paint 
upon  their  aprons,  and  when  the  other  sav 
ages  saw  it  they  left  them  unharmed.  Swift 
as  an  inspiration  the  little  girls  resolved  to 
save  their  brothers.*  They  flung  over  them 
their  aprons,  and  when  the  next  Indians 
passed  by  they  were  spared  for  the  mark 
they  bore.  The  school-master's  wife  hid  in 
a  ditch  and  escaped.  It  was  amidst  such 
dangers  that  our  ancestors  founded  their 
new  republic,  and  forced  on  the  course  of 
progress. 

Within  the  more  cultivated  portions  of  the 
country  the  most  influential  person  in  every 
town  was  usually  the  clergyman.  In  New 
England  the  authority  of  the  ministers  was 
no  longer  what  it  had  been  iu  the  days  of 
Cotton  and  the  Mathers.  A  revolt  had  taken 
place  against  the  spiritual  hierarchy  which 
had  opened  the  way  for  intellectual  freedom. 
But  the  New  England  pastor  was  distin 
guished  always  for  virtues  and  attainments 
that  gave  him  a  lasting  prominence.  In  his 


1  Campbell,  Tryon  County,  is  full  of  the  trials  of 
frontier  life. 
3  Eager,  Orange  County,  p.  391.    It  was  July,  1779. 


youth  he  had  passed  through  a  spiritual  ex 
ercise  which  had  fixed  him  in  the  path  of 
virtue.  He  examined  his  own  nature  with 
the  accuracy  of  a  Pythagorean.  He  had 
laid  down  rules  to  himself  that  formed  the 
guiding  principles  of  his  life.  Sloth  he  ab 
horred  ;  he  resolved  to  lose  no  moment  of 
time ;  to  do  nothing  that  he  should  be  afraid 
to  do  in  his  last  hour;  to  consecrate  him 
self  to  the  service  of  his  Maker.1  The  image 
of  ideal  virtue  had  dawned  upon  him  in  its 
surpassing  loveliness,  audhe  wandered  away 
into  the  still  woods  and  pleasant  fields  filled 
with  sweet  visions  of  the  divine  Messiah. 
Yet  he  knew  that  the  world  was  full  of 
trouble  and  vexation,  and  that  iii  would  nev 
er  be  another  kind  of  a  world.  It  was  thus 
that  Jonathan  Edwards  meditated  in  the 
dawn  of  his  intellectual  youth,  aud  many 
another  ardent  follower  of  Calvin.  The 
New  England  minister  was  fond  of  scholas 
tic  theology.  He  keenly  pursued  the  deli 
cate  and  refined  distinctions  of  election  and 
grace,  of  free-will  and  predestination,  but 
seldom  wandered  far  from  the  decisions  of 
the  Geneva  school.  Yet  he  had  learned  self- 
control,  and  was  well  fitted  to  direct  the 
conduct  of  others.  Elected  by  the  voice  of 
the  people  to  the  ministry  of  a  town  or  city 
congregation,  his  scholarship  and  his  decis 
ion  gave  him  a  political  and  personal  influ 
ence  that  he  was  not  afraid  to  use.9  The 
clerical  families  were  often  connected  by 
the  closest  ties  of  relationship,  and  the  pas 
torate  descended  from  generation  to  genera 
tion.  The  Cottons  and  Mathers  ruled  over 
Boston  for  nearly  sixty  years.  Edwards  was 
the  grandson  of  a  clergyman,  succeeded  to 
his  charge,  married  a  clergyman's  daughter, 
and  married  his  own  daughter  to  the  Rev. 
Aaron  Burr.  Yet  the  people  of  Northamp 
ton,  where  he  was  settled,  with  the  largest 
salary  in  New  England,  rebelled  against  his 
authority.  He  removed  to  Stockbridge,  and 
became  at  last  president  of  the  College  of 
New  Jersey  on  the  death  of  his  son-in-law, 
Burr. 

These  cultivated  men  were  usually  ardent 


1  Edwards,  Diary  and  Life. 

3  The  minister  was  sometimes  obliged  to  rule  his 
people  with  no  tender  hand,  and  violent  controversy 
often  arose,  which  sometimes  "came  to  hard  blows." 
Life  of  Edwards,  i.  464.  The  people  of  Northampton 
were  of  "  a  difficult  and  turbulent  temper,"  etc. 


32 


INTRODUCTION.— COLONIAL  PKOGEESS. 


patriots.  But  their  patriotism  was  no  doubt 
stimulated  by  the  dread  of  a  religious  rather 
than  political  tyranny.  A  fear  prevailed  in 
all  New  England  that  Parliament  and  the 
king  were  resolved  to  impose  bishops  upon 
each  of  the  colonies,  and  to  enforce  by  law 
the  ritual  of  the  Church  of  England.  White- 
field  had  warned  the  colonies  of  a  coming 
woe.  The  imprudent  conversation  of  young 
Episcopal  ministers  in  Connecticut  and  Bos 
ton  added  to  the  apprehension.  Archbishop 
Seeker  had  suggested  the  idea  of  an  Amer 
ican  episcopate,1  and  the  project  was  al 
ready  entertained  in  England  of  reducing 
New  England  to  a  subjection  to  the  nation 
al  Church  by  lavish  bribes  to  its  independ 
ent  clergy,  and  by  the  reform  or  suppression 
of  all  the  colonial  charters.  Cambridge  had 
even  been  suggested  as  the  seat  of  a  colonial 
bishop,  and  an  Episcopal  church  had  already 
sprung  up  beneath  the  shadow  of  Harvard 
College  under  the  auspices  of  the  Society  for 
Propagating  the  Gospel  in  America.  Then 
Mayhew  of  Boston  began  a  series  of  publica 
tions  that  sounded  an  alarm  throughout  the 
country.  He  felt  the  danger;  he  saw  the 
unscrupulous  nature  of  the  men  who  ruled 
in  England.  The  "  overbearing  spirit  of  the 
Episcopalians"3  he  brooded  over,  until  he 
almost  felt  once  more  the  clerical  tyranny 
from  which  the  gentle  Kobiuson  had  fled, 
and  which  had  impelled  the  Mayflower  over 
the  stormy  sea.  "  Will  they  never  let  us 
rest  in  peace,"  he  cried,  "  except  where  all 
the  weary  are  at  rest  ?3  Is  it  not  enough 
that  they  persecuted  us  out  of  the  Old 
World  ?"  Yet  Mayhew  was  still  sufficiently 
loyal  to  hope  that  King  George  was  "too 
good  and  noble"  to  suffer  it.  When  the 
controversy  with  England  began,  Mayhew 
was  ever  ready  to  support  the  liberties  of 
his  country,  and  his  pulpit  resounded  with 
patriotic  exhortations.  Almost  every  Con 
gregational  minister  was  equally  faithful. 
Like  the  Huguenot  and  the  Covenanter,  they 
even  fought  in  the  ranks,  and  sometimes  led 
their  townsmen  to  battle,  and  fell  among  the 
first. 

The  clergy  of  the  middle  and  southern  col 
onies  were  persons  less  distinctly  the  leaders 


1  Gordon,  i.  143,  gives  the  general  apprehension  and 
the  plan.  2  Mayhew,  Second  Defense,  p.  64. 

3  Observations,  p.  156. 


of  the  people  than  in  New  England.  The 
Episcopalian  ministers  were  often  mild  and 
amiable  men  who  cared  nothing  for  politics. 
They  were  inclined  to  the  English  rule,  but 
were  not  unwilling  to  share  the  fortunes  of  a 
new  nation.  Some,  however,  were  bitter  and 
relentless  in  their  Toryism ;  their  violence 
helped  to  bring  discredit  on  their  cause,  and 
their  religious  intolerance  led  them  to  their 
ruin.  In  New  York  the  Dutch  and  Presby 
terian  clergy  were  often  eminent  for  their 
virtues  and  their  scholarship;  their  churches 
in  the  city  were  to  the  eyes  of  our  ancestors 
splendid,  their  salaries  high,  their  congrega 
tions  numerous  and  attentive.  The  Presby 
terian  church  in  Wall  Street,  the  new  Dutch 
church,  and  even  the  old,  were  scarcely  sur 
passed  by  Trinity  and  St.  Paul's.  Meantime 
a  new  religious  influence  had  been  impressed 
upon  the  nation  by  the  preaching  of  White- 
field,  and  in  1742  a  revival  had  swept  over 
the  country  that  never  lost  its  effect.  Vil 
lages  and  cities  had  been  stirred  by  the  im 
pulse  of  reform.  Many  strange  and  some  not 
attractive  scenes  had  followed  it.  Children 
held  their  meetings  for  prayer  apart.1  Wom 
en  had  been  roused  to  unreflecting  fanati 
cism,  and  imposture  and  hypocrisy  had  flour 
ished  in  the  general  excitement.  Yet  it  was 
acknowledged  that  every  where  morality 
had  received  a  real  impulse  at  the  hands  of 
faith.  The  clergy  themselves  profited  by 
the  general  movement,  and  became  better 
fitted  to  guide  the  people.  The  Roman 
Catholic  clergy  at  this  period  had  lost  much 
of  their  early  intolerance.  The  Society  of 
the  Jesuits  had  been  abolished,  a  series  of 
moderate  and  reputable  popes  had  ruled  at 
Rome,  and  reform  seemed  about  to  invade 
the  councils  of  the  Vatican.  The  fanatical 
reaction  of  the  nineteenth  century  had  not 
yet  begun. 

In  the  towns  and  villages  the  lawyers 
shared  with  the  clergy  the  intellectual  influ 
ence  of  the  time.  Many  of  them  were  well- 
read  and  accomplished  men,  who  joined  to 
their  technical  knowledge  a  considerable  ac 
quaintance  with  letters,  or  \vere  noted  for 
their  natural  eloquence.  John  Adams  had 
prepared  himself  by  a  careful  study  of  his 
profession  to  defend  with  legal  accuracy  the 
rights  of  his  countrymen.  William  Smith, 


'  Edwards,  Life. 


CHIEF  CITIES. 


33 


of  New  York,  was  known  as  a  faithful  his 
torian  as  well  as  jurist,  and  formed  the  in 
tellect  of  John  Jay.  Colden  wrote  well. 
In  Virginia  Patrick  Henry  had  won  his  first 
renown  by  an  impassioned  appeal  against 
the  avarice  and  the  ambition  of  the  Estab 
lished  Church.  Jefferson  had  trained  him 
self  by  practice  in  the  courts  before  he  es 
sayed  to  condense  in  a  brief  memorial  the 
rights  of  man.  Nothing  indeed  is  more  re 
markable  at  this  period  than  the  nicety  and 
clearness  with  which  the  various  points  in 
dispute  between  the  colonies  and  England 
•were  discussed  in  every  part  of  the  country, 
and  the  superiority  in  argument  which  the 
legal  writers  of  America  showed  over  their 
opponents  in  London  when  they  treated  of 
the  professional  elements  of  the  controversy. 
Otis  and  Adams  reasoned  with  calmness  and 
force,  while  Johnson  raved  and  Mansfield 
blundered.  In  the  grand  argument  which 
the  American  lawyers  addressed  to  the  suf 
frages  of  the  civilized  world  there  was  a 
depth  of  reflection  and  a  wide  acquaintance 
with  the  principles  of  the  common  and  in 
ternational  law  that  proved  to  acute  observ 
ers  their  just  claim  to  freedom.  No  one 
could  think  such  men  unworthy  to  found  a 
state. 

The  chief  cities  of  our  ancestors  were  all 
scattered  along  the  sea-coast.  There  were 
no  large  towns  in  the  interior.  Albany  was 
still  a  small  village,  Schenectady  a  cluster 
of  houses.  To  those  vast  inland  capitals 
which  have  sprung  up  on  the  lakes  and 
great  rivers  of  the  West  our  country  offered 
no  parallel.  Chicago  and  St.  Louis,  the  cen 
tres  of  enormous  wealth  and  unlimited  com 
merce,  had  yet  no  predecessors.  Pleasant 
villages  had  sprung  up  in  New  England, 
New  Jersey,  and  on  the  banks  of  the  Hud 
son,  but  they  could  pretend  to  no  rivalry 
with  those  flourishing  cities  which  lined  the 
sea-coast  or  its  estuaries,  and  seemed  to  our 
ancestors  the  abodes  of  luxury  and  splendor. 
Yet  even  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Bos 
ton,1  extensive  as  they  appeared  to  the  colo 
nists,  were  insignificant  towns  compared  to 
the  European  capitals,  and  gave  no  promise 
of  ever  approaching  that  grandeur  which 
seemed  to  be  reserved  especially  for  London 

1  Burnaby  describes  Boston  as  the  most  cultivated 
of  the  American  cities.    Dwight  thinks  New  York 
"  magnificent"  at  a  later  period. 
3 


and  Paris.  In  1774  the  population  of  New 
York  was  perhaps  20,000 ;  that  of  London 
600,000.  The  latter  was  thirty  times  larger 
than  the  former,  and  in  wealth  and  political 
importance  was  so  infinitely  its  superior  that 
a  comparison  between  them  would  have 
been  absurd.  Boston,  -which  has  crowned 
Beacon  Hill,  pressed  over  the  Neck,  and  even 
covered  with  a  magnificent  quarter  a  large 
surface  that  was  once  the  bed  of  the  Charles 
Kiver,  was  in  1774  a  town  of  15,000  or  18,000 
inhabitants,  closely  confined  to  the  neigh 
borhood  of  the  bay.  The  Long  Wharf  may 
still  be  seen  on  the  ancient  maps  ;  the  Com 
mon  was  used  as  a  public  resort  ;l  the  Han 
cock  House  was  illuminated  at  the  repeal 
of  the  Stamp  Act,  and  the  Sons  of  Liberty 
raised  on  the  Common  a  pyramid  of  lamps, 
from  the  top  of  which  fire-works  lighted 
up  the  neighboring  fields.  But  Beacon 
Hill  was  still  used  by  its  owner  as  a  gravel- 
pit,  and  it  was  feared  by  the  citizens  that 
he  -might  level  it  altogether.  The  Boston 
of  1774,  which  proclaimed  freedom  and  de 
fied  the  power  of  England,  would  scarcely 
rank  to-day  among  the  more  important  coun 
try  towns.  New  York  was  more  populous, 
but  it  was  still  confined  to  the  narrow  point 
of  land  below  the  Park.  The  thickly  built 
part  of  the  town  lay  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Whitehall.  Some  fine  houses  lined  Broad 
way  and  Broad  Street,2  but  to  the  west  of 
Broadway  green  lawns  stretched  down  from 
Trinity  and  St.  Paul's  to  the  water.  Trees 
were  planted  thickly  before  the  houses  ;  on 
the  roofs  railings  or  balconies  were  placed,3 
and  in  the  summer  evenings  the  people 
gathered  on  the  house-top  to  catch  the  cool 
air.  Lamps  had  already  been  placed  on  the 
streets.*  Fair  villas  covered  the  environs, 
and  even  the  Baroness  Riedesel,  who  had 
visited  in  the  royal  palaces  of  Europe,  was 
charmed  with  the  scenery  and  homes  of  the 
citizens.  Extravagance  had  already  cor 
rupted  the  plainer  habits  of  the  earlier  pe 
riod.  The  examples  of  London  and  Paris 
had  already  affected  the  American  cities. 
The  people  of  New  York  drank  fiery  Madeira, 


i  Drake,  Boston,  685. 

a  Riedesel,  Mem.,  iii.  170,  etc. 

3  Kalm.  Riedesel,  Mem.,  iii.  170.  Watson,  Annals 
New  York,  p.  227.  A  stage  ran  to  Philadelphia  in  1776. 

*  New  York,  Miss  Mary  L.  Booth.  Gordon,  i.  138, 
notices  the  heavy  taxes  of  Boston— higher  than  those 
of  London. 


34 


INTRODUCTION.— COLONIAL  PROGRESS. 


and  were  noted  for  their  luxury.  Broadway 
was  thought  the  most  splendid  of  avenues, 
although  it  ended  at  Chambers  Street.  And 
twenty  years  later,  when  the  City  Hall  was 
built,  it  was  called  by  Dwight  (a  good  schol 
ar)  the  finest  building  in  America.1  The 
streets  of  New  York  and  Boston  were  Tisual- 
ly  crooked  and  narrow,  but  the  foresight  of 
Perm  had  made  Philadelphia  a  model  of  reg 
ularity.  Market  and  Broad  streets  were  am 
ple  and  stately.  The  city  was  as  populous 
as  New  York,  and  perhaps  the  possessor  of 
more  wealth.  It  was  the  first  city  on  the 
continent,  and  the  fame  of  Franklin  had  al 
ready  given  it  a  European  renown.3  Yet 
Philadelphia  when  it  rebelled  against  George 
III.  was  only  an  insignificant  town,  clinging 
to  the  banks  of  the  river ;  and  New  York  in 
vited  the  attack  of  the  chief  naval  power  of 
the  world  with  its  harbor  undefended  and 
its  whole  population  exposed  to  the  guns  of 
the  enemy's  ships.  The  southern  cities  were 
yet  of  little  importance.  Baltimore  was  a 
small  town.  Virginia  had  no  large  city. 
Charleston  had  a  few  thousand  inhabitants. 
Along  that  immense  line  of  sea-coast  now 
covered  with  populous  cities  the  smallest  of 
which  would  have  made  the  New  York  and 
Boston  of  our  ancestors  seem  insignificant, 
only  these  few  and  isolated  centres  of  com 
merce  had  sprung  up.  The  wilderness  still 
covered  the  shores  of  Long  Island,  New  Jer 
sey,  Delaware,  and  the  Carolinas  almost  as 
in  the  days  of  Raleigh. 

To  pass  from  one  city  to  another  along 
this  desolate  shore  was,  in  1775,  a  long  and 
difficult  journey.  Roads  had  been  early 
built  in  most  of  the  colonies.  In  Massachu 
setts  they  were  good,  except  where  they 
passed  over  the  hills.  In  New  York  a  good 
road  ran  through  Orange  and  Ulster  coun 
ties  to  Albany.  That  between  New  York 
and  Philadelphia  was  probably  tolerable. 
In  the  southern  colonies  but  little  attention 
was  paid  to  road -building,  and  even  those 
in  the  neighborhood  of  Philadelphia  were 
often  almost  impassable.  A  stage-coach  ran 
in  two  days  from  New  York  to  Philadelphia, 
but  the  passengers  were  requested  to  cross 
over  the  evening  before  to  Powle's  Hook, 
that  they  might  set  out  early  in  the  morn- 

1  Dwight,  Travels,  iii.  329,  notices  the  magnificent 
style  of  living,  etc. 

2  Watson,  Philadelphia. 


ing.1  Sloops  sailed  to  Albany  in  seven  or 
eight  days.2  From  Boston  to  New  York  was 
a  tedious  journey.  In  fair  weather  the  roads 
of  the  time  were  tolerable ;  but  in  winter 
and  spring  they  became  little  better  than 
quagmires.  There  was  therefore  but  little 
intercourse  between  the  people  of  the  dis 
tant  colonies,  and  in  winter  all  communica 
tion  by  land  and  water  must  have  been  near 
ly  cut  off.  Had  it  been  told  to  our  ances 
tors  that  within  a  century  men  would  ride 
from  New  York  to  Philadelphia  within  three 
hours,  or  pass  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pa 
cific  in  seven  days,  that  the  passage  from 
Boston  to  Charleston  would  be  made  within 
three  days,  or  from  Liverpool  to  New  York 
within  ten,  they  would  have  placed  no  more 
confidence  in  the  prediction  than  in  the 
speculations  of  Laputa.  Nor  did  they  dream 
that  Franklin's  discoveries  had  made  the 
closer  union  of  the  human  race  still  more 
certain.  The  northern  cities  were  usually 
bnilt  of  brick  or  of  stone,  and  many  of  the 
farm-houses  were  of  the  latter  material.3 
The  former  had  been  imported  from  Holland 
for  the  first  New  York  buildings ;  and  even 
Schenectady,  a  frontier  town,  was  so  purely 
Dutch  as  to  have  been  early  decorated  with 
Holland  brick.  In  the  country  stone  was 
easily  gathered  from  the  abundant  quarries 
on  the  Hudson  or  along  the  New  England 
hills.  Many  large,  low,  stone  houses,  with 
lofty  roofs  and  massive  windows,  may  still 
be  seen  in  the  rich  valleys  opening  upon  the 
Hudson,  almost  in  the  same  condition  in 
which  they  were  left  by  their  Huguenot  or 
Dutch  builders,  and  apparently  capable  of 
enduring  the  storms  of  another  century.* 
Brick-making  was  soon  introduced  into  the 
colonies,  and  the  abundant  forests  supplied 
all  the  materials  for  the  mechanic.  Fortu 
nately  no  palaces  were  built,  no  royal  parks 
required,  no  Versailles  nor  Marly  indispensa 
ble  to  our  ancestors,  no  monasteries,  no  ca 
thedrals.  A  general  equality  in  condition 
was  nearly  reached.  Not  five  men,  we  are 


i  Advertisement,  The  Flying  Post.  Watson,  Ann. 
Phil.,  p.  257,  notices  the  bad  roads. 

'  Trumbull,  Mem.,  p.  26. 

3  Kalm.  Burnaby.  Mr.  Stone's  valuable  edition  of 
the  Riedesel  memoirs  throws  much  light  upon  the  con 
dition  of  the  colonies. 

*  Early  New  York  (1669V"  was  built  chiefly  of  brick 
and  stone,  and  covered  with  red  tiles."  Brodhead, 
New  York,  ii.  163. 


MANNERS  AND  MORALS. 


35 


told,  in  New  York  and  Philadelphia  expend 
ed  ten  thousand  dollars  a  year  on  their  fam 
ilies.  The  manners  of  the  people  were  sim 
ple  ;  their  expenses  moderate.  Yet  nowhere 
was  labor  so  well  rewarded  nor  poverty  so 
rare.  Franklin,  who  had  seen  the  terrible 
destitution  of  England  and  of  France,  pro 
nounced  his  own  country  the  most  prosper 
ous  part  of  the  globe,  and  was  only  anxious 
to  protect  it  from  that  tyranny  which  had 
reduced  Europe  to  starvation,  and  snatched 
their  honest  earnings  from  the  hands  of  the 
working  classes.  He  saw  that  those  who 
labored  were  the  best  fitted  to  govern.  The 
wages  of  the  farm  laborer  in  the  northern 
colonies  was  probably  three  times  that  of 
the  English  peasant,  and  the  general  abun 
dance  of  food  rendered  his  condition  easier. 
Fuel,  however,  before  the  discovery  of  coal, 
seems  to  have  been  sometimes  scarce  and 
dear.  Kalm  notices  that  complaints  of  its 
dearness  were  frequent  in  Philadelphia — 
now  the  seat  of  the  chief  coal  market  of  the 
world.1  Wines  and  liquors  were  freely  con 
sumed  by  our  ancestors,  and  even  New  En 
gland  had  as  yet  no  high  repute  for  temper 
ance.  Rum  was  taken  as  a  common  restor 
ative.  The  liquor  shops  of  New  York  had 
long  been  a  public  annoyance.  In  the  far 
ther  southern  colonies,  we  are  -told,  the 
planter  began  his  day  with  a  strong  glass 
of  spirits,  and  closed  it  by  carousing,  gam 
bling,  or  talking  politics  in  the  village 
tavern.  Our  ancestors  were  extraordi 
narily  fond  of  money,  if  we  may  trust  the 
judgment  of  Washington,  who  seems  to  have 
found  too  many  of  them  willing  to  improve 
their  fortunes  from  the  resources  of  the  im 
poverished  community.2  But  in  general  it 
must  be  inferred  that  the  standard  of  pub 
lic  morals  was  not  low.  In  comparison 
with  the  corrupt  statesmen  of  England  and 
France,  or  with  the  members  of  the  English 
Parliament,  who  were  nearly  all  willing  to 
accept  and  to  give  bribes,  the  American  pol 
iticians  seemed  to  the  European  thinkers 
the  most  admirable  of  men.  Washington 
rose  above  his  species,  and  Franklin,  Sam 
uel  and  John  Adams,  Jefferson,  Gadsden,  and 
Lee  were  wise  and  prudent  beyond  example. 
Our  generals  and  soldiers,  when  compared  to 

i  Pinkert.,  xiii.  407. 

5  Washington  to  Reed,  Reed's  Original  Letters,  p. 
63. 


those  England  sent  over  to  conquer  them, 
were  evidently  of  a  higher  and  purer  race. 
Burgoyne,1  Howe,  and  the  greater  part  of 
their  associates  shocked  the  rising  refine 
ment  of  colonial  society  by  their  gross  vices 
and  shameless  profligacy  as  much  as  by  their 
inhumanity.  Gates,  Arnold,  and  Lee,  who 
imitated  them,  were  exceptions  to  the  gen 
eral  purity  of  the  American  officers,  and  of 
these  two  were  English -born  and  one  a 
traitor. 

The  desire  for  a  higher  and  purer  life  was 
indeed  the  finest  trait  of  American  politics 
and  society.  The  Declaration  of  Independ 
ence  embodied  the  real  feeling  of  the  people. 
They  were  anxious  to  promote  human  equal 
ity,  to  enforce  the  common  brotherhood  of 
man,  to  cultivate  refinement,  to  escape  from 
the  gross  vices  of  mediaeval  barbarism  which 
still  covered  all  Europe.  They  had  learned 
the  necessity  of  religious  and  political  toler 
ation  by  the  slow  course  of  experience.  In 
the  opening  of  their  history  religious  tolera 
tion  had  been  unknown.  New  England  had 
persecuted  Episcopalians,  Quakers,  Dissent 
ers.  Stuyvesaut,  in  New  York,  had  sent 
Quakers  in  chains  to  Holland,  and  been  re 
proved  by  his  superiors  at  the  Hague.  Vir 
ginia  was  bitterly  intolerant,  and  by  the 
boasted  constitution  of  Maryland  in  1649 
the  Socinian  was  deemed  worthy  of  death, 
and  whoever  reproached  the  Virgin  Mary 
was  fined,  imprisoned,  or  banished.*  But 
these  harsh  laws  were  gradually  swept  away, 
and  in  1775  a  practical  toleration  prevailed 
in  all  the  colonies.  No  one  of  any  intelli 
gence  any  longer  desired  to  propagate  his 
faith  by  penal  laws.  An  equal  progress  had 
been  made  in  politics.  Virginia  was  willing 
to  abandon  its  entails  and  its  oligarchy ; 
Massachusetts  to  assert  a  democratic  equal 
ity  ;  New  York  to  break  down  its  colonial 
aristocracy  forever.  All  the  colonies  united 
in  throwing  aside  the  restrictions  of  Euro 
pean  prejudice,  and  by  a  remarkable  revo 
lution  provided  for  the  creation  of  a  re- 


1  Riedesel,  Mem.,  iii.  p.  125.  Lord  Auckland  was 
constantly  intoxicated.  Burgoyne  and  his  mistress 
spent  half  the  night  drinking  Champagne  while  his 
troops  were  starving.  Such  were  the  morals  England 
taught  to  the  colonies. 

3  Bozman,  Maryland.  Lord  Baltimore  probably 
hoped  to  make  Maryland  a  purely  Roman  Catholic 
colony,  but  in  1649  England  would  not  permit  it,  i. 
p.  361 ;  ii.  p.  662. 


36 


INTRODUCTION.— COLONIAL  PROGRESS. 


public,  in  which  the  people  should  he  the 
only  rulers. 

I  shall  conclude  this  imperfect  sketch  by 
a  brief  review  of  the  intellectual  condition 
of  America.  It  had  produced  no  Shakspeare 
nor  Milton,  it  possessed  no  poets  and  histo 
rians  ;  but  it  is  quite  probable  that  the  North 
ern  States  of  America  were  better  educated 
in  the  ideas  of  Milton  and  Shakspeare  than 
even  England  or  France.  Of  the  people  of 
New  England  the  larger  proportion  could 
read  and  write,  while  of  the  two  centres  of 
European  civilization  the  great  majority  of 
the  population  were  sunk  in  hopeless  igno 
rance.  From  the  dawn  of  its  history  New 
England  had  insisted  that  its  people  should 
all  be  educated ;  and  New  York  and  Penn 
sylvania  had  not  lingered  far  behind  it.1 
Connecticut  imposed  a  heavy  fine  upon  ev 
ery  father  of  a  family  who  had  neglected  to 
teach  his  household  the  elements  of  knowl 
edge,2  Massachusetts  had  enforced  a  similar 
provision,  and  even  South  Carolina  had  di 
rected  a  school  to  be  planted  in  every  town 
ship.  It  was  the  aim  of  the  New  World  to 
open  the  minds  of  all  its  people  to  the  light 
of  literature,  and  to  cultivate  the  whole  com 
munity.  It  sought  mental  as  well  as  polit 
ical  equality.  But  in  France  and  England 
the  royal  governments  found  no  leisure  and 
had  little  inclination  to  teach  their  people. 
It  was  only  in  Protestant  Holland  and  Ger 
many  that  men  were  yet  allowed  to  learn 
the  "  sweet  influences"  of  a  rule  of  letters. 

In  their  eager  and  resolute  desire  to  make 
knowledge  free  to  all,  our  ancestors  at  once 
planted  in  the  wilderness  the  printing-press. 
Three  years  had  not  passed  after  the  land 
ing  of  the  first  colony  in  Pennsylvania  when 
the  clank  of  the  machine  that  had  reformed 
Europe  and  discovered  America  resounded 
under  the  shade  of  the  primeval  forest.3  It 
was  with  knowledge  rather  than  arms  that 
the  followers  of  Penn  hoped  to  found  their 
state ;  and  nearly  fifty  years  earlier  Massa 
chusetts  had  erected  its  first  printing-press 
at  Cambridge,  and  had  consecrated  New  En- 

i  Ramsay,  1.  26.    Palfrey,  ii.  45. 

3  Ramsay,  i.  78.  In  Connecticut  the  parent  neglect 
ing  education  was  fined  twenty  shillings.  Baroness 
Riedesel  noticed  that  all  the  women  of  New  England 
could  read.  The  Virginians  of  the  back  country  she 
finds  ignorant  and  "  inert."  They  sometimes  exchange 
wives,  are  cruel  to  their  slaves ;  but  she  was  no  friendly 
judge.  3  Thomas,  Printing,  and  Bancroft. 


gland  to  literature  and  thought.  Our  an 
cestors  were  plainly  resolved  that  the  New 
World  should  be  a  land  of  printers.  Pam 
phlets,  sermons,  political  pieces,  resounded, 
through  the  wilderness,  and  at  an  early  pe 
riod  Cotton  Mather  alone  had  printed  in 
England  and  America  three  hundred  and 
eighty-two  of  his  own  productions.  In  the 
opening  of  the  eighteenth  century  (1704)  a 
weekly  paper,  The  News  Letto;  was  publish 
ed  at  Boston.1  It  was  then  the  only  news 
paper  printed  in  British  America.  It  was  a 
foolscap  half  sheet,  and  was  thought  suffi 
cient  to  contain  all  the  news  of  the  day.  In 
1725  William  Bradford  issued  at  New  York 
the  New  York  Gazette,  a  foolscap  sheet.  The 
two  Franklins,  James  and  Benjamin,  edited 
at  Boston  the  New  England  Courant ;  and 
suits  for  libel,  imprisonment,  and  fines  were 
the  reward  of  several  of  the  early  editors. 
James  Franklin  was  in  jail  for  four  weeks ; 
Zeuger,  of  the  New  York  Courant  (1733),  was 
also  soon  in  the  grasp  of  the  law.  But 
through  all  its  early  trials  the  printing- 
press  passed  successfully.  The  newspaper 
became  as  necessary  to  the  colonists  as  their 
daily  food.  In  1775  four  were  printed  in  New 
York,  and  as  many  each  in  Philadelphia  and 
Boston.  The  free  school  proved  the  best 
ally  of  the  printer,  and  popular  education 
laid  the  foundation  of  a  nation  of  readers. 
The  power  of  the  press  was  soon  manifested. 
Reform  and  revolution  followed  in  its  path. 
Yet  the  rude  machine  at  which  Franklin  and 
Bradford  labored  seemed  to  lag  behind  the 
wants  of  even  an  early  age  ;  to  print  a  few 
hundred  copies  of  a  small  sheet  required  in 
cessant  toil ;  and  Faust  himself  must  have 
looked  with  amazement  and  awe  upon  one 
of  those  giant  printing-presses  that  in  our 
day  consume  their  miles  of  paper,  pour  forth 
ten  thousand  huge  sheets  of  accurate  typog 
raphy  every  hour,  and  relate  the  story  of 
mankind.3 

Various  colleges  or  schools  for  the  high 
er  education  of  the  people  had  already  been 
planted  in  America.  Harvard  had  long  held 
a  high  renown  even  in  Europe,  and  had  been 


1  Mr.  Hudson,  in  his  interesting  account  of  Ameri 
can  journalism,  notices  a  previous  newspaper,  in  1690, 
which  had  the  unusual  fate  of  lasting  only  one  day, 
p.  44. 

2  The  invention  of  Hoe's  rotary  press  has  made  the 
cheap  newspaper  possible,  and  cultivated  the  minds 
of  millions. 


COLLEGIATE  INSTITUTIONS. 


37 


fostered  by  liberal  donations  from  English 
Dissenters.  In  its  earlier  history  it  had  been 
unlucky  in  its  principals :  one  had  proved 
to  be  a  Jesuit,  another  a  Baptist.1  To 
preside  over  Harvard  was  a  favorite  aim 
of  Cotton  Mather  that  was  never  gratified. 
Many  of  the  eminent  men  of  the  colony  had 
been  cultivated  in  its  careful  course  of  study. 
Samuel  and  John  Adams  were  its  graduates, 
and  it  had  long  been  the  school  of  Massa 
chusetts  and  of  Boston.  Classical  learning 
still  formed  the  foundation  of  all  mental 
training,  and  no  one  was  thought  capable 
of  professional  excellence  who  was  not  learn 
ed  in  the  languages  of  Greece  and  Rome. 
Yet  it  is  worthy  of  notice  that  Washington 
had  never  construed  a  line  of  Virgil,  and 
was  wholly  self-educated,  and  that  Franklin 
learned  his  pure  style  and  strong  passion 
for  letters  and  science  in  the  composing- 
room. 

Dartmouth  College  had  been  recently 
founded  to  teach  the  Indians,  which  it  fail 
ed  to  do.  Yale  was  more  flourishing.  Co 
lumbia  College,  in  New  York,  founded  in 
1756,  had  but  two  professors  and  twenty-five 
students  ;  but  among  them  were  to  be  num 
bered  John  Jay  and  Alexander  Hamilton, 
lu  New  Jersey  Princeton  College,  under  the 
presidency  of  Dr.  Witherspoon,  a  cultivated 
Scotchman,  flourished,  though  with  a  poor 
endowment  ;3  it  had  sixty  students  and  fine 
buildings.  In  Virginia  William  and  Mary's 
College  had  been  founded  with  an  ample 
liberality  by  the  two  sovereigns  whose 
names  it  bore ;  it  was  endowed  with  a  large 
income,  and  was  designed  to  make  Virginia 
a  scene  of  wide  intelligence.  But  the  region 
of  slavery  could  not  be  made  favorable  to 
mental  progress.  The  college  languished  ;3 
its  students  were  few ;  it  is  chiefly  memora 
ble  as  having  furnished  Jefferson  with  some 
facilities  for  study. 

In  all  the  American  colleges  it  is  doubtful 
if  three  hundred  students  were  educated  an 
nually.  More  scholars  are  now  gathered  at 
a  single  university  than  in  the  year  1775 
were  found  in  all  the  famous  seats  of  learn 
ing  of  the  country.  Yet  the  colleges,  how- 

1  Winthrop. 

2  Burnaby,  Pinkert.,  xiii.  733.     Princeton  College 
had  only  "two  professors  besides  the  provost." 

3  Ramsay,  i.  263,  notices  its  decay.    Burnaby,  Pin 
kert.,  xiii.  p.  714. 


ever  imperfect,  were  still  of  real  value  to  the 
people.  They  spread  an  acquaintance  with 
the  chief  masters  in  science  and  letters,  and 
helped  to  supply  the  press  with  literature, 
and  diffuse  knowledge.  Yet  of  the  earlier 
American  authors  who  attained  fame,  the 
chief  had  never  passed  through  a  regular 
course  of  study.  Irving  had  gathered  the 
charms  of  his  perfect  style  from  nature  and 
practice  in  the  newspapers.  Cooper,  Hal- 
leek,  Drake,  were  self-educated  and  refined. 
Pure  literature,  in  fact,  is  seldom  taught  in 
colleges,  which  have  usually  been  little  more 
than  professional  schools.  The  chief  aim 
of  education  must  always  be  to  excite  in 
quiry  and  awaken  the  slumbering  faculties. 
A  just  conception  of  its  purpose  our  ances 
tors  had  formed.  They  saw  that  there  should 
be  no  limit  to  the  spread  of  knowledge,  and 
hoped  that  a  system  of  instruction  would 
grow  up  among  the  people  that  would 
prove  a  lasting  bond  of  union.  Their  extrav 
agant  vision  has  been  in  part  fulfilled.  The 
common-school  system  has  flowed  from  the 
germs  which  the  Puritans,  Huguenots,  and 
Dutch  planted  in  the  wilderness,  and  the 
college  is  gradually  assuming  a  more  popu 
lar  character.1  In  the  period  of  the  Revo 
lution,  with  one  or  perhaps  two  exceptions, 
the  colleges  were  firmly  on  the  side  of  prog 
ress.  Harvard  gave  its  brightest  geniuses 
to  the  cause  of  freedom,  its  transatlantic 
Hampden  to  fall  at  Bunker  Hill,  its  Adams 
to  found  a  nation.  Yale  was  rigidly  patri 
otic.  Princeton  College,  under  Witherspoon, 
formed  a  bulwark  of  independence.  Yet 
the  influence  of  the  colleges  was  only  a  faint 
impulse  compared  to  that  of  the  general  in 
telligence  of  our  educated  people,  and  that 
strong  passion  for  liberty  which  had  grown 
up  from  the  simpler  school-house  and  the 
modest  library. 

Books,  which  had  discovered  America  and 
first  disturbed  the  wilderness,  were  not  want 
ing  to  our  ancestors.  The  booksellers  sold 
freely  the  new  works  of  Johnson,  Burke,  or 
the  famous  Dr.  Goldsmith,  and  one  Boston 
house  numbered  ten  thousand  volumes  on 


1  In  cities,  it  is  said,  colleges  seldom  flourish,  yet 
the  eagerness  with  which  students  avail  themselves 
of  the  advantages  of  the  Boston  Latin  School  or  the 
New  York  Free  College,  a  school  of  mines  or  a  pop 
ular  law  school,  shows  that  utility  must  be  one  trait 
of  the  collepe  course. 


38 


INTRODUCTION.— COLONIAL  PROGRESS. 


its  shelves.  Several  public  and  private 
libraries  already  existed.  Kalin  mentions 
the  collection  of  excellent  works,  chiefly  En 
glish,  in  the  public  library  founded  by  Frank 
lin  in  1742  at  Philadelphia.  The  wealthier 
people  of  the  town  paid  forty  shillings  cur 
rency  in  the  beginning,  besides  ten  shillings 
annually.  Several  smaller  libraries  were 
also  founded  near  it.  Boston  showed  a 
"  more  general  turn  for  music,  painting,  and 
the  fine  arts"  than  either  of  the  more  south 
ern  towns.1  But  literature  still  hesitated 
to  flourish  in  the  New  World.  Mather, 
Edwards,  sermons,  pamphlets,  newspapers, 
were  the  chief  sources  of  the  mental  prog 
ress  of  our  ancestors.  It  was  idle  to  look 
for  a  Homer  or  Shakspeare  in  so  wild  a 
laud  ;2  nor  is  it  likely  that  a  fourth  epic  will 
be  sung  for  many  a  cycle.  But  reading  was 
a  characteristic  trait  of  the  whole  people, 
and  curiosity  and  inquiry  the  chief  impulses 
of  their  civilization.  In  military  affairs  the 
colonists  had  shown  courage  and  capacity. 
New  England  troops  had  grown  famous  at 
the  conquest  of  Louisbourg,  the  siege  of  Ha 
vana,  and  the  fall  of  Quebec.  While  the  En 
glish  ministry  were  denouncing  them  as  a 
feeble,  abject  race,  more  intelligent  observ 
ers  in  England  knew  that  the  colonists  were 
only  cowards  in  cruel  and  inhuman  deeds. 
Virginia's  troops  had  fought  bravely  in  the 
wilderness,  and  Washington  was  the  most 
renowned  of  the  colonial  commanders.  In 
military  stores,  guns,  powder,  arms,  the 
country  was  deficient ;  nor  did  its  people 
suppose  that  they  would  ever  be  drawn 
into  another  great  war. 

Around  the  thin  line  of  settlements  occu 
pied  by  our  ancestors  a  circle  of  various  and 
almost  hostile  races  hemmed  in  their  prog- 


1  Burnaby,  Pinkert.,  xiii.  747. 

2  Ramsay,  i.  275.    Its<  earliest  poems  were  in  Latin. 


ress.  Between  the  austere  and  Puritanic 
New  Englander  and  the  loose,  profligate,1 
yet  often  courageous  clergy  and  people  of 
Quebec  there  could  be  no  friendship.  Can 
ada  refused  to  join  in  the  cause  of  independ 
ence.  Its  French  population  turned  with 
aversion  from  an  alliance  with  heretics  and 
Saxons.  To  the  westward  the  Canadian  and 
clerical  influence  governed  all  the  Indian 
tribes.  The  Mississippi  was  held  by  the 
Spaniards  and  by  a  few  English  planters 
who  steadfastly  refused  to  join  the  colo 
nists.*  New  Orleans,  recently  transferred 
to  Spain,  was  at  first  unwilling  to  sell  arms 
and  powder  to  the  boats  that  had  sailed 
down  the  great  river  from  Pittsburg.  The 
English  in  West  Florida  were  hostile  to  the 
colonies  ;  Spanish  Florida  was  still  unde 
cided.  It  was  with  no  confidence  in  any 
exterior  aid  that  the  colonists  looked  out 
upon  their  beleaguered  territory  in  the  hot 
days  of  July,  1776.  On  every  side  around 
them  they  saw  the  impending  horrors  of  a 
war  of  extirpation.  Canada  teemed  with 
military  preparations ;  the  savages  were 
aroused  through  all  the  wilderness ;  the  cit 
ies  on  the  coast  were  threatened  with  sud 
den  ruin ;  Howe  was  already  landing  on 
Staten  Island;  disunion  tore  the  ranks  of 
the  reformers.  Yet  on  the  2d  of  July,  1776, 
a  bell  rang  cheerfully  over  Philadelphia  that 
spoke  the  liberation  of  America.  Samuel 
Adams  had  won  his  cause.3  The  2d  of  July 
seemed  to  John  Adams  the  grandest  day  of 
all  the  ages. 

1  Riedesel,  Mem.,  iii.  p.  87.    Macgregor,  Progress  of 
Commerce,  i.  141,  notices  the  immorality  of  the  Cana 
dians.    One  minister  of  state  stole  £400,000. 

2  Gayarre,  Louisiana,  Spanish  Dominion,  p.  109.    Fi 
nally  the  Spaniards  attack  the  English. 

3  Samuel  Adams,  to  his  disciple  and  kinsman  John, 
was  the  "  wedge  of  steel"  that  split  the  bond  between 
England  and  America.    J.  Adams  to  William  Tudor, 
June  5,  1817.    So  Jefferson  looked  to  Samuel  Adams 
as  his  guide  and  teacher. 


II. 

MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


UNITED   STATES   PAXERT-OFFIOK,  WASHINGTON,  D.  O. 


IT  is  no  common  century.  Compared 
with  its  predecessors,  it  appears  rather 
as  a  contrast  than  a  development.  It  is  not 
easy  to  state  its  relation  to  the  past  in  terms 
of  progression,  since  it  may  be  said  to  have 
leaped  into  existence,  and  an  adequate  state 
ment  describes  radical  changes  rather  than 
evolution. 

The  search  for  the  "  lost  arts"  is  an  agree 
able  literary  and  scientific  ramble,  with 
nooks  containing  treasures  which  well  re 
ward  the  explorer ;  but  one's  eyes  must  be 
sadly  out  of  focus  if  the  distant,  laborious 
ingenuities  of  remote  ages  are  more  distinct 
in  the  field  of  vision  than  the  majestic  works 
of  the  present.  A  locomotive  is  a  more  preg 
nant  fact  than  a  pyramid  or  a  sculptured 
cavern.  The  subject  is  one  to  which  it  is 
not  possible  to  do  full  justice,  even  in  a  vol 
ume,  either  by  a  general  sketch  or  by  par 
ticular  instances.  We  purpose  to  take  a 
rapid  preliminary  survey  of  the  field  of  me 
chanical  activity,  and  then  to  devote  the 
principal  portion  of  our  space  to  details  re 
specting  a  few  prominent  subjects,  thereby 
enabling  the  reader  to  form  a  judgment  from 
the  sum  of  the  parts,  instead  of  a  superficial 
estimate  from  a  cursory  glance  at  the  mul 
titudinous  whole. 

The  inquiry,  whether  it  proceed  by  a  gen 
eral  survey  or  by  investigation  of  detached 
portions,  will  reveal  the  following  facts : 

1.  No  nation  has  had  exclusive  concern  in 
the  production  of  any  one  class  of  inven 


tions,  and  yet  we  need  not  go  beyond  the 
area  of  the  English -speaking  nations  to 
make  a  thorough  exhibit  of  the  mechanical 
progress  of  the  period  under  review. 

2.  Nations  allied  by  ties  of  blood  and  simi 
larities  of  tone,  temper,  taste,  and  opportu 
nity  develop  in  parallel  lines  which  continu 
ally  inosculate.     This  is  well  illustrated  in 
the  tools  and  methods  of  the  machine-shop. 
England  and  America  are  rich  in  coal  and 
iron,  have  the  same  incentives  to  industry, 
and  the  machines  of  each  are  largely  the 
growth  of  successive  improvements  from  the 
respective  nations,  in  each  of  which  a  host 
of  inventors  are  laboring  at  the  solution  of 
the  same  problems.1 

3.  Peculiar  conditions  of  peoples,  even  of 
the  same  race,  elicit  distinct  varieties  of 
tools  and  methods.     This  diversity  is  exem 
plified  in  the  appliances  used  in  America  for 
subduing  the   wilderness   and   cultivating 
lately  cleared  land,  as  compared  with  the 
husbandry  implements  of  Britain. 

Our  people  in  the  colonial  period  were 
generally  engaged  in  husbandry,  lumbering, 
trading,  hunting,  and  fishing.  The  exports 
were  grain,  meat,  naA'al  stores,  tobacco,  and 
pelts.  But  few  mechanic  arts  were  carried  on 
systematically,  except  ship-building.  Car- 

i  It  is  our  purpose  in  this  series  to  treat  of  A  meriean 
progress  in  the  various  fields  of  activity.  But  in  this 
field  of  Mechanical  Progress,  as  in  some  others,  it  Is 
plainly  impossible  to  exclude  what  has  been  accom 
plished  by  other  nations.— ED. 


40 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


pentry,  blacksmithing,  and  tanning  were 
regular  trades.  In  the  cities  other  indus 
tries  engaged  attention,  but  in  the  country 
the  clothes,  hats,  and  shoes  of  the  people 
and  the  harness  of  the  horses  were  made  by 
the  people  at  their  houses  in  the  winter  or 
in  seasons  of  inclement  weather. 

There  were  some  other  industries  in  a  few 
favored  localities — some  paper  mills  in  Mas 
sachusetts  and  Pennsylvania,  some  cloth 
mills  at  Boston  and  Germantown,  Pennsyl 
vania.  Beaver  hats  were  made  in  a  few 
places ;  linen,  at  a  settlement  near  Boston ; 
glass  was  manufactured  in  Massachusetts 
and  New  Hampshire ;  the  hand  card,  the 
spinning-wheel,  and  the  loom  constituted 
almost  always  a  part  of  the  furnishing  of 
country  houses. 

The  roads  were  bad,  the  equipages  clum 
sy,  as  they  were,  indeed,  in  England  at  that 
time.  Twenty -four  gentlemen's  carriages 
were  owned  in  Philadelphia  in  1761.  Coun 
try  squires  and  patricians  rode  in  their 
coaches  and  four,  or  even  six,  when  the  jour 
ney  was  long  or  the  season  unpropitious. 
Postilions  and  outriders  were  the  acme  of 
style.  Judge  Reed,  of  Pennsylvania,  import 
ed  a  skillful  "whip"  for  his  four-in-hand. 
The  country  wagons  and  the  agricultural  im 
plements  were  rude  and  ineffective.  Carts, 
plows,  and  hoes  were  made  by  the  country 
mechanic  of  such  material  as  he  could  pro 
cure,  little  metal  being  used  in  either. 
Strips  of  iron  made  by  hammering  out  old 
horseshoes  were  the  facings  of  the  wooden 
mould-boards  of  plows.  The  laws  of  England 
had  rigorously  maintained  the  dependence 
of  the  provinces,  forbidding  all  important 
works  in  iron,  and  the  war  found  the  people 
unprepared  to  supply  their  sudden  needs. 
The  war  was  to  a  large  degree  fought  by 
men  in  homespun  and  hunting  shirts,  armed 
with  the  frontiers-man's  trusty  rifle. 

When  peace  rendered  possible  commercial 
and  mechanical  enterprise,  a  new  era  dawn 
ed.  Many  things  which  the  colonists  had 
cheerfully  imported  from  the  mother  coun 
try  began  to  be  made  at  home,  and  many 
industries  which  had  been  repressed  by  law 
to  keep  the  colonies  subordinate  and  de 
pendent  began  to  be  developed.  In  1787 
the  first  cotton  mill  in  America  was  built  at 
Beverly,  Massachusetts.  In  1789  Samuel 
Slater  introduced  the  Arkwright  system  of 


mill  spinning.  The  exportation  of  machin 
ery  from  England  was  successfully  prevent 
ed,  and  Slater  was  obliged  to  make  the  card 
ing,  drawing,  roving,  and  spinning  mechan 
ism  from  memory.  In  1783  Oliver  Evans 
had  introduced  his  improvements  in  grain 
mills,  and  a  few  years  afterward  his  steam- 
engine — the  first  double-acting  high-press 
ure  steam-engine  on  record.  In  1785  Rum- 
sey,  and  in  1788  Fitch,  had  their  boats  on 
the  Potomac  and  Delaware  respectively.  In 
1787  Jacob  Perkins  had  his  nail-cutting  ma 
chines  and  dies  for  coin.  In  1794  Whitney's 
cotton-gin,  and  in  1797  Whittemore's  card- 
sticking  machine,  came  to  the  help  of  the 
cotton  interest.  Other  inventions  followed 
in  rapid  succession. 

The  progress  above  noted  occurred  within 
fifteen  years  after  the  treaty  of  peace.  It 
is  doubtful  whether  on  the  4th  of  July,  1776, 
there  were  more  than  two  steam-engines  in 
the  thirteen  colonies,  one  at  Passaic,  New 
Jersey,  the  other  in  Philadelphia.  The  New- 
comen  engine  was  as  yet  only  partially  sup 
planted  by  the  Watt,  and  offered  but  mod 
erate  inducements  for  any  purpose  except 
pumping  water  from  copper  and  lead  mines, 
whose  rich  ores  paid  for  the  wasteful  use  of 
wood  or  coal. 

The  great  advance  in  machinery,  and  es 
pecially  our  own  active  part  in  it,  is  very  re 
cent.  Persons  yet  alive  remember  the  first 
crossing  of  the  Atlantic  by  a  steamboat,  the 
Savannah.  Those  yet  in  the  prime  of  life 
recollect  the  opening  of  the  first  railway 
to  passenger  traffic.  Horatio  Allen  drove 
the  first  locomotive  which  was  imported. 
Thus  the  century  under  consideration,  from 
a  mechanical  point  of  view,  is  most  readily 
segregated  from  its  predecessors.  It  is  not 
saying  too  much  to  assert  that  at  its  com 
mencement  the  coal  of  England  was  scarce 
ly  valued  except  for  household  uses.  As  to 
the  coal  of  America,  its  extent  and  its  util 
ity  were  not  even  suspected.  Machinery  as 
yet  was  not.  The  steam-engine  of  New- 
comen  was  pumping  in  some  few  mines  in 
England.  This  engine  condensed  its  steam 
in  the  cylinder  beneath  the  piston,  cooling 
the  cylinder  at  each  stroke,  and  using  the 
condensation  of  the  steam  as  a  means  of 
producing  a  partial  vacuum,  in  order  to  ob 
tain  the  value  of  the  atmospheric  pressure 
above  the  piston.  The  duty  or  valuable  ef- 


STEAM-ENGINES  OF  NEWCOMEN  AND  WATT. 


11 


NEWOOMEN'S  STEAM-ENGINE. 

feet  of  the  Newcomen  engine  in  1769  was 
5,500,000  pounds  of  water  raised  one  foot 
high  by  one  bushel  of  Welsh  coal.  Watt's 
inventions  •  were  made  between  the  years 
1769  and  1784,  and  before  the  year  1800  the 
duty  of  the  Cornish  engine  was  quadrupled ; 
by  1840  it  was  again  quadrupled.  Watt  add 
ed  to  the  steam-engine  the  separate  condenser 
and  the  air-pump.  By  the  former  he  avoided 
the  cooling  of  the  cylinder  before  each  ef 
fective  stroke  of  the  piston  ;  by  the  latter 
he  made  the  vacuum  more  perfect.  He  sub 
sequently  made  the  additions  of  ihv  parallel 
motion,  of  the  steam-jacket  to  the 
cylinder,  and  of  the  cylinder  cover, 
and  made  the  steam  act  positively 
against  the  piston,  instead  of  mere 
ly  using  it  to  produce  a  vacuum. 
Afterward  he  made  the  engine  dou 
ble  acting,  that  is,  used  pressure  of 
steam  on  the  sides  of  the  piston 
alternately  ;  then  he  increased  the 
strength  of  the  parts,  the  rapidity 
of  the  stroke,  and  the  pressure  of 
the  steam.  Coal,  the  black  slave, 
had  been  chained  below  from  time 
immemorial,  and  Watt  contrived  a 
way  of  setting  him  to  work.  Up  to 
this  period  there  had  been  scarcely 
any  progress ;  after  it  hosts  of  in 
ventions  crowd  upon  the  scene  and 
clamor  for  notice.  The  Watt  pe 
riod  inaugurates  the  century  whose 
progress  in  the  mechanic  arts  is 
under  consideration. 

The  utilization  of  coal  in  the 
production  of  steam  for  driving 
machinery  is  the  turning-point  in 
the  history  of  mechanical  develop 
ment,  and  made  possible  improve 
ments  in  various  other  directions. 


If  there  had  been  no  Watt,  Smeaton,  Ark- 
wright,  Hargreaves,  Cartwright,  Cort,  Mur 
doch,  WThitney,  Trevethick,  and  Stephen- 
son,  the  victory  of  Colonel  Clive  at  Plassey 
might  not  have  proved  the  precursor  of  the 
occupation  of  the  whole  of  Hindostan.  But 
for  the  machinery  which  by  gradual  accre 
tions  gave  to  England  an  increased  power 
of  production  more  than  equivalent  to  the 
addition  of  a  population  equal  to  that  of 
China  to  her  industrial  forces,  the  farther 
works  of  Clive,  the  victories  of  Hastings, 
Cornwallis,  Wellesley,  Napier,  Hardinge,  and 
Gough,  would  not  have  occurred,  and  in 
their  places  would  have  been  mere  raids  or 
desultory  expeditions,  half  commercial  and 
half  military,  after  the  first  burst  of  con 
quest  and  spoliation. 

This  accession  of  labor  was  in  a  shape 
more  tense  and  patient  than  even  the  en 
during  Chinaman,  for  its  muscles  were  of 
iron,  its  food  could  be  dug  from  the  earth, 
and  when  at  last  worn  out,  it  could  be 
worked  over  again,  and  had  not  to  be  boxed, 
labeled,  and  sent  back  to  be  deposited  near 
the  tablets  of  its  ancestors. 


WATT'S  DOUBLE-ACTING  STEAM-ENGINE,  1769. 


MECHANICAL  PEOGRESS. 


The  capacity  of  the  steam-engines  of  En 
gland  may  be  otherwise  stated.  It  is  esti 
mated  that  the  great  Pyramid  of  Ghizeh  oc 
cupied  the  labor  of  100,000  men  for  twenty 
years  in  the  erection  alone.  The  steam- 
engines  of  England,  worked  by  36,000  men, 
would  raise  the  same  quantity  of  material 
to  the  same  height  in  eighteen  hours.  Thus 
reckoning  ten  hours  to  the  day,  and  three 
hundred  working  days  to  the  year,  three 
thousand  pyramids  might  be  erected  by  the 
steam-power  of  England  in  the  period  occu 
pied  by  the  builders  of  that  of  Ghizeh. 

The  multiplication,  in  the  course  of  years; 
by  fiftyfold  of  the  working  power  of  En 
gland  caused  such  an  enormous  increase  of 
material  that  privy  councils,  armies,  and 
fleets  vied  with  each  other  in  explorations 
by  sea  and  land.  The  Northwest  Passage, 
which  has  a  literature  and  a  history  of  its 
own — a  history  exultant  and  yet  sad — only 
meant  a  short  road  to  India  around  one  end 
of  that  terribly  long  continent  which  barred 
Europe  from  sailing  westward  to  Asia. 

There  is  no  more  truthful  accessible  test 
of  the  comparative  ingenuity  of  periods  in  a 
given  country  than  the  number  of  patents 
granted  therein.  Our  national  patent  sys 
tem  has  been  in  operation  only  since  1790, 
but  that  of  England  is  much  older.  The 
following  table  gives  the  numbers  of  patents 
granted  in  decades  for  the  two  centuries. 

Previous  to  1790  patents  were  granted  by 
individual  States,  as  to  Fulton,  Fitch,  Rum- 
sey,  Evans,  and  others. 


Decade 
ending 

England. 

Decade 
ending 

England. 

United  States. 

1680 

49 

1780 

297 

1690 

DO 

1790 

512 

1700 

101 

1800 

675 

306 

1710 

20 

1810 

936 

1.086 

1720 

45 

1820 

1,125 

1.748 

1730 

94 

1830 

1,533 

2,986 

1740 

48 

1840 

2,710 

5,488 

1750 

85 

1850 

4,666 

S.942 

1760 

99 

1860 

25,201 

23,140 

1770 

221 

1870 

35,079 

79,612 

The  factory  system  is  the  growth  of  the 
century  now  closing.  When  Richard  Ark- 
wright  was  traveling  over  the  hills  of  Lan 
cashire,  buying  the  tresses  of  the  country 
lasses  to  make  wigs,  and  Hargreaves  was 
working  at  the  rudimentary  carding -ma 
chine,  the  artisans  of  the  country  worked 
each  in  his  little  shop.  The  wool-stapler 
dealt  out  his  lots  of  wool  to  the  carders  and 
spinners,  who  took  it  home  and  returned  the 
agreed-upon  quality  and  weight  of  yarn  ;  to 


another  set  of  workmen  the  yarn  was  ap 
portioned  for  weaving;  other  tradesmen 
finished  the  work.  The  same  practice  pre 
vailed  with  the  hardware  makers  and  iron 
mongers  ;  the  nailers  of  Wolverhampton,  the 
artificers  of  Birmingham,  the  cutlers  of 
Sheffield,  the  carpet-weavers  of  Axminster — 
each  received  at  his  house  a  quota  of  mate 
rial  such  as  he  or  his  family  could  make  up 
in  a  few  days,  and  returned  the  finished  work 
to  his  employer.  It  is  easy  to  imagine  how 
this  may  have  been  managed,  for  it  is  only 
within  a  comparatively  few  years  that  the 
business  of  boot  and  shoe  making  has  been 
aggregated  into  factories  and  performed  by 
machinery. 

In  the  factory  the  labor-saving  machines 
which  have  superseded  the  laborious  hand 
operations  are  employed  in  great  numbers 
with  comparatively  few  attendants.  The 
steam-engine,  fed  by  coal  and  water,  or  the 
water-wheel,  provides  the  power  required, 
and  the  duty  of  the  attendant  is  to  supply 
the  constantly  recurring  need  for  fresh  ma 
terials,  to  mend  breaks,  or  repair  faults.  In 
stead  of  being  a  mere  fashioner  of  a  piece  at 
a  time,  the  workman  becomes  a  supervisor 
of  nearly  automatic  machinery,  whose  appe 
tite  for  material  he  is  required  to  anticipate 
and  satisfy,  and  whose  occasional  eccentrici 
ties  it  is  his  duty  to  correct. 

The  development  of  the  cotton  manufac 
ture  furnishes  the  best  and  perhaps  earliest 
example  of  the  factory  system.  Arkwright 
appears  to  have  worked  at  his  cotton  ma 
chinery  for  several  years,  and  in  company 
with  several  partners,  who  successively  fur 
nished  means  and  then  tired  of  the  project, 
before  he  erected  the  mill  at  Nottingham, 
which  was  worked  by  horse-power.  This 
mill  was  erected  in  1770 ;  another  one  was 
established  in  1771,  in  which  the  machinery 
was  driven  by  a  water-wheel.  So  new  was 
the  idea  of  employing  other  than  hand  or 
foot  labor  that  his  spinning-machine  was 
long  known  as  the  "  water-frame,"  and  the 
product  as  the  "water-twist."  His  other 
improvements  were  patented  in  1775,  and 
thus  the  century  starts  with  Mr.  Arkwright 
fresh  upon  the  track,  leading  in  a  race  the 
success  of  which  has  changed  the  aspect  of 
our  commercial  and  social  systems. 

Arkwright,  in  spite  of  fraudulent  tres 
passers  and  expensive  lawsuits,  lived  to  see 


THE  HOE  AND  THE  PLOW. 


43 


the  perfect  triumph  of  his  ingenuity  and 
sedulous  care.  His  suits  developed  the  con 
ditions  and  situations  which  taxed  the  wis 
dom  of  the  judges,  and  elicited  the  decisions 
and  maxims  that  have  given  shape  to  the 
patent  system  of  England  and  the  United 
States.  Arkwright  v.  Nightingale,  the  King 
v.  Arkwright,  are  cases  that  form  the  "  hard 
pan"  of  the  Patent  Law. 

We  shall  see  how  well  the  facts  of  the 
various  branches  of  invention  arrange  them 
selves  within  the  period  we  are  considering 
— how  the  rank  and  file  of  inventions  array 
themselves  in  battalions,  brigades^-  divis 
ions,  on  one  side  of  the  line  chronological. 
Turn  we  to  steam  in  its  original  form  as  a 
pumping  engine,  or  to  its  subsequent  duties 
as  a  transporting  agent  on  water  or  on  the 
land,  or  as  a  driver  of  machinery ;  or  look 
we  abroad  to  other  lines  of  enterprise  and 
industry — the  manufacture  of  cotton  and 
wool,  the  production  and  manufacture  of 
iron,  wood-working  machinery,  hydraulic 
engineering,  the  manufacture  and  applica 
tions  of  gas,  electricity  in  its  various  forms 
and  applications,  the  construction  of  instru 
ments  of  measurement  and  precision,  do 
mestic  machinery — we  find  that  each  group 
forms  in  regimental  order  within  the  bounds 
we  have  indicated. 

This,  though  unexampled,  was  not  fortu 
itous  ;  the  time  was  ripe.  Yet  there  was 
but  slight  indication  beforehand  of  the  new 
departure.  It  was  as  if  by  a  mysterious  im 
pulse  all  started  at  once,  the  utilization  of 
the  buried  stores  of  coal  by  means  of  the 
Watt  engine  being  the  great  fact  of  the 
new  dispensation. 

The  field  is  too  great  to  give  even  a  brief 
account  of  each  division,  and  a  few  must 
be     selected    as 
examples      from 
which  the  gener 
al  progress  may 
be  deduced. 

AGRICULTURAL 
IMPLEMENTS. 

There  is  no 
apology  needed 
for  beginning 
our  review  with 
farming  imple 
ments.  Howev 


er  disinclined  a  citizen  may  be  to  blister  his 
hands  by  chopping  fire-wood  or  mauling 
rails,  he  freely  admits  the  respectability  of 
the  employment  and  its  ancient  fame.  Ad 
mitting,  then,  the  precedence  of  the  hus 
bandman,  we  will  first  look  at  the  principal 
agricultural  tool — the  plow. 

This  tool  has  never  outgrown  its  resem 
blance  to  the  forked  limb  which  was  first 
used  as  a  hoe  and  then  as  a  plow.  With 
such  tools  as  they  could  muster,  men  shaped 
the  tough  limbs  and  crotches  of  trees 
into  implements.  The  forked  piece  (A)  was 
trimmed  and  became  the  hoe  (B),  a  thong 
binding  the  handle  and  blade  portions  to 
prevent  their  splitting  apart.  We  give  pic 
tures  (C)  of  two  ancient  Egyptian  hoes  now 
in  the  Berlin  Museum.  A  similar  one  may 
be  seen  in  the  Abbott  Museum,  New  York. 
Two  suitable  sticks  (D)  were  notched  and 
lashed  together.  Two  other  resources  of  a 
people  destitute  of  metal  are  shown  (E,  F), 
one,  of  the  South  Sea  Islanders,  the  blade 
made  of  a  scapula,  the  other  made  of  a  wal 
rus  tooth  on  a  handle.  It  is  shown  (G,  H,  I) 
how  men  made  plows  from  similar  mate 
rials  ;  one  limb  formed  the  share,  the  other 
the  beam ;  or  (as  in  I)  one  the  beam  and 
the  other  the  handle  and  sole,  with  a  point 
which  forms  the  share. 

The  actual  change  in  the  plow  for  more 
than  thirty  centuries  has  been  but  local. 
The  greater  part  of  the  world  uses  a  plow 
much  like  those  pictured  on  the  palaces  of 
Thebes.  Those  used  in  our  colonial  period 
were  a  very  slight  departure  from  that  pat 
tern.  The  plow  was  of  wood ;  it  was  formed 
of  pieces  whose  shape  adapted  them  to  be 
come  parts  of  the  structure.  The  beam, 
standard,  and  handles — if  the  plow  had  two, 


TUB  OKIOIN  OF  TIIE  HOE  AND  T11E  PLOW. 


44 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


E 


ETTDE   MODERN  PLOWS. 


A,  an  East  Indian  plow.  B,  a  modern  Egyptian  plow. 
C,  a  Mexican  plow.  D,  a  Chinese  plow.  E,  an  ancient 
British  implement,  which  yet  survives  in  the  western 
wilds  of  Scotland.  The  latter  is  pointed  with  iron, 
and  may  have  been  the  origin  of  the  bull-tongue  plow, 
more  familiar  to  men  of  76  than  to  the  farmer  of  the 
present  day. 

which  was  not  always  the  case — were  of 
seasoned  stuff;  the  mould-board  was  a  block 
of  wood  which  had  a  winding  grain  approx 
imating  the  curve  required. 

The  accompanying  figures  show  a  num 
ber  of  plows  yet  used  in  some  foreign  coun 
tries.  These  differ  in  no  essential  respect 
from  plows  shown  on  the  tombs  of  Egypt,  the 
vases  of  Etruria,  the  bass-reliefs  of  Greece, 
and  the  medals  of 
Rome.  The  plows  of 
the  south  of  France, 
of  Spain,  of  Calabria, 
Greece,  Turkey,  and 
Syria  are  very  simi 
lar. 

The   plow   of  the 
past  is  now  utterly 


abandoned  by  us,  and  we  have  a  new  tool  of 
a  different  material,  still,  however,  preserv 
ing  the  peculiar  family  feature ;  it  will  never 
get  over  the  resemblance  to  that  primordial 
limb. 

The  plow  of  1776  was  all  of  wood  except 
the  wrought  iron  share  and  some  bolts  and 
nuts  whereby  the  parts  were  fastened  to 
gether.  The  standard  rose  nearly  vertical 
ly,  having  attached  to  it  the  beam  and  the 
sole-piece.  On  the  nose  of  the  beam  hung 
the  clevis ;  the  mould-board  and  share  were 
attached  to  a  frame  braced  between  the 
beam  and  the  sole.  The  wooden  mould- 
board  was  sometimes  plated  with  sheet- 
iron  or  by  strips  made  by  hammering  out 
old  horseshoes.  A  clump  of  iron  shaped 
like  a  half  spear  formed  the  point.  It  was 
known  as  a  "  bull  plow,"  "  bull-tongue,"  or 
"  bar-share"  plow.  Two  pins  in  the  stand 
ard  formed  the  handles,  and  it  required  the 
strength  of  a  man  to  manage  it.  The  work 
was  slowly  and  ill  performed  by  cattle. 

The  shovel  plow,  which  until  lately  was 
the  principal  plow  of  the  South,  and  is  yet 
largely  used  in  furrowing  out  ground  for 
hoed  crops,  such  as  corn,  cane,  and  potatoes, 
and  in  tending  the  same,  is  clearly  a  deriva 
tive  from  the  old  crotched  stick. 

The  order  of  improvement  is  about  as  fol 
lows  :  Some  time  in  the  last  century  a  cer 
tain  plow  was  imported  into  England,  prob 
ably  from  Flanders,  which  had  been  long 
far  in  advance  of  England  in  gardening  and 
horticulture.  Queen  Elizabeth  used  to  get 
salads  from  Flanders  as  a  change  from  the 
interminable  beef  and  beer.  This  imple 
ment  was  known  as  the  BotherJiam  plow; 
but  whether  the  name  was  a  corruption  of 
Rotterdam  no  one  knows.  It  was  a  very 
tidy  implement  in  shape,  but  was  all  of 
wood,  with  the  exception  of  a  sheet -iron 
covering  to  the  working  parts.  This  re 
quired  frequent  renewal.  James  Small, 
of  Berwickshire,  Scotland,  introduced  the 


AMERICAN    PLOW   OF   1776. 


MODERN  PLOWS. 


45 


plow  (a)  with  a  cast  iron  mould-board  and  a 
wrought  iron  share.  His  was  the  first  cast 
iron  plow.  He  made  the  shares  also  of  cast 
iron  in  1785. 

Thomas  Jefferson  from  1788  to  1793  stud 
ied  and  experimented  to  determine  the  prop 
er  shape  of  the  mould-board  to  do  the  work 
effectively  and  offer  the  least  resistance, 
treating  it  as  consisting  of  a  lifting  wedge 
and  an  upsetting  wedge,  with  an  easy  con 
necting  curve. 

Newbold,  of  Burlington,  New  Jersey,  in 
1797  patented  a  plow  with  a  mould-board, 
share,  and  land-side  all  cast  together. 

Peacock  in  his  patent  of  1807  cast  his 
plow  in  three  pieces,  the  point  of  the  colter 
entering  a  notch  in  the  breast  of  the  share. 
Ransonie,  of  Ipswich,  England,  in  1803 
chilled  the  cast  shares  on  the  under  side,  so 
that  they  might  keep  sharp  by  wear. 

Jethro  Wood,  of  Scipio,  Cayuga  County, 
New  York,  patented  improvements  in  1819. 
He  made  the  best  and  most  popular  plow  (6) 
of  its  day,  and  was  entitled  to  much  credit 
for  skill  and  enterprise,  but  lost  his  fortune 
in  developing  his  invention  and  defending 
his  rights.  He,  however,  overestimated  the 
extent  of  novelty  in  his  invention.  He 
seems  to  have  thought  it  the  first  iron  plow. 
Its  peculiar  merit  consisted  in  the  mode  of 
securing  the  cast  iron  portions  together  by 
lugs  and  locking  pieces,  doing  away  with 
screw-bolts  and  much  weight,  complexity, 
and  expense.  Wood  did  more  than  any  oth 
er  person  to  drive  out  of  use  the  cumbrous 
contrivances  common  throughout  the  coun 
try,  giving  a  lighter,  cheaper,  and  more  ef 
fective  implement.  It  was  the  first  plow  in 
which  the  parts  most  exposed  to  wear  could 


HOWARD   WHEEL-PLOW. 


PLOWS:  1T85-1874. 
a,  Small's,    b,  Wood's,    c,  Gibbs's. 

be  renewed  in  the  field  by  the  substitution 
of  cast  pieces. 

In  1820  Timothy  Pickering,  of  Salem, 
Massachusetts,  first  recognized  the  impor 
tance  of  straight  transverse  lines  on  the 
mould-board.  The  shape  was  such  that  it 
might  be  cut  from  a  conical  frustum. 

In  1854  the  Gibbs  plow  (c)  had  its  straight 
transverse  lines  horizontal,  the  surface  from 
which  it  might  be  cut  being  a  cylinder  with 
its  axis  horizontal. 

The  Howard  plow  shows  the  favorite  style 
of  plow  in  England.  The  long  stilts  give 
great  power  to  the  plowman.  The  wheels 
determine  the  depth  accurately,  except  in 
short  and  sudden  rises  and  hollows. 

It  is  impossible  here  to  describe  the  mi 
nor  improvements  of  this  implement,  great 
as  is  the  sum  of  their  importance — the  roll 
ing  colter,  the  wheel  which  takes  the  place 
of  the  sliding  sole,  adaptations  for  setting 
the  plow  for  depth  and 
for  land,  to  prevent 
clogging,  etc. 

Aaron  Smith,  of  En 
gland,  first  made  that 
form  of  double  plow 
which  has  a  small 
advance  share  and 
mould-board  to  turn 
over  the  sod,  followed 
by  the  usual  share  and 
mould-board  to  invert 
the  furrow-slice,  and 
thus  completely  bury 
the  surface  soil.  It  is 


46 


MECHANICAL  PKOGRESS. 


FOWLEE'B  STEAM-PLOW. 


now  much  used  in  England,  and  is  especial 
ly  made  by  Ransome.  In  the  West  it  is 
called  the  double  Michigan  plow. 

Substitutes  for  the  plow  are  found  in 
spading  machines,  which  aim  to  do  the  work 
more  in  the  order  of  hand  spading,  which 
is  confessedly  better  than  plowing.  They 
are  not  likely  to  supersede  plows.  Other 
forms  of  substitutes  are  the  various  cultiva 
tors,  known  by  the  local  names  of  grubbers, 
scarifiers,  horse-hoes,  etc.,  their  action  being 
to  drag  teeth  or  small  shares  through  the 
ground  to  loosen  and  aerate  it,  giving  it  a 
tilth  suitable  for  sowing  or  planting.  They 
are  also  used  for  stirring  the  ground  in 
the  balks  between  rows  of  growing  plants, 
known  as  hoed  crops,  such  as  corn,  cane,  or 
potatoes,  but  the  more  a  man  sticks  to  his 
cultivator,  and  the  less  he  bothers  with 
the  hoe,  the  better  will  be  the  result,  if  the 
amount  of  the  planting  be  large. 

The  steam-plow  has  proved  a  success  un 
der  favorable  circumstances.  Few  are  at 
work  in  the  United  States  ;  many  hundreds 
in  England.  A  large  number  were  sent  to 
Egypt,  where  the  Khedive  is  determined  to 
be  a  second  Pharaoh  on  the  old  order  an 
nounced  by  Joseph,  who  bought  the  per 
sonal  property,  then  the  land,  then  the  peo 
ple,  and  then  rented  the  land  to  them  for  a 
fifth  of  the  produce — the  same  share  as 
Solomon  received  for  his  vineyard. 

Steam-plows  are  constructed  on  several 
principles : 

1.  A  traction  engine  dragging  plows :  this 
is  not  a  success  as  yet. 

2.  A  pair  of  engines  on  trucks  on  the  sides 
of  the  field,  and  dragging  gangs  of  plows 


back  and  forth,  the  engines  moving  a  piece 
ahead  between  each  pull.  The  cut  shows  a 
modified  form  with  a  single  engine,  endless 
rope,  and  a  traveling  truck  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  field  to  carry  the  pulley  over 
which  the  rope  runs  and  returns. 

3.  A  single  engine,  and  ropes  so  arranged 
around  the  field  on  bearers,  known  as  por 
ters,  as  to  drag  the  plow -gang  in  any  re 
quired  direction  by  suitably  changing  the 
position  of  the  porters  which  determine  the 
direction  of  motion  of  the  rope. 

The  improvements  in  seeding  machines 
and  grain  drills  have  effected  a  saving  of 
seed,  more  careful  planting  or  sowing,  and 
greater  economy  in  labor. 

One  hundred  years  ago  our  fathers  toiled 
in  the  harvest  field  with  the  sickle.  In 
Flanders  they  had  a  kind  of  cradle  known 
as  the  Hainault  scythe,  but  it  was  unknown 
to  English-speaking  peoples.  The  bent 
back,  the  gathering  left  arm,  and  the  sweep 
ing  sickle  painfully  reaped  the  bunches  of 
grain,  which  were  thrown  into  heaps  large 
enough  to  form  gavels  for  binding.  The 
cradle  was  a  great  improvement  upon  the 
sickle,  the  long  and  deep-reaching  blade 
of  the  grain  scythe,  aided  by  the  fingers  of 
the  cradle,  making  a  progress  in  the  harvest 
field  which  left  the  sickle  and  reaping-hook 
far  in  the  rear. 

The  American  War  of  Independence  was 
not  long  over  before  attempts  were  made  to 
construct  machines  which  would  bring  into 
use  horse  labor  as  a  substitute  for  the  severe 
hand-work. 

The  reaping  machine  has  attained  its 
present  degree  of  completeness  after  seven- 


EARLY  REAPING  MACHINES. 


4? 


ty-five  years  of  persistent  effort.  General 
attention  had  been  but  little  directed,  to  the 
subject  until  the  year  1851,  when  at  the 
World's  Fair  in  London  the  American  ma 
chines  created  much  excitement,  and  caused 
the  forgotten  experiments  of  half  a  century 
to  be  withdrawn  from  their  limboes  and  ex 
hibited  to  cool  the  enthusiasm  of  "  those  for 
eigners."  Experiments  in  reaping  machines 
had  been  pursued  to  a  much  greater  extent 
in  Britain  than  in  the  United  States  until 
within  a  then  comparatively  recent  period ; 
but  the  essential  features  which  secured 
success  were  American. 

The  first  reaping  machine  on  record  is 
that  described  by  Pliny  about  A.D.  60,  and 
by  Palladius  some  centuries  later.  It  is 
stated  by  these  authors  to  have  been  used 
in  Gaul ;  the  former  writer  says  in  the  ex 
tensive  plains  in  that  part  known  as  Rhse- 
tia.  It  consisted  of  a  cart  pushed  by  an  ox, 
and  having  a  comb-like  bar  in  front  which 
stripped  off  the  ears  of  the  wheat  and  al 
lowed  them  to  fall  into  the  box,  while  the 
straw  remained  on  the  ground.  It  was 
used  in  level  places,  and  where  the  straw 
was  not  wanted  for  winter  fodder.  The 
implement  has  been  re-invented  after  the 
lapse  of  fourteen  centuries,  and  is  now 
used  as  a  "  header"  for  gathering  clover 
seed. 

After  this  Gallic  implement  there  is  a  long 
gap,  and  the  first  machine,  or  rather  sug 
gestion,  of  the  moderns  is  that  of  Pitt,  in 
1786,  which  had  a  cylinder  with  rows  of 
combs  or  "  ripples,"  which  tore  off  the  ears 


and  discharged  them  into  the  box  of  the 
machine. 

It  is  a  part  of  our  purpose  to  show  the  cu 
mulative  character  of  invention,  and  also  to 
illustrate  the  fact  that  nearly  the  whole  aim 
seems  to  be  fixed  in  a  particular  direction 
for  a  long  course  of  years  ;  then  the  germ  of 
the  eventual  success  enters  unexpectedly, 
and  remains  unnoticed  for  a  period,  after 
which  the  interest  is  transferred  to  the  pre 
viously  overlooked  type,  which  in  its  imma 
ture  form  gave  little  prospect  of  success. 

For  about  twoscore  years  attention  was 
principally  directed  to  revolving  cutters  or 
systems  of  revolving  blades.  The  motion 
of  the  cutting  apparatus  being  derived  from 
the  rotary  motion  of  the  wheels  supporting 
the  implement,  it  naturally  occurred  to  con 
nect  the  axle  or  wheels  with  a  rotary  cutter, 
and  later  with  an  oscillating  one,  which  had 
its  analogues  in  the  swing  of  the  scythe  and 
the  reach  of  the  sickle.  The  first  recipro 
cating  knife  was  in  1822. 

As  to  the  mode  of  attaching  the  horses,  it 
was  almost  universally  deemed  necessary  to 
hitch  them  behind  the  implement,  which 
they  pushed  before  them.  Up  to  1823  but 
four  inventors  hitched  the  team  in  front  of 
the  implement.  As  soon  as  this  idea  did 
occur  to  inventors,  they  made  the  horse  walk 
alongside  the  swath  cut  by  the  knives,  con 
stituting  what  is  known  as  the  side  cut. 

In  1806  Gladstone,  of  England,  patented 
his  front-draft  side-cut  revolving-knife  ma 
chine.  A  segment  bar  with  fingers  gathered 
the  grain  and  held  the  straw  while  the  knife 


UEAl'INO    IN    (i.UT,   FIRST   TO   FOURTH   CENTURY   A.K. 


48 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


GLADSTONE'S  REAPING  MACHINE,  ENGLAND,  1806. 

cut  it,  the  fingers  having  the  function  of 
shear  blades.  The  forward  draft  was  also 
adopted  by  Mann  in  1820,  and  by  Ogle,  of 
England,  in  1822,  who  shows  the  first  recip 
rocating  knife  tar.  It  is  the  type  of  the  suc 
cessful  machines,  but  was  constructed  so 
poorly  that  its  merits  never  became  appar 
ent.  It  was  drawn  by  horses  in  advance; 
the  cutter  bar  projected  at  the  side,  and  it 
had  a  reel  to  gather  the  grain  to  the  cutter. 
The  machine  had  a  grain  platform,  which 
was  tilted  to  drop  the  gavel.  This  was  the 
first  dropper.  In  1826  Bell  made  a  working 
machine.  It  was  pushed  before  the  horse ; 
the  grain  was  cut  by  knives  vibrating  on 
pivots.  It  had  a  grain  reel;  the  grain  fell 
upon  an  inclined  traveling  apron,  which  car 
ried  it  oif  and  delivered  it  at  the  side. 

In  1828  Samuel  Lane,  of  Maine,  combined 
the  reaper  and  the  thresher. 

In  1833  Hussey,  of  Maryland,  made  the  first 
valuable  harvester.  It  had  open  fingers, 
with  the  knife  reciprocating  in  the  space. 
The  open-topped  slotted  finger  was  patented 
by  Hussey  in  1847.  The  cutter  bar  was  on 
a  hinged  frame. 

In  1834  M'Cormick,  of  Virginia,  patented 
his   reaper,  which,  with   various   improve 
ments  in  1845  and  1847,  received  a  Council 
medal    at   the    London 
World's    Fair    in    1851. 
This    machine    had    a 
sickle  -  edged    sectional 
knife    reciprocated    by 
crank    and   pitman   by 
gear  connection  to  the 
drive -wheel   on  which 
the  frame  rested ;  spear- 
shaped  fingers  gathered 


the  grain,  which  was  laid  over 
to  the  cutter  by  a  revolving 
reel.  A  divider  was  used  on 
each  end  of  the  platform.  The 
driver  and  raker  had  seats  on 
the  machine. 

In  1849  Haines,  of  Illinois, 
suspended  the  frame  carrying 
the  conveyer,  reel,  and  cutter 
to  the  axles  of  the  bearing- 
wheels,  and  hinged  the  frame 
to  the  tongue,  so  that  it  was 
capable   of  turning  upon  its 
bearings  by  means  of  a  lever  to 
elevate  and  depress  the  cutter. 
Since  1851  nearly  3000  patents  have  been 
granted  in  the  United  States  for  harvesters 
and  attachments  therefor. 

In  the  summer  of  1855,  at  a  competitive 
trial  of  reapers,  about  forty  miles  from  Paris, 
France,  three  machines  were  exhibited  from 
America,  England,  and  Algiers.  The  follow 
ing  was  the  result  in  a  field  of  oats:  the 
American  machine  cut  an  acre  in  twenty- 
two  minutes ;  the  English  machine  cut  an 
acre  in  sixty  -  six  minutes ;  the  Algerian 
machine  cut  an  acre  in  seventy-two  min 
utes. 

Some  of  the  subsequent  improvements 
may  be  enumerated  as  follows :  The  Sylla 
and  Adams  patent  (1853),  having  a  cutter 
bar  hinged  to  a  frame,  which  is  in  turn 
hinged  to  the  main  frame.  This  is  the  prin 
cipal  feature  of  the  "  Aultman  and  Miller," 
or  "  Buckeye,"  harvester.  The  combined 
rake  and  reel  of  the  "  Dorsey"  machine  ( 1856), 
sweeping  in  a  general  horizontal  direction 
across  the  quadrautal  platform.  The  "  Hen 
derson"  rake,  on  what  is  known  as  the 
"Wood"  machine  (1860),  having  a  chain  be 
low  the  platform,  which  carries  the  rake  in 
a  curved  path.  The  Sieberling  "  dropper" 
(1861),  which  is  a  slatted  platform  vibrating 
to  discharge  the  gavel.  The  Whiteley  pat- 


BELL'S  BEAFLNO  MACHINK,  ENGLAND,  1826. 


REAPERS  AND  THRESHERS. 


TUB   AMERICAN   SELF-BAKING   REAPING   MAOIIINK   ("CHAMPION"   PATTERN). 


ents,  which  constitute  the  "  Champion"  ma 
chine  of  Springfield,  Ohio. 

The  threshing  machine  first  saw  the  light 
in  1786.  It  was  invented  by  Andrew  Meikle, 
of  Tyningham,  East  Lothian,  Scotland.  It 
is  true  that  attempts  had  been  made  by 
Menzies  in  1732  and  Stirling  in  1758,  but 
they  proceeded  on  a  wrong  principle,  and 
were  abandoned.  Menzies's  had  a  series  of 
revolving  flails,  and  Stirling's  had  a  cylinder 
with  arms  upon  a  vertical  shaft  running  at 
high  velocity.  Meikle  invented  the  drum 


MEIKLE'B  THRESHING  MACHINE,  1T86— INTKKIOB  VIEW. 

with  beaters  acting  upon  the  grain  in  the 
sheaf,  which  was  fed  between  rollers.  The 
English  improvement  was  to  make  the  beat 
ing  drum  work  in  a  concave  knpwn  as  the 
breasting,  the  grain  and  straw  being  scutch 
ed  and  rubbed  between  the  two  and  carried 
to  the  shaker,  which  removed  the  straw  from 
the  grain  and  chaff,  a  large  amount  of  grain 
also  falling  through  the  bars  of  the  concave. 
The  American  improvement  upon  this 
consists  mainly — besides  numerous  details 
which  secure  speed,  lightness,  and  effective 
ness — in  having  upon  the  drum,  spikes  or 
4 


teeth  which  pass  between  fixed  spikes  on 
the  concave ;  the  grain  in  the  straw  being 
subjected  to  a  severe  beating  and  rubbing 
action  as  it  passes  in  a  zigzag  course  be 
tween  the  two,  being  carried  by  the  teeth 
of  the  drum.  The  latter  is  now  usually  a 
skeleton  cylinder  of  iron  bars  with  sword- 
shaped  spikes  secured  by  threaded  tangs 
and  nuts.  The  front  edges  of  the  spikes 
are  rounded  and  smooth  to  prevent  break 
ing  of  the  grain ;  the  spikes  of  the  concave 
have  smooth  edges  presented  toward  the 
coming  grain  for  a  similar  reason.  The  En 
glish  still  adhere  to  the  flat  beaters,  like 
narrow  wings  or  slats,  placed  longitudi 
nally,  and  with  edges  projecting  outward 
ly  from  the  drum.  The  Americans  adhere 
to  the  spiked  cylinder.  A  fair  trial  be 
tween  the  two  was  had  on  the  farm  of  Mr. 
Mechi,  Tiptree  Hall,  Kelvedon,  England,  in 
1853.  The  American  machine  was  opera 
ted  by  the  two  persons  who  had  shipped  it 
from  the  United  States ;  one  of  them  was 
the  present  writer.  The  trial  was  conclu 
sive.  The  American  machine  was  driven  by 
a  portable  engine  of  six  horse-power,  and 
averaged  sixty-four  bushels  of  wheat  per 


TUB   AMEB1OAN   TlIKEtllING   MAOIIINK, 


MECHANICAL  PKOGKESS. 


ENGLISH   TIIBE6IIING  MAO11INE. 


hour ;  448  bushels  of  barley  were  threshed 
in  six  hours,  nearly  treble  the  work  of  the 
English  competing  machines,  and  the  grain 
in  much  cleaner  condition. 

The  editor  of  the  London  Times,  Mr.  Mow- 
bray  Morris,  himself  witnessed  the  opera 
tion,  and  wrote  as  follows  in  an  editorial  of 
the  following  day,  November  1,  1853 : 

"  The  machine,  which  is  portable,  weighs  only  four 
teen  hundred-weight,  threshes  easily,  and  without 
waste,  at  the  rate  of  one  bushel  in  forty  seconds,  and 
turns  out  the  grain  perfectly  clean  and  ready  for  mar 
ket  It  is  therefore  about  twice  as  light  in  draught  as 
the  lightest  of  our  machines  of  the  same  description  ; 
does  as  much  if  not  more  work  than  the  best  of  them, 
and,  with  much  less  power,  dresses  the  grain,  which 
they  do  not,  and  can  be  profitably  disposed  of  at  less 

money  than  our  implement  -  makers  charge We 

build  threshing-machines  strong  and  dear  enough  and 
tremendously  heavy  either  to  work  or  to  draw.  The 
American  farmer  demands  and  gets  a  machine  which 
does  not  ruin  him  to  buy  or  his  horse  to  pull  about, 
which  runs  on  coach  and  not  wagon  wheels,  and  which, 
without  breaking  the  heart  of  the  power  that  drives  it, 
yields  the  largest  and  most  satisfactory  results.  Noth 
ing,  therefore,  can  better  illustrate  the  difference  in 
mechanical  genius  in  the  two  countries  than  this  grain 
separator  as  compared  with  its  British  rivals." 

It  may  be  mentioned  that  the  apparent 
perversity  with  which  the  British  retain  flat 
beaters  instead  of  the  teeth  is  that  in  many 
parts  of  Britain  there  is  a  profitable  market 
for  trussed  straw ;  the  straw  is  less  broken 
by  the  beaters  than  by  the  teeth,  is  in  more 
unbroken  lengths,  and  trusses  more  readily 
and  handsomely. 

The  saving  in  the  operations  of  husband 


ry  by  the  use  of  modern  implements  and 
methods  is  equal  to  one-half  the  former  cost 
of  working.  By  the  improved  plow,  labor 
equivalent  to  that  of  one  horse  in  three  is 
saved.  By  means  of  drills  two  bushels  of 
seed  will  go  as  far  as  three  bushels  scattered 
broadcast.  The  plants  come  up  in  rows,  and 
may  be  tended  by  horse-hoes ;  being  in  the 
bottoms  of  little  furrows,  the  ground  crum 
bles  down  against  the  plant,  which  is  not  so 
readily  heaved  out  by  the  winter's  frost.  The 
reaping  machine  is  a  saving  of  more  than 
one-third  the  labor  when  it  cuts  and  rakes, 
and  will  eventually  save  fully  three-fourths 
when  it  is  made  to  bind  automatically,  as  it 
shortly  will  be.  The  threshing  machine  is 
a  saving  of  two-thirds  on  the  old  hand-flail 
mode.  The  root-cutters  for  stock  in  En 
gland,  and  in  some  places  in  the  Northern 
States  and  Canada,  much  reduce  the  labor  of 
winter  feeding.  The  saving  in  the  labor  of 
handling  hay  in  the  field  and  barn  by  means 
of  horse-rakes  and  horse  hay-forks  is  equal 
to  one -half.  With  the  exception  of  the 
grain  drill,  which  had  a  precarious  exist 
ence  previous  to  1776,  all  these  improve 
ments  have  been  commenced  and  brought 
to  the  present  relative  perfection  within  the 
century  now  closing. 

THE  STEAM-ENGINE  AND  ITS  APPLICATIONS. 

We  have  no  space  for  the  repetition  of 
the  history  of  the  steam-engine — to  recite 


THE  CORNISH  PUMPING  ENGINE. 


U 


the  toys  and  experiments  of  Hero,  Da  Vinci, 
De  Garay,  Porta,  the  mythical  De  Caus,  the 
water  -  raising  apparatus,  not  engines,  of 
Worcester  and.  Savary,  and  the  engine  of 
Papin,  in  which  steam  was  first  used  against 
a  piston  in  a  cylinder. 

Our  century  opens  with  the  engine  of 
Newcomen  in  action,  as  shown  on  page  41. 
This  engine  had  a  vertical  open-topped  cyl 
inder  above  the  boiler.  It  had  two  valves, 
which  were  operated  by  hand ;  one  admit 
ted  steam  below  the  piston,  which  was 
raised  by  the  weight  of  the  pump-rod.  The 
steam  having  filled  the  space  below  the  pis 
ton,  was  then  shut  off,  and  the  valve  of  the 
water-injection  pipe  was  opened.  The  jet 
of  water  condensed  the  steam  in  the  cylin 
der,  and  produced  a  partial  vacuum  therein ; 
the  weight  of  the  atmosphere  pressed  down 
the  piston,  and  raised  the  pump-rod.  This 
was  really  quite  excellent  in  its  way,  and 
the  atmospheric  engine  is  yet  a  very  useful 
pumping  engine.  It  was  as  great  an  ad 


vance  on  Captain  John  Savary's  water  ele 
vator  as  James  Watt's  subsequent  improve 
ment  was  upon  itself.  To  recite  its  faults 
and  inefficiencies — for  it  had  both — is  but 
to  recite  the  inventions  of  Watt. 

Watt's  first  patent  was  taken  out  in  1769, 
in  conjunction  with  a  Mr.  Roebuck,  who  aft 
erward  retired  from  the  partnership,  and 
Watt  found  an  excellent  successor  to  him 
in  Matthew  Boultou,  of  Soho,  near  Birming 
ham. 

The  fame  of  the  steam-engine  traveled  to 
the  English  colonies  even  before  the  date 
of  the  invention  of 
Watt,  but,  for  such 
mills  as  the  colo 
nists  erected,  the 
water  -  powers  on 
the  streams  were 
yet  abundantly  suf 
ficient.  It  is  doubt 
ful  whether  there 
were  more  than 




3%$ffl^'  ''•^'ff$%XS  '''-          s==r   •:.     \ 


SINGLE- ACTING    OOBNIBIJ   PUMIUNO   ENGINE. 


52 


MECHANICAL  PEOGRESS. 


two  steam-engines  in  the  colonies.  They 
were  both  of  the  Newcomen  kind.  One 
was  imported  in  1736  for  the  Schuyler 
copper  mines  at  Passaic,  New  Jersey ;  the 
other  was  built  in  1772  by  Christopher 
Coles,  of  Philadelphia,  for  use  in  a  distil 
lery. 

The  principal  use,  for  a  long  time,  of  the 
steam-engine  in  England  continued  to  be  in 
pumps  for  draining  mines  and  for  supplying 
water  to  cities.  London  for  this  latter  pur 
pose  had  a  Boulton  and  Watt  engine  in  the 
vicinity  of  London  Bridge.  This  type  of 
engine  has  permanently  received  its  name 
from  the  locality  of  its  first  triumphs,  and 
is  known  as  the  Cornish.  It  is  the  largest, 
heaviest,  most  expensive,  and  most  econom 
ically  driven  engine  known  to  the  engineer 
— a  valuable  stationary  engine  when  par 
ties  are  capable  of  spending  a  large  sum  to 
secure  a  machine  which  may  be  run  at  a 
small  outlay.  It  is  a  large  investment  of 
capital  for  the  sake  of  an  economic  adminis 
tration.  The  one  shown  in  the  illustration 
on  the  previous  page  is  a  single-acting 
Cornish  engine.  The  cylinder  is  100  inches 
in  diameter ;  working  stroke,  11  feet ;  the 
plunger  is  50  inches  in  diameter,  11  feet 
stroke.  When  working  full  stroke  it  pumps 
150  gallons  per  second  to  a  height  of  140 
feet. 

The  Louisville  pumping  engine  is  of  this 
character.  The  new  engines  at  Brooklyn 
and  Cincinnati  are  direct,  the  pump  being 
below  the  cylinder.  Spring  Garden,  Phila 
delphia,  and  Belleville,  New  Jersey,  have 
the  Cornish;  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  and 
Newark,  New  Jersey,  the  Worthington  Du 
plex.  Of  the  115,000,000  of  gallons  forming 
the  daily  supply  of  London,  79,000,000  gal 
lons  are  pumped  by  the  class  of  engine 
shown  in  the  illustration. 

The  improvement  in  the  Cornish  engine  is 
capable  of  being  more  definitely  stated  than 
that  of  any  other  form,  for  it  has  been  close 
ly  observed  and  tabulated  for  many  years. 
The  figures  express  what  is  called  the  duty. 
This  term  was  adopted  by  Watt  to  express 
the  actual  amount  of  water  lifted  one  foot 
by  the  bushel  of  coal.  The  duty,  therefore, 
is  the  test  of  comparative  merit  of  engines, 
and  the  figures  following  clearly  indicate 
the  improvement  in  the  Cornish  pumping 
engine : 


Year.  Pounds,  1  foot  high. 

1769,  the  Newcomen  engine 5,600,000 

1T72,  Newcomen  engine,  improved  by 

Smeaton 9,500,000 

1778  to  1815,  Watt  engine 20,000,000 

1820,  improved  Cornish,  average  duty  of 


a  large  number  of  engines 

1826,  improved  Cornish,  average  duty  . 
1830,  improved  Cornish,  average  duty  . 
1839,  improved  Cornish,  average  duty  . 
1850,  improved  Cornish,  average  duty. 


28,000,000 
30,000,000 
43,350,000 
54,000,000 
60,000,000 


There  are  some  brilliant  instances  above 
these  averages,  as  of  the 

"  Consolidated"  mines,  highest  duty,  1827  . .  67,000,000 
"  Fowey  Consols"  mines,  highest  duty,  1842.  97,000,000 

The  duty  of  the  best  American  pumping 
engines  runs  well  up  with  these  figures. 

Steam  was  first  applied  to  drive  cotton 
machinery  by  Richard  Arkwright,  in  En 
gland,  in  1785,  and  to  grind  plaster  and  saw 
stone  by  Oliver  Evans,  in  Philadelphia, 
about  the  same  time.  It  was  many  years 
before  the  steam-engine  was  applied  in  the 
United  States  to  factory  use,  but  that  ap 
plication  of  the  engine  rapidly  increased  in 
England.  It  was  Watt's  engine  in  substan 
tial  respects,  though  other  persons  increased 
and  harmonized  the  proportions,  giving  it  a 
power  and  completeness  far  beyond  what 
its  admirable  inventor  lived  personally  to 
witness. 

STEAM  NAVIGATION. 

The  steam-engine  was  used  for  transporta 
tion  on  the  water  before  it  was  adapted  to 
land  carriages.  This  was  owing  to  its  hav 
ing  started  as  an  atmospheric  engine,  where 
the  force  was  derived  from  the  pressure  of 
air  upon  the  piston  when  a  partial  vacuum 
was  produced  by  the  condensation  of  steam 
in  the  cylinder.  The  engine  was  relatively 
large  and  heavy,  and  in  its  proportions  was 
better  suited  to  a  boat  than  to  a  wagon. 
The  use  of  high-pressure  steam  was  an  after 
thought.  Though  Watt,  with  his  singular 
sagacity,  added  to  his  specification  the  idea 
of  adapting  high-pressure  steam  to  the  pur 
poses  of  river  and  land  locomotion,  it  was 
but  as  a  caveat,  for  he  built  none. 

The  origin  of  the  steamboat  has  been  a 
v6xed  question  for  nearly  a  century.  As 
the  parties  who  first  worked  at  the  problem 
with  success  could  not  apportion  among 
themselves  the  exact  measure  of  credit  to 
which  each  was  entitled,  so  by  carefully  fan 
ning  the  flames  of  national  vanity  the  sub 
ject  has  been  kept  afloat,  and  of  three  na- 


STEAMBOATS  OF  SYMINGTON  AND  FULTON. 


tions  each  has  its  advocates,  who  feel 
boimd  to  depreciate  the  claims  of  all  oth 
ers.  The  truth  is,  the  engine  was  New- 
comen's,  and  then  Watt's,  and  the  boat 
was  any  body's ;  and  persons  went  to 
work  here  and  there,  with  varying  de 
grees  of  success,  depending  upon  polit 
ical  influence,  social  standing,  moneyed 
resources,  or  friends  thus  provided,  and 
last,  not  least,  mechanical  talent  for  har 
nessing  the  engine  to  the  paddle  or  propel 
ler  used  to  push  against  the  water. 

In  this  struggle  great  pertinacity  was  ex 
hibited  in  Scotland  and  America.  To  deal 
out  the  exact  proportion  of  credit  due  to 
each  man  is  not  easy ;  one  measure  is  to  be 
awarded  to  skill  in  mechanical  adaptation, 
another  to  skill  in  fitting  and  proportioning. 

In  1780  was  patented  the  present  ar 
rangement  of  connecting-rod,  crank,  and 
fly-wheel.  The  Marquis  de  Jouftroy  in  that 
year  successfully  worked  a  steamboat  140 
feet  long  on  the  Sa6ne.  Joseph  Bramah 
(1785)  patented  a  rotatory  engine  on  a  pro 
peller  shaft.  Here  occurs  the  term  "  screw- 
propeller,"  since  so  common.  In  1787  Pat 
rick  Miller,  of  Dalswinton,  published  a  spec 
ification  of  a  triple  boat,  with  paddles  in  the 
intervals,  and  a  deck  over  the  three  boats. 
The  same  year  a  double  boat  was  steamed 
on  the  Frith  of  Forth.  John  Fitch,  of  Phila 
delphia,  the  next  year  obtained  a  patent  for 
the  application  of  steam  to  navigation  in 
Pennsylvania,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and 
Delaware.  The  boat  had  vertical  recipro 
cating  paddles,  and  made  eighty  miles  per 
day.  It  proceeded  upon  an  entirely  wrong 
principle. 

In  1802  Symington  ran  the  Charlotte  Dun- 
das  on  the  Forth  and  Clyde  Canal.  She  had 
a  double-acting  Watt  engine,  working  by  a 
connecting-rod  to  a  crank  on  the  paddle- 
wheel  shaft.  This  is  the  first  instance  of 
these  parts  being  thus  combined. 


SYMINGTON'S  BTEAMUOAT,  "OUAKLOTTE  DUNDAB." 


FULTON'S  STEAMBOAT,  "  OLEKMONT,"  1807. 

The  idea  of  canal  use  alone  engaged  the 
inventor,  and  the  boat  was  rejected  be 
cause  the  canal  banks  were  likely  to  be 
damaged. 

In  1804  John  Cox  Stevens,  of  New  Jersey, 
constructed  a  boat  on  the  Hudson,  driven 
by  a  Watt  engine,  with  a  tubular  boiler  of 
his  own  invention.  It  had  a  bladed  screw- 
propeller.  The  same  year  Oliver  Evans  had 
a  stern-paddle-wheel  boat  on  the  Delaware 
and  Schuylkill  rivers.  It  was  driven  by  a 
double-acting  high-pressure  steam-engine, 
which  was  the  first  of  its  kind,  and  was 
geared  to  rotate  the  wheels  by  which  the 
boat  was  moved  on  land,  and  driven  in  the 
water  when  the  power  was  transferred  to 
the  paddle-wheel  at  the  stern. 

In  1807  Kobert  Fulton,  of  New  York,  went 
from  that  city  to  Albany  in  the  Clermont,  a 
boat  of  160  tons  burden,  with  side  paddle- 
wheels,  driven  by  an  engine  which  he  pur 
chased  when  in  England  of  Boulton  and 
Watt.  She  ran  during  the  remainder  of  the 
year  as  a  passenger  boat.  She  was  the  first 
that  ran  for  practical  purposes,  and  proved 
of  value.  The  outside  bearing  of  the  pad 
dle-wheel  shaft  and  the  guard  were  invent 
ed  by  Fulton.  The  boat  may  be  considered 
to  have  been  about  the  sixteenth  steam 
boat  ;  nevertheless  the  popular  verdict  is  a 
just  and  righteous  one.  To  Fulton  much 
more  than  to  any  other  one  man  is  due  the 
credit  of  the  introduction  of  steam  naviga 
tion.  His  enterprise  opened  the  way,  and 
he  was  the  first  to  apportion  the  strength 
and  sizes  of  parts  to  the  respective  strains 
and  duties.  He  had  previously  seen  Sym 
ington's  boat,  and  had  launched  an  experi 
mental  one,  66  feet  long,  on  the  Seine.  The 
former  may  have  directed  his  attention  to 
the  matter,  and  the  latter  was  a  useful 
apprenticeship.  Mr.  Charles  Brown  had 
built  for  Mr.  Fulton,  between  1806  and  1812, 
six  steamboats  of  lengths  varying  from  78 


54 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


BELL'S  STEAMBOAT,  "  COMET,"  1812. 

to  175  feet,  and  tonnage  120  to  337,  prior  to 
the  practical  working  of  any  steamboat  in 
Europe. 

The  first  steamboat  in  the  Mississippi  Val 
ley  was  the  Orleans,  of  100  tons,  built  at 
Pittsburg  by  Fulton  and  Livingston  in  1811. 
She  had  a  stern  wheel,  and  went  from  Pitts- 
burg  to  New  Orleans  in  fourteen  days.  The 
next  was  the  Comet,  of  25  tons,  in  1814.  She 
made  three  or  four  trips,  was  taken  to  pieces, 
and  the  engine  was  set  up  in  a  cotton  fac 
tory.  The  Vesuvius,  in  1814,  was  the  next. 
She  made  a  number  of  trips,  but  eventually 
exploded. 

Henry  Bell,  of  Scotland,  in  1812  built  the 
Comet,  of  30  tons,  with  side  paddle-wheels, 
which  plied  between  Glasgow  and  Green- 
ock  on  the  Clyde,  and  the  next  year  around 
the  coasts  of  the  British  Isles. 

In  1818  the  Walk-in-the-  Water,  of  360  tons, 
was  built  at  Black  Rock,  Niagara  River,  by 
Noah  Brown,  of  New  York,  for  traffic  on  the 
lakes.  Her  Boulton  and  Watt  engine  was 
made  in  New  York  and  transported  by  boat 
to  Albany  and  by  teams  to  Black  Rock.  The 
boilers  were  prepared  in  New  York  and  sent 


piecemeal  to  the  lake.  The  vessel  was  lost 
in  a  gale  in  1821. 

In  1819  the  Savannah,  380  tons  burden, 
crossed  the  Atlantic  from  America,  visited 
Liverpool,  St.  Petersburg,  and  Copenhagen, 
and  returned.  Six  years  later  the  Enterprise 
rounded  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  and  wrent 
to  India. 

In  1838  the  Great  Western  (1340  tons)  and 
the  Sinus  steamed  across  the  Atlantic  from 
England.  Two  years  afterward  the  Cunard 
line  was  started,  and  was  followed  by  the 
Collins  line  in  1850.  The  Great  Eastern  was 
built  in  1858,  the  French  iron-clad  La  Gloire 
in  1859,  the  English  iron -clad  Warrior  in 
1860,  and  the  Ericsson  Monitor  in  1862. 

Feathering  paddle-wheels,  such  as  Mor 
gan's,  were  largely  used  in  the  British  navy. 
Manly's  are  somewhat  noted  here.  Hol 
land's  oblique  paddle  float,  and  many  oth 
ers,  might  be  noted  were  there  room  for  de 
tail. 

The  steamboats  of  our  American  rivers 
and  lakes  have  no  equals  in  the  world,  nor 
are  there  such  waters  elsewhere  to  afford  a 
theatre  for  such  boats. 

The  paddle-wheel  has  to  a  large  extent 
given  place  to  the  screw-propeller.  There 
is  perhaps  but  one  paddle-wheel  steamer  in 
the  United  States  navy,  the  Powhatan. 

The  screw-propeller  was  invented  by 
numerous  people,  if  we  are  to  assume  that 
each  person  who  put  forward  a  claim  or 
who  patented  it  supposed  himself  to  be  an 
original  inventor.  Several  notices  of  it  oc 
cur,  but  it  came  more  distinctly  into  notice 
when  brought  forward  by  Ericsson  in  1836. 


PACIFIC  MAIL   8TEAM-BUIP   COMPANY'S   8CEEW  STEAM-SUIP  "  CITY   OF   PEKING. " 


LOCOMOTIVE  OF  TREVETHICK. 


55 


The  supernaturally  wise  old  sea-dogs  and 
landsmen  of  the  British  Admiralty  sneered 
at  the  innovation,  but  Captain  Robert  F. 
Stockton  and  Francis  B.  Ogden,  of  New  Jer 
sey,  appreciated  it.  The  former  introduced 
it  to  the  United  States  Navy  Department, 
and  the  war  steamer  Princeton  was  launched 
upon  the  Delaware.  The  Robert  F.  Stockton, 
an  iron  vessel  fitted  with  a  screw-propeller, 
was  launched  upon  the  Mersey  in  1838,  and 
crossed  to  the  United  States  the  next  year. 
Her  name  was  changed  to  2few  Jersey,  and 
she  was  the  first  screw-propeller  vessel 
practically  used  in  America,  as  Ericsson's 
Francis  B.  Ogden  was  the  first  in  Europe. 
Ericsson  accomplished  for  the  screw-pro 
peller  in  England  and  America  what  Fulton 
did  for  the  paddle-wheel  in  America  and 
Bell  in  England. 

Other  improvements  have  been  added,  in 
cluding  Woodcroft's  increasing  pitch  screw 
and  Fowler's  and  Hunter's  vertical  sub 
merged  paddle-wheels. 

THE  LOCOMOTIVE. 

It  is  not  easy  from  the  stand-point  of  the 
present  to  realize  the  original  difficulty  in 
adapting  the  steam-engine  to 
the  propulsion  of  carriages. 
There  was  a  fixed  belief  in  re 
gard  to  steam,  derived  from  the 
mode  of  using  it  in  the  atmos 
pheric  engine  of  Newcomen 
and  from  the  cautious  habit  of 
Watt,  that  the  safest  method 
was  merely  to  obtain  a  vacuum 
by  its  condensation,  so  as  to 
bring  the  unbalanced  atmos 
pheric  pressure  upon  one  side 
of  the  piston.  This  involved  a 
great  weight  and  bulk  of  ma 
chinery,  and  long  prevented  the 
adaptation  of  the  engine  to  land 
transportation.  The  steamboat 
engine  used  by  Miller,  of  Dal- 
swinton,  in  1787  differed  from 
Watt's  in  the  saving  of  weight 
by  the  abolition  of  the  air- 
pump,  and  depended  upon 
abundant  injection  of  water  to 
produce  a  vacuum.  Watt  was 
afraid  of  high-pressure  steam, 
and  we  can  fancy,  had  he  lived 
to  be  on  board  one  of  our  West 


ern  river  boats,  and  heard  the  energetic 
cough  of  the  escaping  steam,  ho  would 
have  wished  himself  safely  back  again  with 
Brother  Boulton,  and  among  the  models  and 
drawing-boards  of  his  sanctum  at  the  "Soho 
Works."  He  had  no  faith  in  an  engine  with 
out  a  condenser,  and,  as  the  event  proved, 
no  steam -carriage  could  succeed  till  the 
weight  of  the  engine  was  reduced  by  the 
removal  of  the  condenser,  air-pump,  and 
their  cumbrous  appendages,  even  at  the  ex 
pense  of  greater  cost  of  fuel  in  working. 

This  situation  continued  until  1802,  when 
two  Cornish  engineers,  Trevethick  and  Viv 
ian,  obtained  a  patent  for  a  steam-carriage 
adapted  for  common  roads,  or,  by  an  adap 
tation  of  the  tires  of  the  wheels,  for  rail 
ways.  The  engine  was  built,  and  was  tried 
and  modified  till  1805,  when  it  became  a 
useful  locomotive  on  the  Merthyr-Tydvil 
Railway,  in  South  Wales,  in  drawing  coal 
cars.  It  is  the  most  remarkable  engine  in 
the  history  of  the  locomotive.  It  had  a 
horizontal  cylinder  inclosed  in  the  boiler, 
the  piston  and  rod  operating  a  crank  axle, 
which  communicated  power  through  gear 
wheels  to  the  axle  of  the  driving-wheels. 


Mi'  ''^ , 


::;.   . 


TKEVF.THIOK    AND   VIVIAN'S   LOCOMOTIVE,  MEETHYB-TYHVII.,  1S05. 


56 


MECHANICAL  PEOGRESS. 


EVANS'S  LOCOMOTIVE. 


It  was  high-pressure,  non-condensing,  and 
exhausted  into  the  chimney.  (The  latter 
is  not  shown  in  their  official  drawing.)  It 
was  the  first  locomotive  to  run  on  tram-ways 
or  on  rails.  The  steam-cocks  were  operated 
from  the  crank  axle,  as  were  also  the  feed 
pump  and  the  bellows  for  urging  the  fire. 
The  body  of  the  carriage  followed  the  old 
English  stage  shape.  It  was  not  alone  that 
these  men  devised  several  features  that  ex 
perience  has  retained,  but  they  were  the 
first  to  disregard  the  prejudice  against  high 
steam,  and  to  make  a  compact  engine  which 
would  neither  overtax  the  wheels  nor  take 
up  all  the  room,  to  the  exclusion  of  passen 
gers  and  goods. 

Oliver  Evans,  of  Philadelphia,  labored  for 
a  number  of  years  to  obtain  help  to  con 
struct  his  high-pressure  engine,  which  was 
built  in  1802  for  running  a  marble  saw  and 
plaster  mill,  and  in  1804  was  adapted  to  a 
scow  for  dredging  in  the  Delaware  Eiver. 


By  an  ingenious  band  connection  to  wheels, 
or  to  a  stern-wheel  paddle  shaft,  he  made 
his  scow  travel  on  land  or  water,  as  the  case 
might  be.  It  was  an  ungainly  affair,  with 
vertical  cylinder,  working -beam,  and  fly 
wheel — useless  for  land  locomotion.  Men 
tion  may  also  be  made  of  M.  Cugnot's  car 
riage,  in  1769,  with  two  single-acting  verti 
cal  engines  acting  alternately  upon  the  two 
front  wheels.  It  is  yet  preserved  in  Par 
is.  Symington,  in  1786,  had  also  a  steam- 
carriage  with  a  Watt  condensing  engine. 
These  engines  lacked  in  several  respects  the 
conditions  of  success,  but  deserve  mention. 

It  was  among  the  coal  mines  that  tram 
ways  with  tracks  of  flag-stones  for  the 
wheels  of  coal  wagons  first  came  into  use ; 
it  was  also  in  the  collieries  that  iron  rails 
were  first  laid,  and  the  wheels  of  cars  made 
with  grooves,  and  afterward  with  flanges, 
to  enable  them  to  keep  on  the  track.  It 
was  twenty-five  years  after  the  use  of  the 
locomotive  in  South  Wales  before  the  rail 
way  was  used  except  for  transporting  coal. 

The  next  locomotive  after  that  of  Treve- 
thick  and  Vivian  was  one  made  by  Blenkin- 
sop  in  1811  for  working  at  the  Huuslet-Moor 
Colliery,  near  Leeds.1  The  flat-faced  wheels 
ran  upon  a  tram-way,  and  a  cog-wheel,  driv 
en  by  pinions  and  connecting  rods  from  the 
pair  of  vertical  cylinders,  drove  the  engine 
by  meshing  into  a  rack  on  one  side  of  the 
track.  The  idea  prevailed  at  the  time  that 


BLRNKINBOP'B  LOCOMOTIVE,  "LOBD  WELLINGTON,"  1811. 


»  A  large  number  of  the  illustrations  for  this  pa 
per  have  been  borrowed  from  KnighVs  Mechanical 
Dictionary,  published  by  J.  B.  Ford  aud  Co.,  New 
York, 


LOCOMOTIVES  OF  HEDLEY  AND  STEPHENSON. 


UEDLEY'B  LOCOMOTIVE,  "  PUFFING  BILLY,"  1813. 

the  tractional  adherence  of  the  driving- 
wheels  to  the  rail  was  not  sufficient,  but 
that  the  wheels  would  slip.  The  fire  was 
built  in  a  large  tube  passing  through  the 
boiler ;  the  tube  was  bent  to  form  a  chim 
ney.  It  drew  trains  of  thirty  tons  weight 
three  and  three-quarter  miles  per  hour. 

In  the  spring  of  1813  William  Hedley  built 
a  locomotive  with  four  smooth  driving- 
wheels  to  run  on  a  smooth  rail.  The  ma 
chine  failed  to  accomplish  much  on  ac 
count  of  its  small  boiler.  Hedley  thereupon 
in  the  same  year  built  another  engine, 
shown  above,  having  a  return  flue  boiler, 
and  mounted  on  eight  driving-wheels,  which 
were  coupled  together  by  intermediate  gear 
wheels  on  the  axles,  and  all  propelled  by  a 
gear  in  the  centre,  driven  by  a  pitman  from 
the  working-beam. 

Hedley's  locomotive 
was  objected  to  by  resi 
dents  of  Newcastle  on 
account  of  the  smoke. 
He  therefore  passed  the 
smoke  into  a  large  re 
ceiver  (a),  and  turned 
the  exhaust  steam  upon 
it.  From  the  receiver 
the  steam  and  smoke 
were  conveyed  by  a  pipe 
(6)  to  the  chimney,  which 
device  soon  developed 
into  the  steam  blast. 

"  Puffing  Billy"  was  at 
work  more  or  less  until 
1862,  when  it  was  laid  up 
as  a  memorial  in  the 


British  Patent-office  Museum.  Hedley  died 
in  1842. 

In  1815  Dodd  and  Stephenson  patented  an 
engine  with  vertical  cylinders.  The  adher 
ence  to  this  form  was  on  account  of  its  sup 
posed  value  in  pressing  the  wheels  down 
upon  the  track.  Stephenson,  in  1825,  made 
an  engine  for  the  Killingworth  Railway,  and 
his  engines  were  employed  on  iron  tracks 
by  the  Stockton  and  Darlington  Railway, 
and  at  the  Newcastle  collieries.  His  first 
locomotive  on  this  railway  had  two  vertical 
cylinders,  and  the  driving-shaft  had  cranks 
at  an  angle  of  ninety  degrees.  The  axles 
of  the  wheels  were  coupled  by  an  endless 
chain  passing  around  both  axles. 

In  1829  the  Liverpool  and  Manchester 
Railway,  then  the  most  extensive  and  fin 
ished  work  of  the  kind  ever  undertaken, 
and  the  first  passenger  railway,  was  com 
pleted,  and  the  directors  offered  a  reward 
of  £500  for  the  best  locomotive  which  should 
fulfill  certain  imposed  conditions.  Among 
these  were  that  it  was  to  consume  its  own 
smoke,  draw  three  times  its  own  weight  at  a 
rate  of  not  less  than  ten  miles  an  hour,  and 
the  boiler  pressure  was  not  to  exceed  fifty 
pounds  per  square  inch.  The  weight  was 
not  to  exceed  six  tons,  nor  the  cost  £550. 

Three  engines  competed — the  "  Rocket," 
constructed  by  George  Stephenson ;  the 
"  Sanspareil,"  by  Timothy  Hackworth ;  the 
"  Novelty,"  by  Messrs.  Brathwaite  and  Erics 
son. 

The  "  Rocket"  weighed  4  tons  5  hundred 
weight,  and  its  tender,  with  water  and  coke, 


DOWN'S  AND  BTEPIIBNSON'S  LOCOMOTIVE,  1815. 


58 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


BTEPHENSON'S  LOCOMOTIVE,  "ROCKET,"  1829. 

3  tons  4  hundred- weight.  It  had  two  loaded 
carriages  attached,  weighing  a  little  over  9 
tons  10  hundred-weight.  The  greatest  ve 
locity  attained  was  24^  miles  per  hour,  and 
the  average  consumption  of  coke  per  hour 
217  pounds. 

The  "  Sanspareil"  attained  a  speed  of  22§ 
miles  per  hour,  but  with  an  expenditure  of 
fuel  per  hour  of  692  pounds. 

The  "  Novelty"  carried  its  own  water  and 
fuel.  In  consequence  of  successive  acci 
dents  to  the  working  arrangements,  this  en 
gine  was  withdrawn  from  competition.  A 
fourth  engine,  the  "  Perseverance,"  by  Bur- 
stall,  not  being  adapted  to  the  track,  was 
withdrawn. 

The  opening  of  the  Liverpool  and  Man 
chester  Railway,  September  15, 1829,  was  an 
era  in  civilization,  and  one  of  the  first  vic 
tims  of  the  iron  horse  was  slain  on  that  day 
— Mr.  Huskiason,  Home  Secretary  in  the 
British  cabinet.  Eight  locomotives  were 
used  on  that  day,  and  while  the  engines 
were  watering  at  the  Parkside  station,  some 
of  the  guests  descended  to  the  road.  While 
Mr.  Huskisson  was  talking  to  the  Duke  of 
Wellington  the  famous  "  Rocket"  came  by, 
knocked  down  Mr.  Huskisson,  and  the  wheels 
passed  over  his  left  leg.  He  was  placed  on 
board  the  "Northumbrian,"  driven  by  George 
Stephenson,  who  conveyed  him  fifteen  miles 
in  twenty-five  minutes,  at  the  rate  of  thir 
ty-six  miles  an  hour — the  most  marvelous 
achievement  yet.  Mr.  Huskisson  died  the 
same  night  at  Eccles. 

The  "  Rocket"  engine  was  superseded  in 
1837,  as  too  light  for  the  work,  and  was  con 
demned  for  life  to  the  collieries.  Here  it 
proved  itself  capable  of  a  rate  of  sixty  miles 
an  hour ;  but  being  again  convicted  of  levi 
ty  while  on  duty,  it  was  cashiered,  and  its 
place  filled  by  heavier  machines  of  twelve 


tons.  After  a  few  years  of  inglorious  re 
tirement,  some  one,  not  totally  oblivious  of 
how  it  would  look  in  history,  recalled  the 
old  soldier  from  his  limbo,  and  he  now  en 
joys  the  company  of  his  elder  brother,  Hed- 
ley's  "  Puffing  Billy,"  in  the  English  Patent- 
office  Museum. 

The  boiler  (a)  of  the  "  Rocket"  was  a  cyl 
inder  six  feet  long,  and  had  twenty -five 
tubes.  The  fire-box  (6)  had  two  tubes  com 
municating  with  the  boiler  below  and  above, 
and  was  surrounded  by  an  exterior  casing, 
into  which  the  water  from  the  boiler  flowed, 
and  was  maintained  at  the  same  level  as  that 
in  the  boiler. 

In  the  accompanying  engraving  (B)  is 
shown  a  longitudinal  vertical  section  of  a 
modern  English  locomotive.  The  boiler  is 
surrounded  by  two  casings,  one  within  the 
other,  united  by  stays.  The  tubes  (a)  are 
of  brass,  124  in  number,  and  the  boiler  has 
longitudinal  stays  connecting  the  ends. 
Into  the  smoke-box  (&)  the  blast-pipe  (c) dis 
charges.  The  steam  from  the  upper  part 
of  the  boiler  enters  the  steam-dome  (d),  the 
amount  being  governed  by  a  regulator  con 
trolled  by  a  winch.  This  serves  to  obviate 
in  a  great  degree  the  effects  of  priming. 


ENGLISH    LOCOMOTIVES. 


AMERICAN  LOCOMOTIVE. 


AMERICAN   LOCOMOTIVE — CENTRAL   LONGITUDINAL   SECTION. 

The  engine  has  four  drivers,  60%  inches  in  diameter,  and  a  four-wheeled  swing-bolster  truck,  and  weighs, 
with  water  and  fuel,  about  65,000  pounds.  The  flues,  144  in  number,  are  2  inches  in  diameter,  and  11  feet  5 
inches  in  length.  The  fire-box,  of  cast  steel,  is  66  inches  long,  34"^  inches  wide,  and  63  inches  deep.  Water 
space,  3  inches  sides  and  back,  4  inches  front.  Grates,  cast  iron.  The  cylinders  are  horizontal.  Valve  motion 
graduated  to  cut  off  equally  at  all  points  of  the  stroke.  The  tires  are  of  cast  steel,  and  the  wheel  centres  of 
cast  iron  with  hollow  spokes  and  rims;  the  wrist  pins  of  cast  steel,  the  connecting  rods  of  hammered  iron. 
The  truck  wheels  are  28  inches  in  diameter.  All  the  principal  parts  of  these  engines  are  interchangeable. 


The  steam-pipe  (e)  has  two  branches,  each 
entering  one  of  the  boxes  containing  the 
valves  by  which  the  flow  of  steam  to  the 
cylinders  is  controlled. 

In  the  same  engraving  is  shown  an  ex 
press  engine  (C)  designed  by  Gooch  for  the 
Great  Western  Railway,  where  an  unusual 
rate  of  speed  is  maintained.  The  boiler  has 
305  tubes,  two  inches  in  diameter.  The  cyl 
inders  are  eighteen  inches  in  diameter,  and 
twenty-four  stroke,  the  driving-wheels  eight 
feet  in  diameter,  the  heating  surface  of  the 
fire-box  153  square  feet.  There  is  also  an 
illustration  (D)  of  an  express  engine  de 
signed  by  Crampton  for  the  narrow  gauge. 

The  first  locomotive  run  on  rails  outside 
of  England  was  the  "Stourbridge  Lion," 
made  by  Stephenson,  and  brought  from  En 
gland  for  the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal 
and  Railroad  Company  by  Horatio  Allen. 
This  was  in  August,  1829.  It  was  soon 
found  that  English  locomotives,  adapted  for 
gentle  curves,  were  ill  suited  for  the  exi 
gencies  of  American  railroads,  where  curves 
of  as  small  a  radius  as  200  feet  were  some 
times  employed.  Mr.  Peter  Cooper  devised 
an  engine  which  solved  the  difficulty.  This 
was  also  in  1829. 

The  first  railway  in  the  United  States  was 
one  of  two  miles  long,  from  Milton  to  Quiucy, 
Massachusetts,  in  1826.  The  cars  were  drawn 
by  horses.  The  Baltimore  and  Ohio  was  the 
first  passenger  railway  in  America,  fifteen 
miles  being  opened  in  1830,  the  cars  being 


drawn  by  horses  till  the  next  year,  when  a 
locomotive  was  put  on  the  track,  built  by 
Davis,  of  York,  Pennsylvania.  It  had  an 
upright  boiler  and  cylinder.  The  Mohawk 
and  Hudson,  sixteen  miles,  from  Albany  to 
Schenectady,  was  the  next  line  opened,  and 
the  cars  were  drawn  by  horses  till  the  de 
livery  of  the  locomotive  "  De  Witt  Clinton," 
which  was  built  at  the  West  Point  Foundry, 
New  York.  This  was  the  second  locomotive 
built  in  the  United  States ;  the  first  was 
made  at  the  same  shop  for  the  South  Caro 
lina  Railway. 

The  above  engraving  represents  a  central 
longitudinal  section  of  an  approved  form  of 
American  locomotive  engine  as  made  at  the 
Baldwin  Locomotive  Works,  Philadelphia. 

The  ordinary  speed  attained  on  English 
railways  is  greater 
than  that  usual  in 
this  country.  The 
Great  Western  Ex 
press,  from  London 
to  Exeter,  travels  at 
the  rate  of  forty- 
three  miles  an  hour, 
including  stoppages, 
or  fifty-one  miles  an 
hour  while  actually 
running.  Midway 
between  some  of  the 
stations  a  speed  of 
sixty  miles  an  hour 
is  attained,  and  on 


AMERICAN  LOCOMOTIVE — 
RNI>  ELEVATION  AND 
TRANSVERSE  SECTION. 


60 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


experimental  trips  seventy  miles  an  hour 
has  been  reached,  or  nearly  thirty -three 
yards  per  second. 

Very  high  speed  has  been  attained  on 
special  occasions  on  American  roads,  prob 
ably  fully  equal  to  any  time  ever  made  in 
England.  For  instance,  it  is  stated  that  a 
train  conveying  some  officials  of  the  New 
York  Central  Railroad  made  the  distance 
from  Rochester  to  Syracuse,  eighty -one 
miles,  in  sixty-one  minutes — said  to  be  the 
fastest  time  ever  made  in  America. 

The  life  of  a  locomotive  engine  is  stated 
in  a  paper  read  before  the  British  Associa 
tion  at  thirty  years.  Some  of  the  small 
parts  require  renewal  every  six  mouths. 
The  boiler  tubes  last  five  years,  and  the 
crank  axles  six  years ;  tires,  boilers,  and  fire 
boxes,  seven  to  ten  years ;  the  side  frames, 
axles,  and  other  parts,  thirty  years.  During 
this  period  the  total  cost  of  repairs  is  esti 
mated  at  $24,450  in  American  money,  the 
original  cost  of  the  engine  being  $8490.  It 
therefore  requires  for  repairs  in  eleven  years 
a  sum  equal  to  its  original  cost.  In  this  time 
it  is  estimated  that  an  engine  in  average  use 
lias  run  220,000  miles. 

COTTON  MANUFACTURE. 

Cotton  was  known  to  the  ancients  as  tree- 
wool,  being  mentioned  by  Herodotus,  Pliny, 
and  many  others.  It  was  introduced  into 
Spain  by  the  Arabs,  and  flourished  as  long 
as  religious  toleration  existed  in  the  penin 
sula,  and  from  this  land  it  reached  the  less 
civilized  parts  of  Europe.  When  the  best 
part  of  the  inhabitants  was  expelled,  when 
the  University  of  Cordova  became  a  thing 
forgotten  in  the  peninsula,  when  the  mem 
ory  of  Alhazen  was  lost,  and  the  era  of  the 
Pedros  and  Philips  commenced,  then  the 
cotton-plant  too  faded  away,  and  all  the  in 
dustries  growing  out  of  this  beautiful  staple 
expired. 

Cotton  was,  however,  known  to  the  Mexi 
cans  when  discovered  by  Cortez.  This  man 
without  a  conscience  sent  of  his  stolen  goods 
to  Charles  V.  "cotton  mantles,  some  all 
white,  others  mixed  with  white  and  black, 
or  red,  green,  yellow,  and  blue ;  waistcoats, 
counterpanes,  tapestries,  and  carpets  of  cot 
ton  ;  and  the  colors  of  the  cotton  were  ex 
tremely  fine."1 

1  Clavigero's  Conquest  of  Mexico. 


Although  there  are  several  native  Amer 
ican  varieties  of  cotton,  our  plant  is  a  native 
of  India,  and  it  has  formed  the  staple  mate 
rial  of  garments  there  from  time  immemorial. 

Cotton  goods  were  made  in  Manchester  in 
1641,  of  "  cotton-wool  brought  from  Smyrna 
and  Cyprus."  Cotton  seed  was  brought  to 
England  from  the  Levant,  taken  thence  to 
the  Bahamas,  and  thence  to  Georgia  in  1786. 
The  first  cotton  mill  in  America  was  at  Bev 
erly,  Massachusetts,  1787.  Slater's  mill  was 
erected  at  Pawtucket  in  1789.  Slater  was 
an  apprentice  of  Strutt  and  Arkwright,  and 
introduced  into  the  United  States  the  Ark 
wright  system  of  associated  and  combined 
machines,  being  the  founder  of  the  New 
England  factory  practice.  The  success  of 
these  mills  is  referred  to  in  the  report  of  Al 
exander  Hamilton,  Secretary  of  the  Treasu 
ry,  1791,  who  proposed  to  remove  the  duty 
on  cotton,  as  it  was  "  not  a  production  of . 
the  country,"  and  to  "extend  the  duty  of 
seven  and  a  half  per  cent,  to  all  imported 
cotton  goods." 

The  beauty  and  softness  of  the  goods 
made  of  this  material,  which  was  new  to  the 
people  of  Europe,  recommended  it  to  per 
sons  of  means  and  taste,  and  the  importa 
tion  from  India  assumed  large  proportions. 
The  names  of  calico  and  muslin,  from  Cali 
cut  and  Moussoul,  indicate  clearly  enough 
whence  the  market  was  supplied  at  an  early 
day.  The  English  manufacturers  struggled 
against  many  difficulties,  three  of  which  may 
be  named — the  lack  of  suitable  machinery ; 
the  opposition  of  the  wool  trade,  which  in 
duced  the  authorities  even  to  hang  crimi 
nals  in  cotton  garments  to  render  the  goods 
unpopular ;  and  the  lack  of  supply  of  cotton. 

The  cotton  from  the  boll  yields  only  from 
one-quarter  to  one-third  ginned  fibre,  and 
the  labor  of  removing  the  seed  by  hand 
seemed  at  this  critical  moment  to  set  a  lim 
it  to  the  production,  or  at  least  render  it  so 
expensive  that  the  goods  could  not  come 
into  general  use  among  the  masses  of  the 
people,  who  were  used  to  being  tolerably 
well  fed  and  housed,  and  could  not  live  on 
twopence  a  day  and  support  their  families, 
like  the  Hindoos.  It  is  true  that  in  India  a 
sort  of  roller-gin  had  been  in  use  from  time 
immemorial — one  which  pinched  the  fibre 
and  carried  it  away  from  the  seed,  whose 
size  prevented  it  from  passing  between  the 


COTTON-GIN  AND  CARDING-MACHINE. 


61 


rollers;  but  this  was  comparatively  slow, 
and  does  not  appear  to  have  been  known  in 
America,  where  the  hand-picking  was  in 
vogue.  Besides,  it  is  only  suitable  for  cer 
tain  staples  of  cotton.  The  great  need  of 
the  producer  and  the  manufacturer  was  a 
machine  to  remove  the  cotton  from  the  seed 
with  rapidity  and  economy. 

At  this  juncture  appears  Eli  Whitney,  of 
Massachusetts,  who  in  1794  patented  the 
cotton-gin.  The  name  gin  is  short  for  engine, 
and  is  a  frequent  curt  expression  for  a 
handy  machine.  Whitney's  saw-gin  (A)  com 
prises  two  cylinders  of  different  diameters 
mounted  in  a  wooden  frame,  and  turned  by 
a  handle  or  belt  and  pulley  so  as  to  rotate 
in  opposite  directions,  the  brush  cylinder 
the  faster.  The  smaller  cylinder  carries  on 
its  circumference  from  sixty  to  eighty  cir 
cular  saws,  and  the  larger  cylinder  a  series 
of  brushes.  The  teeth  of  the  saws  pass  in 
between  a  number  of  bars,  forming  a  grat 
ing.  The  cotton,  as  picked  from  the  pods, 
is  thrown  into  the  hopper;  the  saws  strip 
the  fibre  from  the  seeds,  which  fall  through 
the  bottom  of  the  hopper,  while  the  wool  is 
cleansed  from  the  teeth  of  the  saws,  and  de 
livered  by  a  sloping  table  into  a  recepta 
cle  below.  A  more  modern  and  complete 
form  of  the  machine  (B)  is  shown  in  our  en 
graving. 

The  crop  of  cotton  increased  from  189,316 
pounds  in  1791  to  2,000,000,000  pounds  in 
1859.  Whitney  and  his  partner  received 
$50,000  from  the  State  of  South  Carolina, 
and  a  tariff  of  so  much  per  saw  per  annum 
from  the  States  of  North  Carolina  and 
Georgia  for  a  short  term  of  years. 

After  the  gin  come  the  opener  and  scutcher, 
which  separate  the  locks  of  cotton,  remove 
the  dirt,  and  convert  the  tangled  fibre  into 
a  light  and  flocculent  tat  or  lap.  The  ma 
chines  of  this  stage  of  the  process  have  a 
number  of  names,  the  marks  of  the  rough 
humor  of  the  Lancashire  men  among  whom 
they  originated.  They  were  known  as  wil- 
lowers,  from  the  practice  of  beating  with 
willow  wands,  or  as  devils  and  wolves,  from 
their  toothed  drums,  which  tore  the  locks 
apart,  the  fibre  passing  from  one  to  anoth 
er,  and  the  dust  and  dirt  being  carried  off 
by  a  suction  blast,  or  falling  through  the 
meshes  of  wire-cloth  into  a  box  beneath  the 
machine. 


WHITNEY'S  COTTON-GIN. 

The  carding-machine  reduces  the  mass  of 
cotton  to  a  fleece  or  sliver,  the  fibres  laid 
parallel,  so  that  they  may  be  drawn  and 
twisted  into  a  yarn.  Hand  cards  were  not 
superseded  by  machine  cards  until  about 
1770,  although  attempts  had  been  made  at 
carding -machines  by  Lewis  Paul  in  1748, 
and  by  Hargreaves  in  1760.  To  the  latter, 
to  Arkwright,  and  to  Mr.  Peele,  the  father 
of  the  first  Sir  Eobert  and  the  grandfather 
of  the  statesman,  the  invention  is  ascribed. 
It  was  hardly  possible  that  this  necessary 
link  in  the  chain  of  machines  should  long 
lack  a  discoverer. 

Lewis  Paul  in  his  patent  of  1748  had  a 
number  of  parallel  cards  on  a  bed,  or  on  a 
cylinder,  with  intervening  spaces.  It  was 
used  in  connection  with  an  upper  card  or  a 
concave,  and  when  the  strips  were  full  they 
were  taken  off,  and  the  roving  removed  from 
each.  Peele  in  1779  introduced  the  cylinder. 
His  machine  had  strips  of  card  around  the 
drum  to  give  separate  silvers  or  cardings,  and 
a  can,  which  rotated  on  its  base,  to  give  a 
slight  twist  to  the  rovings.  This  was  per 
haps  the  first  roving  can.  The  card-sticking 
machine  was  invented  by  Amos  Whittemore, 
of  Massachusetts,  and  patented  by  him  in 
1797. 

Next  in  order  of  operation,  though  the 
first  to  feel  the  rising  tide  of  invention,  was 
the  spinning  machine.  In  ancient  Egypt, 


MECHANICAL  PEOGRESS. 


SPINNING-WHEEL. 

Phoenicia,  Arabia,  India,  Greece,  and  Eome 
the  distaff  and  spindle  were  the  means  of 
spinning.  The  spinning-wheel  may  have  orig 
inated  among  our  cousins  of  Hindostan,  as 
it  was  certainly  known  there  at  a  somewhat 
distant  period ;  it  appears  in  our  illuminated 
missals  of  the  fourteenth  century,  but  only 
among  the  lady  population,  being  used  by 
spinsters  and  matrons  of  rank.  The  great 
bulk  of  the  spinning  was  by  the  distaff, 
which  indeed  is  still  used  in  many  parts  of 
the  continent  of  Europe.  Among  English- 
speaking  peoples  it  survived  latest  in  the 
flax-wheel,  in  which  a  continuous  thread  was 
spun  from  a  tussock  of  combed  flax  held 
upon  a  distaff  at  one  end  of  the  machine. 

So  far  as  we  are  concerned,  the  commence 
ment  of  our  century  finds  the  spinning  of 
cotton  and  wool  in  the  condition  of  many 
previous  ages  and  centuries ;  it  was  done 
upon  hand  spinning-wheels.  This  was  true 
as  to  work  done  for  the  household  and  that 
which  was  done  in  the  way  of  business,  be 
ing  distributed  by  the  spinning  masters  of 
a  neighborhood  to  the  operatives,  who  did 
the  work  at  their  own  houses.  When  Har- 
greaves  invented  the  spinning-jenny  in  1768 
cotton  and  woolen  mills  were  unknown. 

The  wool  being  carded  into  rolls  in  which 
the  fibres  were  arranged  in  one  direction,  the 
spinner  attached  the  end  of  one  to  the  spindle, 
which  was  then  revolved  by  whirling  the 
large  wheel,  a  band  passing  over  the  periph 


ery  of  the  latter  and  over  a  little  pulley  on 
the  spindle.  The  left  hand  of  the  opera 
tor  drew  out  the  roll  as  it  was  twisted,  the 
degree  of  its  elongation  and  the  hardness  of 
the  twist  depending  upon  the  distance  it  was 
pulled  out  and  the  number  of  revolutions. 
In  practice,  the  spinner  steps  back  a  dis 
tance  after  setting  the  wheel  a-whirling, 
and,  when  the  twist  is  satisfactory,  by  shift 
ing  the  yarn  from  the  point  to  the  shaft  of 
the  spindle,  and  then  setting  the  spindle 
again  in  motion,  the  yarn  is  wound  upon 
the  spindle,  excepting  the  end  of  the  yarn, 
which  is  left  projecting  from  the  point  for 
the  attachment  of  another  roll.  Another 
feature  must  also  be  noticed,  as  it  has  a  very 
close  bearing  upon  what  was  followed  in  the 
most  perfect  known  spinning  machine,  the 
mule,  of  which  more  presently.  The  spin 
ner,  after  drawing  out  the  roll,  giving  the 
wheel  a  whirl,  and  walking  backward  from 
it,  dropped  tho  roving,  and  then,  advancing 
to  the  spindle,  took  the  roving  between  the 
finger  and  thumb ;  then,  giving  a  rapid  rev 
olution  to  the  wheel,  she  walked  backward 
away,  allowing  the  roving  to  slip  through 
the  grip  with  just  such  friction  as  would 
secure  the  required  tightness  of  twist.  This 
done,  the  yarn  was  wound  upon  the  spindle, 
and  the  double  process  repeated  with  an 
other  carded  roll. 

This  was  the  way  with  wool,  and  subse 
quently  with  cotton ;  but  it  was  not  until 
the  rising  demand  for  cotton  yarn  occurred 
that  machinery  was  invented  to  supplement 
the  individual  exertions  of  the  spinner. 
Machinery  was  first  applied  to  silk,  but  the 
material  was  expensive,  the  demand  limit 
ed,  and  the  process  essentially  different. 
Lewis  Paul  led  off  in  this  line  of  invention 
in  his  patent  of  1738,  in  which  he  introduced 
the  idea  of  successive  pairs  of  drawing  roll 
ers  for  elongating  the  roving,  the  speed  of  the 
consecutive  pairs  increasing  so  that  each 
pulled  upon  the  roving  between  it  and  the 
preceding  pair,  the  eventual  extension  de 
pending  upon  the  relative  rates  of  the  in 
crease  of  speed  of  the  successive  pairs.  He 
also  gave  to  one  or  more  of  the  pairs  of  roll 
ers  a  revolution  in  a  plane  at  right  angles 
to  that  of  their  individual  rotation,  so  as  to 
give  a  twist  to  the  yarn.  This  invention  is 
said  to  have  originated  with  Wyatt,  Paul 
being  only  a  promoter;  however  that  may 


SPINNING-JENNY. 


63 


have  been,  it  was  not  successful,  owing, 
doubtless,  partly  to  want  of  skill  in  tbe 
making,  aud  also  to  intrinsic  difficulties,  for 
the  same  invention,  in  a  modified  form,  was 
patented  in  1848,  and  had  a  fair  trial  on  a 
large  scale  in  Khode  Island  before  it  was 
finally  abandoned. 

In  1758  Lewis  Paul  tried  again  to  adapt 
machinery  to  the  work.  This  invention 
was  the  precursor  of  the  bobbin-and-fly  frame. 
He  seems  to  have  been  unfortunate  in  his 
combinations. 

The  cardings  being  attached  endwise,  are 
fed  between  rollers  which  deliver  the  long 
sliver  to  a  bobbin,  which  takes  it  up  faster 
as  to  length  than  it  is  delivered  by  the  roll 
ers,  and  so  stretches  it  according  to  the 
quality  required.  There  is  an  indistinct 
intimation  of  a  flyer  in  the  drawing  of  this 
machine  in  the  stretch  between  the  feed 
rollers  and  the  bobbins.  Had  he  put  the 
drawing  rollers  of  his  former  patent  to  the 
feed  rollers  and  bobbin  of  his  new  one,  he 
might,  perhaps,  have  forestalled  Arkwright. 

Hargreaves's  spinning-jenny  was  the  direct 
outgrowth  of  the  spinning-wheel,  unlike 
the  Paul  draiving  head,  which  had  a  radical 
ly  different  construction.  Something  had 
to  be  done  to  meet  the  increased  demand 
for  cotton  yarn.  James  Hargreaves  was  the 
man  for  the  occasion.  It  is  said  that  the 
first  suggestion  in  the  right  direction  was 
caused  by  the  upsetting  of  a  spinning-wheel 
by  one  of  his  children.  It  continued  to  run 
when  the  spindle  was  vertical.  Here  was  the 
solution.  He  had  frequently  tried  to  spin 
several  yarns  at  once  on  as  many  spindles, 
but  the  latter  being  horizontal,  the  yarns 
interfered.  He  made  a  machine  in  1764 
with  eight  vertical  spindles  in 
a  row,  fed  by  eight  rovings, 
which  were  held  by  a  fluted 
wooden  clasp  of  two  parallel 
slats.  The  ends  of  the  rovings 
being  attached  to  the  spindles, 
the  wheel  was  revolved  by 
the  right  hand,  rotating  the 
spindles,  and  the  clasp  which 
lightly  clipped  the  rovings 
was  drawn  away  from  the 
spindles,  paying  out  the  rov 
ing,  which  was  twisted  by  the 
rotation  of  the  spindles,  and 
stretched  by  the  retraction  of 


the  clasp  and  the  amount  taken  up  by  the 
twist.  When  the  clasp  reached  the  back 
of  the  machine  the  yarn  was  wound  on  the 
spindles,  the  clasp  resumed  its  place  near 
them,  fresh  rovings  were  pieced  on  to  the 
ends  of  the  former  ones,  and  the  work  was 
repeated. 

The  clasp  was,  as  it  were,  a  long  finger 
and  thumb  to  hold  a  row  of  rovings,  and 
the  machine  was  eventually  made  to  con 
tain  as  many  as  eighty  spindles.  Hargreaves 
spun  in  secret  so  much  yarn  that  the  jeal 
ous  workmen  broke  into  his  house  and  de 
stroyed  the  machine.  He  deviated  a  little 
from  his  first  design  in  drafting  the  specifi 
cation  for  his  patent  of  1770.  He  there  had 
a  series  of  bobbins  holding  slubs — soft  rov 
ings  having  but  little  twist — which  pass 
from  thence  to  a  row  of  spindles,  all  ro 
tated  from  a  common  driving-wheel.  Be 
tween  the  two,  with  divisions  for  the  slubs, 
was  a  clasp,  Avhich  was  managed  by  the  left 
hand,  to  bring  such  a  pressure  upon  the  rov 
ing  as  the  required  twist  might  warrant. 
A  presser-wire  regulated  the  winding  of  the 
yarn  on  the  spindles  in  the  intervals  of 
spinning. 

It  being  proved  that  he  had  sold  several 
of  his  machines  before  his  application  for  a 
patent,  the  latter  was  set  aside,  and  he  nev 
er  was  reasonably  remunerated. 

When  the  machine  of  Arkwright,  which 
is  next  in  order  of  date,  came  into  use,  the 
spinning-jenny  of  Hargreaves  still  held  its 
superiority  in  yarn,  the  product  being  used 
for  the  weft,  while  the  icater-twist  of  the  Ark 
wright  roller-machine  Avas  used  for  the  warp. 
Subsequently  the  principal  features  of  the 
jenny  were  embodied  with  others  selected 


HABGREAVES  8  SPINNING-JENNY. 


64 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


AKKWKIOHT'S  SPINNING  MACHINE  (FKOM  TUB  ORIGINAL  DRAWING). 

from  the  Arkwright  draiving  frame  to  form 
what  was  playfully  termed  the  mule,  by 
which  name  it  is  universally  known  up  to 
date.  It  was  said  also  that  until  the  inven 
tion  of  the  Arkwright  machine  cotton  yarn 
was  seldom  used  for  warp,  owing  to  its  soft 
ness  and  weakness,  the  jenny  not  giving  a 
sufficiently  hard  twist  to  bear  the  strain  of 
the  loom.  Goods  were  therefore  usually 
made,  at  the  period  referred  to,  with  a  linen 
warp  and  cotton  woof. 

Arkwright's  invention  for  "  making  of 
weft  or  yarn  from  cotton,  flax,  and  wool," 
patented  1769,  was  the  most  brilliant  of  its 
time  and  class.  It  was  designed  to  be  driven 
by  horse-power,  a  band  from  a  drum  on  the 
master- wheel  shaft  giving  motion  to  the  va 
rious  parts.  It  was  much  improved  in  later 
years,  and  was  driven  by  water-power  after 
its  success  justified  larger  operations.  This 
soon  followed,  and  in  1785  steam-power  was 
first  applied  to  cotton  spinning.  The  cotton 
rovings  were  wound  upon  large  bobbins  at 
the  back  upper  part  of  the  machine,  and 
were  drawn  from  them  by  four  pairs  of 
drawing  rollers,  which,  moving  with  a  gradu 
ated  accelerated  speed,  elongated  the  rov 
ings,  and  passed  them  to  the  flyers  and 
spindles  on  the  lower  part  of  the  machine. 


The  four  essen 
tial  parts  of  this 
apparatus  have 
not  been  dis 
pensed  with  in 
ordinary  spin 
ning,  and  con 
stitute  the  tob- 
Jnn-and-fly  frame, 
or  roving -frame, 
which  bids  fair  to 
hold  its  ground 
for  spinning  or 
dinary  numbers 
to  the  end  of 
time. 

The  drawing 
rollers  were  sug 
gested  by  the 
Lewis  Paul  ma 
chine  of  1738; 
but  the  flyers 
and  the  general 
combination  are 
of  the  highest 

order  of  merit,  and  are  to  be  attributed  to 
Arkwright. 

Reference  has  been  made  in  the  introduc 
tory  remarks  to  the  factory  system  initiated 
by  Arkwright  in  his  cotton  mills,  1768-1785. 
Arkwright  was  the  first  man  to  associate 
consecutively  the  various  processes  in  cot 
ton  manufacture  under  the  same  roof.  This 
series  of  machines  for  carding,  drawing,  and 
roving  was  patented  in  1785,  and  from  Ark 
wright's  period  we  date  the  origin  of  the 
factory  system.  This  was  the  year  after  the 
ratification  by  Congress  of  the  definitive 
treaty  of  peace  signed  at  Paris,  and  four 
years  before  Washington  became  President. 
Thenceforward  the  system  had  but  .to 
grow  and  extend ;  to  grow,  in  bringing  oth- 
£r  departments  of  the  cotton  manufacture, 
and  eventually  those  of  wool,  flax,  and 
hemp,  into  the  same  method;  to  extend, 
in  respect  of  its  boundaries,  geographical 
and  economical — the  latter  by  the  inaugura 
tion  of  parallel  practices  in  other  interests, 
such  as  the  working  of  metal,  leather,  and 
wood. 

The  invention  of  cotton  machinery  was 
no  exception  to  the  general  rule :  Arkwright 
did  best  what  had  been  attempted  before. 
Arkwright  had  his  Lewis  Paul,  just  as  Fulton 


MULE  SPINNER. 


65 


had  his  Symington  and  Rumsey,  and  as  Ste- 
pheuson  bad  bis  Trevetbick  and  Hedley. 

Many  otber  improvements  migbt  be  cited, 
such  as  Jenks's  ring-and-traveler  spinner,  if 
we  bad  tbe  space.  Tbe  list  of  spinning  ma- 
cbiues  closes  with  tbe  mule,  and  at  present 
there  is  nothing  better  to  offer.  The  per 
fected  mule  has  been  called  the  "  iron  man" 
from  the  wondrous  skill  with  which  it  oper 
ates.  Apparently  instinct  with  life  and  feel 
ing,  it  performs  its  allotted  course  as  implic 
itly  as  a  mere  water-wheel,  but  the  exqui 
site  provisions  for  timing  —  what  may  be 
called  the  opportuneness  of  its  movements 
— give  it  an  air  of  volition  and  prevision. 
These  features  belong  to  the  automatic  mule, 
or  the  self-acting  mule,  as  it  also  called.  It 
was  not  thus  in  the  original  mule  of  Cromp- 
ton.  In  this  the  main  features  were  present, 
but  were  brought  into  and  continued  in  ac 
tion  by  the  care  and  judgment  of  the  opera 
tor. 

Samuel  Crompton  was  a  young  weaver 
when  he  applied  his  mind  to  the  solution  of 
the  problem  how  to  make  a  machine  which 
should  avoid  certain  faults  present  in  the 
Hargreaves  and  the  Arkwright  machines. 
This  he  succeeded  in  doing  in  1779.  He 
placed  his  spindles  on  a  traveling  carriage, 
which  backed  away  from  the  roving  bob 
bins  to  stretch  and  twist  a  length  of  the  rov- 
ings,  and  then  ran  back  to  wind  the  'yarn 
upon  the  spindles.  The  immediate  object 
was  to  deliver  the  roving  with  the  required 
degree  of  attenuation,  and  twist  it  as  deliv 
ered.  The  work  of  this  machine  was  finer 
than  any  heretofore  produced,  and  the  im 
proved  self-acting  mule  still  maintains  its 
superior  character.  Even  at  the  first  it  was 
called  the  "  muslin  wheel,"  as  its  yarns  ri 
valed  in  softness  the  finer  kinds  from  India. 
Crompton  took  no  patent  for  it,  but  was  re 
warded  with  a  Parliamentary  grant  of  £5000 
thirty -three  years  afterward.  He  died  in 
1827. 

Previous  to  the  invention  of  the  mule  few 
spinners  could  make  yarns  of  200  hanks  to 
the  pound,  the  hank  being  always  840  yards. 
The  natives  of  India  were  at  the  same  time 
making  yarns  of  numbers  varying  from  300 
to  400.  By  the  best  constructed  mules  yarn 
has  been  made  in  Manchester  of  number  700, 
which  was  woven  in  France.  The  illustra 
tion  will  give  an  idea  of  the  machine,  tbougli 


MULE  SPUTNEB. 


it  has  not  the  complicated  parts  of  the  self- 
acting  mule. 

The  mule  of  Crompton  had  only  twenty 
to  thirty  spindles,  and  the  distance  traveled 
by  tbe  carriage  was  five  feet.  The  distance 
traveled  is  now  much  greater,  and  some 
mules  carry  1200  spindles. 

The  draAviug  and  stretching  action  of  the 
mule  spinner  makes  the  yarn  finer  and  of  a 
more  uniform  tenuity  than  tbe  mere  draw 
ing  and  twisting  action  of  tbe  throstle.  As 
delivered  by  the  rollers,  tbe  thread  is  thick 
er  in  some  parts  than  in  others ;  these  thick 
er  parts,  not  being  so  effectually  twisted  as 
the  smaller  parts,  are  softer,  and  yield  more 
readily  to  the  stretching  power  of  the  mule ; 
by  this  means  the  twist  becomes  more  equa 
ble  throughout  the  yarn. 

The  mule  carriage  carrying  the  spindles 
recedes  from  the  rollers  with  a  velocity  some 
what  greater  than  the  rate  of  delivery  of 
the  reduced  roving,  the  rapid  revolution  of 
the  spindles  giving  a  twist  to  the  yarn, 
which  stretches  it  still  farther.  When  the 
rollers  cease  giving  out  the  roviugs,  the 
mule  spinner  still  continues  to  recede,  its 
spindles  still  revolving,  and  thus  the  stretch 
ing  is  effected. 

When  the  drawing,  stretching,  and  twisting 
of  the  yarn  are  thus  accomplished,  the  mule 
disengages  itself  from  the  parts  of  tbe  car 
riage  by  which  it  has  been  driven,  and  the 
carnage  is  returned  to  the  rollers,  the  thread 
being  wound  in  a  cop  upon  tbe  spindle  as 
the  carriage  returns. 

The  specific  difference  between  the  action 
of  the  throstle  and  the  mule  is,  that  the 


66 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


former  has  a  continuous  action  upon  the 
roving,  drawing,  twisting,  and  winding  it  upon 
the  spindle,  while  the  mule  draws  and  twists 
at  one  operation  as  the  carriage  runs  out, 
and  then  winds  all  the  lengths  upon  the 
spindles  as  the  carriage  runs  in.  The  auto 
matic  disengagement  is  the  invention  of 
Roberts,  in  1830,  and  of  Mason. 

The  jenny  and  the  drawing  frame  being 
fairly  at  work,  the  cry  was  now,  "  What  is 
to  become  of  the  yarn  ?  there  will  not  be 
hands  enough  to  weave  it."  The  Rev.  Ed 
mund  Cartwright  set  himself  to  the  solution 
of  the  problem,  and  took  out  a  patent  for  a 
power-loom  in  1785,  and  a  second  in  1787. 
He  was  at  great  expense,  and  worked  under 
the  disadvantage  of  being  a  poor  mechanic, 
having  very  little  judgment  in  the  propor 
tion  of  parts  or  the  convenient  modes  for 
the  transmission  of  motion.  One  of  the 
great  difficulties  in  his  way  was  in  the  fluffy 
and  spongy  character  of  the  warp,  and  in 
the  necessity  for  stopping  the  loom  to  dress 
a  length  of  warp.  This  was  avoided  by  the 
invention  of  the  sizing  and  dressing  machine 
of  Radcliffe,  of  Stockport,  in  1802,  which  took 
the  yarns  from  the  warping  machine,  carried 
them  between  two  rollers,  one  of  which  re 
volved  in  a  reservoir  of  thin  paste,  then  be 
tween  brushes,  which  rid  the  yarns  of  super 
fluous  and  uneven  paste,  then  over  a  heat 
ed  copper  box,  which  dried  them,  and  then 
wound  them  on  the  yarn-beam  of  the  loom. 
The  power-loom  was  only  extensively  adopt 
ed  about  1801 — the  year  of  expiration  of 


Cartwright's  principal  patent.  He  received 
£10,000  from  Parliament.  The  justness  of 
Cartwright's  claim  to  the  power-loom  maybe 
appreciated  when  it  is  stated  that  his  loom, 
patented  in  1787,  has  automatic  mechanical 
devices  to  operate  all  parts.  It  was  a  memo 
rable  success  for  a  man  of  letters,  whose  first 
attempt  at  a  power-loom  was  made  in  1784, 
before  he  had  ever  seen  a  loom.  Eventually, 
by  the  exertions  of  Horrocks,  of  Stockport, 
in  1803,  and  the  adaptation  of  the  steam- 
engine  to  the  work,  the  power-loom  became 
fixed  in  use.  Jacquard,  of  Lyons,  France, 
Roberts,  of  Manchester,  England,  and  more 
lately  Bigelow,  Crompton,  and  Lyall,  of  this 
country,  have  brought  the  machine  to  a  de 
gree  of  perfection  which  is  a  marvel  to  the 
uninitiated,  and  an  object  of  respect  to  those 
who  happen  to  be  a  little  better  informed  in 
technical  matters. 

It  may  be  mentioned  that  the  mill  at  Wal- 
tham,  Massachusetts,  erected  in  1813,  was  the 
first  in  the  world  in  which  were  combined 
machines  for  all  the  processes  which  convert 
the  raw  cotton  into  cloth.  The  mills  of  Ark- 
wright,  at  Cromford,  in  Derbyshire,  erected 
1771-75,  and  that  of  Slater,  at  Pawtucket, 
Rhode  Island,  1790,  had  no  power-looms. 

Crompton  is  a  name  twice  famous  in  the 
history  of  the  manufacture  of  fibre.  His 
loom,  represented  in  the  accompanying  cut, 
is  not  a  loom  for  cotton,  but  a  more  compli 
cated  structure  for  figure  -  weaving,  as  in 
carpet-making. 

The  Jacquard  loom  is  the  most  distiuct- 


OBOMITON'S  FANCY  LOOM. 


WEAVING  AND  DYEING. 


67 


ively  curious  in  the  list  of  looms.  Jac- 
quard,  of  Lyons,  is  reported  to  have  con 
ceived  the  idea  in  1790,  and  in  1801  he 
received  from  the  National  Exposition  a 
bronze  medal  for  his  invention  of  a  machine 
for  figure-weaving,  which  he  patented. 

The  appendage  to  the  loom  which  consti 
tutes  the  Jacquard  attachment  is  to  elevate 
or  depress  the  warp  threads  for  the  recep 
tion  of  the  shuttle,  the  action  being  pro 
duced  by  cards  with  punched  holes,  which 
admit  the  passage  of  needles  which  gov 
ern  the  warp  threads.  The  holes  in  a  card 
represent  the  warps  to  be  raised  for  a  cer 
tain  passage  of  the  shuttle,  and  the  needles, 
dropping  into  the  holes,  govern  the  forma 
tion  of  the  shed  so  that  the  required  threads 
of  warp  come  to  the  surface.  The  next  card 
governs  the  next  motion  of  the  warps ;  and 
so  on,  the  required  color  being  brought  up 
or  kept  up,  as  the  case  may  be.  For  figured 
stuff",  from  the  finest  silk  to  the  most  solid 
carpet,  figured  velvets  and  Wilton  carpets, 
we  are  indebted  to  the  genius  of  Jacquard, 
who  made  it  possible  to  do  by  machinery 
what  was  before  an  expensive  operation 
requiring  skillful  hands. 

While  the  art  of  the  dyer  is  as  old  as 
Tyre,  and  the  colors  of  antiquity  are  not, 
perhaps,  excelled  in  lustre  and  stability,  the 
variety  has  increased,  and  the  modes  have 
become  more  numerous  and  cheap.  Dye 
baths  and  mordants  were  well  understood  in 
India  two  thousand  years  ago,  as  were  also 
one  or  more  styles  of  calico-printing,  includ 
ing  chintz  patterns  and  the  resist  process, 
which  helped  to  make  the  fortunes  of  the 
Peele  family. 

Pliny  refers  to  the  skill  of  the  Egyptians 
as  "  wonderful"  in  imparting  to  white  robes 
a  number  of  colors  by  steeping  "  with  dye- 
absorbing  drugs"  (mordants),  after  which 
the  goods  take  on  several  tints  when  boiled 
in  a  dye  bath  of  one  color.  Cortez  was  met 
in  Mexico  by  people  who  wore  cotton  dresses 
with  Dolly  Varden  patterns  in  black,  blue, 
red,  yellow,  and  green. 

These  instances,  which  are  but  a  tithe  of 
what  offers,  show  that  calico-printing  is  old 
enough,  and,  indeed,  it  was  practiced  as  a 
profession  at  Augsburg  at  the  latter  part  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  about  which  tune 
it  was  introduced  into  England.  Hand  proc 
esses,  however,  were  all  that  were  known. 


Their  nature  it  .is  not  so  easy  to  determine, 
but  Robert  Peele,  a  farmer  of  Blackburn,  in 
vented  the  method  of  printing  by  blocks,  each 
cut  out  to  correspond  with  its  part  of  the 
pattern,  and  laid  in  apposition  by  means 
of  register  pins.  This  may  have  been  about 
1776,  a  year  or  two  before  his  invention  of 
the  mangle  and  the  cylinder  carding-machine, 
the  roller  principle  of  which  seems  to  have 
suggested  the  calico-printing  machine  (1785), 
which  has  its  pattern  engraved  on  the  face 
of  a  cylinder,  and  which,  with  various  im 
provements  in  detail,  remains  in  use  to  the 
present  day.  The  object  he  chose  for  his 
first  attempt  at  hand-printing  was  a  pars 
ley  leaf.  The  women  of  his  family  ironed 
the  goods,  and  he  was  long  called,  without 
intentional  disparagement,  "  Parsley  -  leaf 
Peele." 

In  this  machine  the  pattern  for  each  color 
is  engraved  on  a  cylinder  which  revolves  so 
as  to  dip  its  lower  surface  in  a  trough  of 
color ;  the  face  of  each  cylinder  is  scraped 
clean  by  a  blade  called  a  doctor,  leaving  the 
color  only  in  the  engraved  lines ;  the  cloth 
passes  against  the  cylinders  in  turn,  and  re 
ceives  a  portion  of  its  pattern  from  each. 
By  an  American  improvement  the  number 
of  cylinders  which  may  be  applied  to  each 
web  is  increased  to  twelve.  The  mode  of 
engraving  the  cylinders  has  undergone  a 
complete  change  since  the  invention  by  Ja 
cob  Perkins,  of  Massachusetts,  of  the  roller- 
die  and  transfer  process,  in  which  a  design 
on  an  engraved  and  subsequently  hardened 
steel  die  is  impressed  into  the  copper  cylin 
der  in  repetition  to  any  required  extent. 

Robert  Peele  was  also  fortunate  in  secur 
ing  two  very  valuable  processes,  known  as 
the  discharge  and  resist  styles.  The  latter  he 
is  said  to  have  bought  of  a  commercial  trav 
eler  for  £5,  and  to  have  made  £250,000  by 
it.  The  discharge  style  is  a  process  in  which 
the  cloth  is  printed  with  a  material  which 
prevents  the  mordant  from  becoming  fast,  so 
that  when  the  dye  is  applied  and  the  cloth 
washed,  the  dye  is  not  fast  at  those  places. 
The  resist  style  is  one  in  which  the  cloth 
has  a  pattern  printed  in  paste,  and  is  then 
dyed  in  indigo.  The  paste  resists  the  color 
ing  matter,  and  these  parts  are  white  on  a 
blue  ground  when  the  cloth  is  washed. 

The  name  of  Peele,  the  self-taught  dyer 
and  mechanic,  and  his  son  and  grandson,  the 


68 


MECHANICAL  PROGKESS. 


two  Sir  Roberts,  the  latter  being  the  states 
man  who  was  killed  by  a  fall  from  his  horse 
in  1850,  are  iudissolubly  associated  with  the 
cotton  manufacture,  and  more  specifically 
with  the  carding  and  the  calico-printing. 

IRON. 

Early  memorials  point  to  the  use  of 
stone  and  flint,  of  copper  and  bronze, 
before  the  era  of  iron  commenced,  though 
the  extraction  of  iron  from  its  ore  and  its 
forging  into  shape  antedate  the  historic  pe 
riod.  Moses  and  the  Hebrew  chroniclers, 
1450-700  B.C.,  Job,  Homer,  Ezekiel,  Hesiod, 
Aristotle,  Thucydides,  Xenophon,  Diodorus, 
and  Pliny  refer  to  the  metal.  It  has  been 
found  by  Belzoni,  Vyce,  Abbott,  and  Mari- 
ette  in  positions  which  indicate  its  use  at 
the  building  of  the  Pyramids  and  the  erec 
tion  of  the  Sphinxes,  and  by  Layard  at 
Ximroud.  The  production  of  iron  in  large 
quantities  is,  however,  quite  recent,  and  the 
casting  of  it  was  an  unexpected  result  inci 
dent  to  the  enlargement  of  the  furnace,  the 
increased  power  of  blast,  and  perhaps  in 
part  to  the  working  of  certain  ores  which 
were  not  so  tractable  under  rude  methods. 

Pure  iron  is  almost  infusible,  and  the  an 
cient  processes  succeeded  in  reducing  the 
metal  to  a  spongy  condition,  the  impurities 
being  removed  by  fluxes  in  the  form  of  a 
slag,  and  by  subsequent  hammering  and 
reheating.  The  product  was  a  steel,  and 
was  produced  in  one  process  from  the  ore. 
In  many  parts  of  the  world  very  widely 
separated  the  same  methods  were  used.  In 
small  cold-blast  furnaces  rich  ore  is  heat 
ed  in  contact  with  incandescent  charcoal, 
the  viscid  mass  being  hammered  to  remove 
earthy  impurities.  This  plan  is  yet  prac 
ticed  in  India,  Africa,  Malaya,  Madagascar, 
and  formed  the 

"  Mass  of  iron,  shapeless  from  the  forge," 

offered  by  Achilles  as  a  prize  at  the  funer 
al  games  of  Patroclus,  recorded  in  Homer's 
Iliad. 

Dr.  Livingstone  refers  to  the  iron-smelt 
ing  furnaces  of  the  tribes  encountered  in 
his  Expedition  to  the  Zambesi.  The  articles 
produced  by  these  peoples  are  hammers, 
tongs,  hoes,  adzes,  fish-hooks,  needles,  and 
spear -heads.  The  assagais  of  the  Caflres 
are  made  of  iron  similarly  procured,  and 


of  excellent  quality.  The  wootz  of  India 
is  still  produced  in  the  manner  partially 
described  by  Aristotle  when  speaking  of 
India,  and  by  Diodorus  Siculus,  referring  to 
the  iron  ores  of  the  island  of  Ethalia. 


IKON   FUBNAOK   OF  THE   KOLS,  UINDOSTAN. 

Our  illustration  represents  a  blast-furuace 
of  the  Kols,  a  tribe  of  iron  smelters  in  Lower 
Bengal  and  Orissa.  The  men  are  nomads, 
going  from  place  to  place,  as  the  abundance 
of  ore  and  wood  may  prompt  them.  The 
charcoal  in  the  furnace  being  well  ignited, 
ore  is  fed  in  alternately  with  charcoal,  the 
fuel  resting  on  the  inclined  tray,  so  as  to  be 
readily  raked  in.  As  the  metal  sinks  to  the 
bottom,  slag  runs  oif  at  an  aperture  above 
the  basin,  which  is  occupied  by  a  viscid  mass 
of  iron.  The  blowers  are  two  boxes  with 
skin  covers,  which  are  alternately  depress 
ed  by  the  feet  and  raised  by  the  spring 
poles.  Each  skin  cover  has  a  hole  in  the 
middle,  which  is  stopped  by  the  heel  as 
the  weight  of  the  person  is  thrown  upon 
it,  and  is  left  open  by  withdrawal  of  the 
foot  as  the  cover  is  raised. 

Variously  modified  in  detail  and  increased 
in  size,  these  simple  furnaces  are  to  be  found 
in  several  parts  of  Europe,  the  Catalan  and 
Swedish  furnaces  resembling  in  all  proba 
bility  those  of  the  Chalybes,  so  famous  in 
Marathon  (490  B.C.),  and  those  of  ih&fabrica 
or  military  forge  established  in  England  by 
Hadrian  (A.D.  120)  at  Bath,  in  the  vicinity 
of  iron  ore  and  wood.  The  brave  islanders 
met  their  Roman  invaders  with  scythes, 


MAKING  IRON  WITH  COAL. 


swords,  and  spears  of  iron,  and  the  export 
of  that  metal  from  thence  shortly  afterward 
is  mentioned  by  Strabo. 

During  the  Eoman  occupation  of  England 
some  of  the  richest  beds  of  iron  ore  were 
worked,  and  the  debris  and  cinders  yet  ex 
ist  to  testify  to  two  facts — one,  that  the 
amount  of  material  treated  was  immense ; 
the  other,  that  the  plans  adopted  were 
wasteful,  as  it  has  since  been  found  profit 
able  to  work  the  cinders  over  again. 

During  the  Saxon  occupation  the  furnaces 
were  still  in  blast,  especially  in  Gloucester 
shire. 

The  early  Norman  sovereigns  were  so  in 
tent  upon  skinning  the  Jews  and  Saxons 
that  it  became  dangerous  to  succeed  in  any 
business,  success  inviting  the  barons  to 
plunder.  Accordingly  we  find  in  the  time 
of  King  John  that  iron  and  steel  were  im 
ported  from  Germany. 

The  business  lumbered  along  for  some 
centuries,  the  government  tinkering  at  it 
now  and  again,  the  exportation  being  pro 
hibited  in  the  fourteenth  century,  and  the 
importation  of  iron  in  the  fifteenth  century. 

The  direct  method  of  obtaining  wrought 
iron  from  the  ore  prevailed  until  the  com 
mencement  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and 
then  gradually  gave  way  to  a  less  direct 
process,  but  one  more  convenient  in  the 
handling  of  large  quantities.  Furnaces, 
operating  by  the  aid  of  a  strong  blast,  to 
melt  the  iron  and  obtain  cast  iron,  which  is 
carbureted  in  the  process,  were  in  use  in 
the  neighborhood  of  the  Rhine  about  1500. 
A  second  process  in  a  forge  hearth  was  used 
to  eliminate  the  carbon  and  other  impuri 
ties,  and  the  result  was  wrought  iron. 

The  statement  is  shortly  made,  but  it  took 
several  centuries  to  accomplish  it  with  wood, 
and  several  other  centuries  to  devise  means 
for  substituting  pit-coal  for  charcoal. 

In  the  reign  of  Elizabeth  blast-furnaces 
were  of  sufficient  size  to  produce  from  two 
to  three  tons  of  pig-iron  per  day  by  the  use 
of  charcoal.  In  the  small  works  the  iron 
was  made  malleable  before  being  withdrawn 
from  the  blast-furnace,  and  in  larger  works 
was  treated  by  the  refinery  furnace. 

Wood  becoming  scarce,  and  a  number  of 
furnaces  having  gone  out  of  blast,  in  1612 
Simon  Sturtevant  was  granted  a  patent  for 
thirty-one  years  for  the  use  of  pit-coal  in 


smelting  iron.  Failing  in  his  proposed 
plans,  he  rendered  up  his  patent  in  the  fol 
lowing  year.  Successive  persons  applied 
for  a  patent  for  the  same,  the  government 
continuing  desirous  of  encouraging  the  de 
velopment  of  home  resources.  Dudley  in 
1619  succeeded  in  producing  three  tons  of 
iron  per  week  in  a  small  blast-furnace  by 
the  use  of  coke  from  pit-coal.  The  parties 
who  yet  possessed  plenty  of  wood,  and  with 
whom  the  production  of  iron  Avas  fast  be 
coming  a  monopoly,  urged  the  charcoal 
burners  to  destroy  the  works  of  Dudley, 
which  was  done.  Dudley's  patent  was 
granted  for  thirty-one  years,  which  would 
bring  it  to  1650,  the  time  of  the  Protector 
ate,  when  England  had  a  ruler  fit  to  succeed 
Queen  Bess.  The  celebrated  statute  of  King 
James,  limiting  the  duration  of  patents  to 
fourteen  years,  was  passed  in  1624.  Dud 
ley's  petition  for  an  extension  was  refused. 

Iron  of  poor  quality  continued  to  be  made 
in  districts  where  wood  was  scarce,  and  of 
good  quality  from  charcoal  in  places  where 
forests  yet  remained.  The  demand  for  iron 
continuing  to  grow — a  natural  effect  of  ad 
vancing  civilization  —  iron  was  imported 
from  Sweden  and  Russia  in  large  quantities 
and  of  excellent  quality.  The  forests  of 
these  countries  gave  them  a  natural  ad 
vantage  over  England,  whose  forests  had 
by  this  time  become  thinned  out,  so  that 
the  use  of  wood  for  iron  smelting  had  been 
forbidden  by  act  of  Parliament  in  1581 
within  twenty-two  miles  of  the  metropolis 
or  fourteen  miles  of  the  Thames,  and  event 
ually  was  prohibited  altogether. 

The  art  of  making  iron  with  pit-coal  and 
of  casting  articles  of  iron  was  revived  by 
Abraham  Darby,  of  Colebrookdale,  about 
1713,  and  was  perseveringly  followed,  al 
though  it  was  but  little  noised  abroad.  In 
the  Philosophical  Transactions  for  1747  it  is 
referred  to  as  a  curiosity. 

The  extension  of  the  iron  manufacture 
dates  from  the  introduction  of  the  steam- 
engine,  which  increased  the  power  of  the 
blast,  and  the  blowing  engines,  driven  by 
manual,  horse,  or  ox  power,  were  henceforth 
operated  by  steam-engines.  The  dimension 
of  the  blast  apparatus  was  increased  from 
time  to  time,  and  about  1760  coke  was  com 
monly  used  in  smelting.  In  1760  Smeaton 
erected  at  the  Carron  Works  the  first  large 


70 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


MODERN   BLA6T-FUBNAOE. 

blowing  cylinders,  and  shortly  after  Boul- 
ton  and  Watt  supplied  the  steam-engines 
by  "which  the  blowers  were  driven.     Neil- 
son,  of  Glasgow,  introduced  the  hot  blast 
in  1828.      Aubulos,  in  France,  in  1811,  and 
Budd,  in  England,  in  1845,  heated  the  blast 
by  the  escaping  hot  gases  of  the  blast-fur 
nace.      In  the   smelting  of  iron  four  tons 
weight  of  gaseous  products  are  thrown  off 
into  the  air  for  each  ton  of  iron  produced. 

As  a  means  of  estimating  by  comparison 
the  value  of  the  hot  blast,  some  facts  may 
be  mentioned.     Mushet  states  that  at  the 
Clyde  Iron-works,  before  the  introduction 
of  the  hot  blast,  the  quantity  of  materials 
necessary  for  the  production  of  one  ton  of 
pig-iron  was, 

Calcined  ore  .............  ..  .  .  .........  1%  tons. 

Coke  .............  .................  3        " 

Limestone  ............  .  .............    %  ton. 

In  1831,  when  the  system  was  coming  into 
use,  the  blast  being  warm, 

Calcined  ore  ........................  2     tons. 

Coke  ......................  .  ..........  2        " 

Limestone  ..........................    X  ton. 

In  1839,  writh  a  hot  blast, 

Calcined  ore  ........................  1%  tons. 


Coke 
Limestone 


ton. 


The  saving  in  fuel  being  nearly  one-half. 

In  addition  may  be  mentioned  the  fact 
that  anthracite  coal  and  black  band  ore  are 
intractable  under  the  cold  blast,  but  the 
former  yields  an  intense  heat  and  the  lat 
ter  a  rich  percentage  of  good  iron  with  the 
hot  blast. 

The  Calder  Works  in  1831  demonstrated 
the  needlessness  of  coking  when  the  hot 
blast  is  employed. 


Experiments  in  smelting  with  anthracite 
coal  were  tried  at  Mauch  Chunk  in  1820,  in 
France  in  1827,  and  in  Wales  successfully  by 
the  aid  of  Neilson's  hot-blast  ovens  in  1837. 
The  experiment  at  Mauch  Chunk  was  re 
peated,  with  the  addition  of  the  hot  blast,  in 
1838-39,  and  succeeded  in  producing  about 
two  tons  per  day.  The  Pioneer  furnace  at 
Pottsville  was  blown-in  July,  1839. 

The  first  iron-works  in  America  were  es 
tablished  near  Jamestown,  Virginia,  in  1619. 
In  1622,  however,  the  works  were  destroyed 
and  the  workmen  with  their  families  massa 
cred  by  the  Indians.  The  next  attempt  was 
at  Lynn,  Massachusetts,  on  the  banks  of  the 
Saugus,  in  1648.  The  ore  used  was  the  bog 
ore,  still  plentiful  in  that  locality.  At  these 
works  Joseph  Jenks,  a  native  of  Hammer 
smith,  England,  in  1652,  by  order  of  the  Prov 
ince  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  coined  silver 
shillings,  sixpences,  and  threepences  known 
as  the  "  pine-tree  coinage,"  from  the  device 
of  a  pine-tree  on  one  face.  The  coinage  of 
these  pieces  by  Massachusetts  excited  the 
ire  of  the  king,  who,  as  Junius  said  to  the 
Duke  of  Grafton,  "  left  no  distressing  exam 
ples  of  virtue  even  to  [his]  legitimate  pos 
terity."  The  king  indignantly  declared  to 
Sir  Thomas  Temple  that  they  had  invaded 
his  prerogative  by  coining  money.  Sir 
Thomas,  who  was  a  real  friend  to  the  colo 
nies,  took  a  piece  out  of  his  pocket  and  pre 
sented  it  to  the  king.  "  One  side  was  a  pine- 
tree  of  that  kind  which  is  thick  and  bushy 
at  the  top.  Charles  asked  what  that  was. 
'  The  royal  oak,  Sir,  which  preserved  your 


PUDDLING   FUBNAOE. 


PUDDLING. 


71 


DANKS'S  MECHANICAL,  PUDDI.EB. 


majesty's  life !'  The  king  resumed  his  good 
humor,  calliiig  the  colonists  a  'parcel  of 
honest  dogs.' " 

By  dint  of  successive  efforts,  cast  iron  was 
produced  in  something  like  sufficient  quan 
tities  to  meet  the  demand,  the  furnaces  en 
larging  as  the  blowing  engines  increased  in 
power. 

The  next  step  was  to  simplify  and  expe 
dite  the  processes  by  which  the  cast  iron  was 
made  malleable.  In  1780,  two  years  before 
the  conclusion  of  the  peace  between  Great 
Britain  and  the  Federal  government,  Henry 
Cort  invented  the  puddling  furnace,  which 
he  patented  in  1784,  and  which  revolution 
ized  the  business  of  making  malleable  iron. 
The  charge  of  iron,  say  540  pounds,  is  placed 
on  a  hearth  in  a  reverberatory  chamber 
whose  bottom  and  sides  are  lined  with  re 
fractory  slags  rich  in  oxide  of  iron.  When 
the  iron  is  melted,  the  slags  rise  through  it 
and  float  on  the  top.  The  oxygen  in  the 
silicates  combines  with  the  carbon  in  the 
iron,  decarbonizing  it,  the  puddler  stirring 


it  vigorously  to  bring  the  carbon  and  other 
impurities  of  the  iron  in  contact  with  the 
oxidizing  flame.  The  iron  granulates  and 
throws  off  carbonic  oxide,  and  eventually 
agglutinates,  or,  as  the  puddler  says,  "  comes 
to  nature."  A  deoxidizing  flame  is  then 
used  to  protect  the  iron  while  it  is  being 
made  into  balls,  which  are  shingled  or 
squeezed  to  remove  slag  and  compact  it  for 
rolling.  The  bed  of  Cort's  furnace  was  of 
sand.  Rogers,  some  years  afterward,  made 
the  bottom  of  iron,  and  lined  it  with  cinder. 

The  operation  of  puddling  is  a  great  tax 
upon  the  strength  and  endurance  of  the 
men,  both  on  account  of  the  violent  labor 
and  of  the  exposure  to  the  intense  heat  of 
the  furnace. 

Mechanical  puddlers  have  been  substi 
tuted  for  hand  labor  with  some  success. 
The  rotating  hearth  of  Danks,  of  Cincin 
nati,  has  attained  more  celebrity  in  this 
country  and  in  England  than  any  other  fur 
nace  for  that  purpose.  The  barrel-shaped 
chamber  lined  with  refractory  material  is 


BOLLING-MILL   FOB  IBON    BARS. 


72 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


placed  between  the  furnace  and  the  chim 
ney,  and  the  iron,  after  it  has  become  melt 
ed,  is  rolled  round  and  round  as  the  chamber 
revolves,  and  thereby  all  parts  are  in  turn 
exposed  to  the  action  of  the  flame. 

The  ball  from  the  puddling  furnace  is 
dragged  or  rolled  to  the  steam  or  trip  ham 
mer  or  the  squeezer,  where  it  is  compacted 
and  has  the  dross  driven  out  of  it,  making  a 
bloom.  In  this  condition  it  is  shipped  from 
some  iron-works,  while  others  carry  it  a  step 
farther  before  putting  it  upon  the  market. 

Here  occurred  the  next  great  necessity. 
Was  the  bar-iron  always  to  be  brought  to 
shape  by  the  hammer  alone?  Again  Cort 
came  to  the  rescue  with  the  invention  of 
the  mill  with  grooved  rollers,  which  he  pat 
ented  in  1783.  The  yearly  value  of  this  im 
provement  in  England  and  the  United  States 
amounts  to  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars. 

Years  after  the  death  of  the  unrewarded 
Cort  the  rolling-mill  was  made  to  form 
plates  for  armor  of  ships  of  war.  In  184*2 
the  late  R.  L.  Stevens,  of  Hoboken,  New 
Jersey,  commenced  the  construction  of  an 
iron-clad  war  vessel  under  an  agreement 
with  the  government,  which  has  not  yet 
been  completed.  In  1855  some  armor-clad 
floating  batteries  were  used  by  the  French 
in  the  Black  Sea.  The  La  Gloire,  launched 
in  1859,  was  plated  with  rolled  iron  of  4-J- 
inches  thickness,  and  was  the  first  large 
iron-clad.  The  first  English  armored  ves 
sel,  the  Warrior,  had  the  same  thickness  of 
armor.  The  thickness  has  since  been  much 
increased :  the  Bellerophon  has  6  inches,  the 
Hercules  9,  Peter  the  Great  (Russian)  12  to  14. 
The  plating  of  the  Monitor  turret  was  9 
inches,  the  Weehawken  11,  laid  on  in  sever 
al  thicknesses.  Armor  plating  has  been 
rolled  in  England  of  15  inches  thickness, 
carried  by  the  Glatton  turret.  The  turret 
of  the  Peter  ihe  Great  is  16  inches — one 
thickness  of  14  and  one  of  2  inches. 

While  the  capacity  of  the  rolling-mill  has 
seemed  adequate  to  all  calls,  the  business 
of  the  forge  has  also  had  its  grand  achieve 
ments,  resulting  from  the  use  of  the  steam- 
hammer.  This  was  invented  by  Nasmyth 
about  1838,  and  patented  in  1842.  It  is 
true  that  there  existed  a  description  of 
Devereau's  hammer  in  1806  which  recited 
the  main  features,  but  it  seems  to  have 
excited  no  attention,  and  to  have  been  fol- 


NASMVTUS   UOUBLE-FKAME  STEAM-HAMMER. 

lowed  by  no  hammer.  To  Nasmyth  we  are 
indebted  for  it ;  even  he  had  to  work  against 
prejudice,  which  prevented  its  being  used 
in  England  until  after  it  had  been  tried  in 
France  by  some  more  appreciative  persons, 
whose  attention  had  been  in  some  way  di 
rected  to  it. 

The  helve  of  the  steam-hammer  is  the 
piston-rod  of  an  overhead  steam-engine,  by 
which  it  is  lifted.  To  drop  it,  the  steam 
which  lifted  it  is  allowed  to  escape  from 
below  the  piston,  and  the  force  of  the  blow 
is,  in  some  hammers,  increased  by  admitting 
the  steam  above  the  piston,  which  adds  the 
force  of  the  steam  to  that  due  to  the  weight 
and  fall  of  the  hammer.  The  sizes  vary, 
having  a  very  wide  range,  the  weight  of  the 
hammer  varying  from  50  pounds  to  80,000 
pounds,  the  stroke  from  six  inches  to  six  feet. 
They  are  single  or  double  acting,  have  sin 
gle  or  double  frame,  according  to  size,  and  all 
have  a  capacity  for  giving  a  blow  of  any  re 
quired  fraction  of  their  full  power,  and  using 
any  part  of  their  range  of  stroke.  The  an 
vils  are  made  as  heavy  as  250  tons  weight. 

The  series  of  operations  is  here  complete 
down  to  the  point  of  shaping  the  metal  while 
hot  by  rolling  or  by  forging;  but  a  great 
and  hitherto  unrealized  improvement  was 
sought  by  which  the  metal  might  be  puri 
fied  by  chemical  means.  Inventors  in  Eu 
rope  and  America  attacked  the  problem,  but 
it  was  reserved  for  Bessemer  to  give  it  form, 
substance,  and  success. 

The  process  consists  in  placing  a  charge, 
say  five  tons,  of  molten  iron  in  a  vessel 
placed  on  trunnions,  and  known  as  a  convert- 


THE  BESSEMER  PROCESS. 


73 


or,  the  bottom  of  the 
vessel  having  channels 
to  admit  in  divided 
'streams  a  blast  of  air 
which  passes  through 
the  melted  metal,  its 
oxygen  entering  into 
combination  with  the 
silicon,  carbon,  phos 
phorus,  sulphur,  etc., 
forming  gaseous  com 
pounds,  which  are  lib 
erated  and  driven  up 
the  chimney.  The  iron 
is  melted  in  cupolas 
and  tapped  into  the 
converter,  which  is  a 
pear  -  shaped  vessel 
about  fifteen  feet  high 
and  nine  feet  diam 
eter,  hung  upon  trun 
nions,  to  one  of  which 
the  apparatus  is  at 
tached  which  rotates 
the  vessel  in  a  vertical 
plane ;  through  the 
other  trunnion  passes 
an  air-pipe  which  is 
continued  down  the 
outside  of  the  vessel 
and  opens  into  a  chamber  at  the  bottom 
which  communicates  with  the  main  cham 
ber  through  120  holes,  each  three-eighths 
of  an  inch  in  diameter.  These  holes  are 
in  fire-bricks,  and  the  vessel  itself  is  lined 
with  refractory  material. 

The  vessel  is  turned  partly  down,  the 
mouth  being  presented  upwardly  to  take  its 
charge  from  a  ladle  suspended  from  a  crane 
and  sweeping  in  the  arc  of  a  circle  between 
the  cupola  and  the  converter.  The  blast  is 
then  turned  on,  the  vessel  righted,  the  air 
pressure  preventing  the  iron  entering  the 
blast  holes,  and  the  spout  being  presented  to 
a  canopy  which  leads  the  evolved  gases  up 
the  chimney :  this  is  shown  at  a  b.  The  sil 
icon  of  the  pig-iron  oxidizes  first  without 
very  intense  flame,  but  as  the  carbon  begins 
to  burn  the  heat  rises  to  5000°  Fahrenheit, 
and  the  light  is  so  brilliant  as  to  cast  shad 
ows  across  sunshine.  In  fifteen  or  twenty 
minutes  the  marvelous  illumination  ceases 
more  suddenly  than  it  began,  and  this  change 
in  the  flame  indicates  the  critical  moment 


BESSEMER  PLANT. 

of  the  elimination  of  most  of  the  carbon. 
The  blast  is  stopped,  the  converter  turned 
on  its  side,  and  six  hundred  pounds  of  melt 
ed  spiegeleisen  are  turned  in.  The  reaction 
is  instantaneous  and  violent.  The  manga 
nese  of  the  spiegeleisen  combines  with  any 
sulphur  that  may  remain  in  the  bath,  form 
ing  compounds  which  pass  into  the  slag.  It 
also  decomposes  in  the  slag  silicates  of  iron 
taking  the  place  of  the  iron  and  returning 
it  to  the  bath.  Finally,  the  carbon  and  man 
ganese  together  reduce  the  oxide  of  iron 
formed  during  blowing,  and  which  would 
affect  the  malleability  of  the  iron.  This 
done,  the  monster,  as  if  weary  of  swallow 
ing  boiling  iron  and  snorting  fire,  turns  its 
mouth  downward  and  disposes  of  its  con 
tents  into  a  kettle  upon  a  turn-table.  This 
act  is  shown  at  c  d.  The  ladle  on  its  turn 
table  e  is  then  swung  over  the  moulds  /, 
ranged  round  the  semicircular  pit  like  a  row 
of  Ali  Baba's  wine  jars,  each  capable  of  hold 
ing  a  bandit.  The  glowing  metal  is  drawn 
into  the  moulds  from  a  tap  hole  in  the  ladle, 


74 


MECHANICAL  PKOGRESS. 


and  as  each  mould  is  filled  the  molten  metal 
is  covered  with  a  steel  plate  and  a  packing 
of  sand.  When  the  ingots  have  solidified 
they  are  tipped  out  of  the  moulds  and  car 
ried  away  hy  tongs  or  traveling  cranes  to 
the  shops,  where  they  are  hammered  or 
rolled  into  the  required  forms  of  bars,  rails, 
plates,  and  what  not.  The  product  is  usu 
ally  a  grade  of  steel,  though  the  quality 
may  be  varied  by  changes  in  the  details  of 
the  process. 

Like  Arkwright,  Bessemer  has  become  very 
wealthy,  and  for  every  dollar  he  has  made, 
his  country  has  been  enriched  by  hundreds. 
The  actual  working  process  in  America  has 
been  materially  improved  by  Mr.  Holly,  who 
is  consulting  engineer  of  the  principal  Bes 
semer  works  in  this  country. 

This  was  a  great  improvement  for  most 
purposes  over  the  old  process  of  cooking 
the  iron  in  the  puddling  furnace  to  deprive 
it  of  its  silicon  and  carbon,  tilt-hammering 
the  ball  to  a  bloom,  rolling  the  bloom  to 
a  bar,  cutting  the  bar  in  pieces,  and  build 
ing  it  with  charcoal  solidly  into  a  cementa 
tion  furnace,  where  it  might  absorb  carbon 
to  constitute  it  steel.  This  old  process  is 
still  pursued  for  the  finer  qualities,  the  blis 
ter-steel  produced  from  the  cemented  bar 
being  several  times  worked  before  it  be 
comes  the  best  cast  steel  for  our  finest  cut 
lery.  The  process  of  making  cast  steel  was 
invented  by  Benjamin  Huntsman,  of  Otter- 
cliff,  near  Sheffield,  England,  in  1770,  so  that 
this  great  invention  comes  practically  with 
in  the  century.  The  blister-steel  is  broken 
into  pieces,  fused  in  crucibles  of  refractory 
clay  or  graphite,  made  intp  ingots  in  cast- 
iron  moulds,  and  then  rolled. 

But  the  convenience  of  casting  iron  into 
shape,  instead  of  laboriously  forging  it  into 
the  varied  and  sometimes  difficult  forms  re 
quired,  is  so  great  that  a  process  for  making 
cast-iron  articles  malleable  became  a  great 
necessity.  This  was  invented  in  Sheffield 
by  Samuel  Lucas,  and  patented  by  him  in 
1804.  The  process  is  as  follows :  The  cast 
ings  are  inclosed  in  iron  boxes,  and  sur 
rounded  with  pounded  iron-stone  or  some 
of  the  metallic  oxides,  as  scales  from  the 
forge,  common  lime,  or  other  absorbents  of 
carbon,  used  either  together  or  separately. 
The  boxes  are  placed  in  the  furnace,  sub 
jected  to  a  strong  heat  for  about  five  days, 


and  allowed  to  cool  gradually  within  the 
furnace.  The  time  and  other  circumstances 
determine  the  depth  of  the  effect.  Thin 
pieces  become  malleable  entirely  through 
out,  admit  of  being  readily  bent,  and  may 
be  slightly  forged ;  thicker  pieces  retain  a 
central  portion  of  cast  iron,  but  in  a  soft 
ened  state,  and  not  so  brittle  as  at  first. 
On  sawing  them  through,  the  exterior  coat 
of  soft  metal  is  perfectly  distinguishable 
from  the  remainder. 

In  the  processes  of  hand  forging,  an 
nealing,  and  tempering  we  have  nothing 
to  claim  over  the  methods  or  the  produc 
tions  of  former  ages  and  other  nations,  such 
as  the  Arabs  and  Persians.  • 

As  with  the  processes  involving  the  pro 
duction  and  refining  of  iron,  and  the  shaping 
of  the  heated  metal  by  casting,  forging,  and 
rolling,  so  with  the  shaping  of  the  cold  met 
al  by  turning  and  planing — all  the  important 
improvements  are  within  the  century.  The 
lathes  and  boring-machines  of  the  time  pre 
ceding  Watt  were  rude  and  small  affairs. 
The  steam-cylinder  invented  by  Papin  about 
1690,  and  first  used  successfully  by  Newco- 
meii  and  Galley  in  1711,  was  so  ill  bored  that 
its  piston  required  to  be  covered  with  water 
to  prevent  leakage  of  air  downward,  and 
hence  the  Newcomen  engines  were  always 
vertical.  Watt's  first  engine,  with  a  cylin 
der  eighteen  inches  in  diameter,  was  built 
at  Kinneal  in  1770.  In  1775  he  entered 
on  a  partnership  with  Boulton,  who  took  a 
two-thirds  share  in  the  patented  engine, 
which  worked  with  one-quarter  the  fuel 
used  by  the  Newcomen  engine  performing 
similar  work.  Boulton  was  a  man  worthy 
of  the  occasion,  and  the  works  at  Soho  equal 
to  the  demand. 

The  mature  conceptions  of  these  great 
mechanicians  required  a  far  finer  style  of 
execution  of  work,  and  a  set  of  workmen 
arose  who  introduced  exactness  and  system 
into  the  shop.  Eamsden,  about  1770,  in 
vented  the  micrometer-screw  dividing-en 
gine  for  graduating  astronomical  and  sur 
veying  instruments,  and  reduced  the  error 
in  ascertaining  longitude  by  the  Hadley 
quadrant  to  one-fiftieth.  Bramah,  in  1784, 
produced  his  lock,  which  was  in  its  day  a 
marvel  of  skill  and  finish ;  also  the  hydraulic 
press  and  the  numbering  machine  for  bank 
notes  and  pages  of  account-books.  Boulton 


LATHES  AND  PLANING-MACHINES. 


75 


and  Watt,  in  1788,  were  celebrated  for  the 
perfection  of  their  mint  apparatus,  coining 
the  silver  of  the  Sierra  Leone  Company,  the 
copper  of  the  East  India  Company,  and  send 
ing  two  complete  mints  to  the  Emperor  Paul 
I.  of  Russia.  In  Bramah's  workshop  Clem 
ent  and  perhaps  Maudslay  were  trained,  one 
the  inventor  of  the  planing -machine,  the 
other  a  builder  of  marine  engines,  who  gave 
them  shape  when  as  yet  steam  navigation 
was  in  its  infancy.  Roberts  of  Manchester 
gave  his  attention  to  the  perfecting  of  ma 
chinery  for  working  in  fibre,  Whitworth  es 
pecially  to  machine-tools  and  instruments 
for  measuring  with  mathematical  accuracy. 
We  shall  have  occasion  to  mention  present 
ly  the  perfecting  of  the  modes  of  manufac 
ture,  and  to  show  the  part  America  took  in 
the  matter. 

The  first  turning-lathe  was  vertical — the 
potter's  wheel — audwas  employed  upon  plas 
tic  material.  After  many  centuries  of  use 
in  this  way,  the  spindle  was  made  horizontal, 
and  it  was  employed  on  wood.  Its  use  on 
metal  is  comparatively  modern.  The  screw- 
lathe  is  still  more  recent.  One  is  described 
in  a  French  work  of  1578,  and  another  in 
an  English  work  of  1694.  They  were,  how 
ever,  rather  bench  tools  for  watch-makers 
and  jewelers  than  machines.  The  work  of 
originating  correct  screws,  and  perfecting 
the  screw-cutting  lathe,  was  taken  in  hand 
by  Plumier  1701,  Ramsden  1770,  Robinson 
of  Soho  1790,  Donkin,  Allan,  Roberts,  Whit- 
worth,  and  others.  The  new  era  of  the 
lathe  commenced  when  the  slide-rest  was 
added.  This  was  the  invention  of  General 
Sir  Samuel  Bentham,  about  1791.  His  par 
ticular  forte  was  in  wood-working  machin 
ery,  but  the  slide-rest  once  invented  would 
be  readily  adapted  to  the  metal  lathe,  and 
the  slide-lathe  soon  followed. 

The  application  of  a  screw  to  the  slide-lathe 
so  as  to  render  it  capable  of  both  sliding 
and  screw-cutting  was  the  next  important 
improvement,  and  a  great  amount  of  time, 
perseverance,  and  capital  was  expended  in 
endeavoring  to  perfect  this  portion  of  the 
lathe. 

After  this  the  surfacing  motion  was  intro 
duced,  and  also  the  use  of  a  shaft  at  the 
back  of  the  lathe,  in  addition  to  the  regular 
screw,  for  driving  the  sliding  motion  by 
rack  and  pinion,  instead  of  both  the  mo 


tions  of  sliding  and  screw  -  cutting  being 
worked  by  the  screw  alone. 

Thus  step  by  step  improvements  were 
gradually  brought  forward;  the  fore  jaw  and 
universal  chucks  and  other  important  appli 
ances  were  added  so  as  to  render  the  lathe 
applicable  to  a  great  variety  of  work,  even 
cutting  spiral  grooves  in  shafts,  scrolls  in  a 
face-plate,  skew  wheels,  and  also  turning 
articles  of  oval,  spherical,  and  other  forms. 
Whitworth's  duplex  lathe,  with  one  tool  act 
ing  in  front  and  the  other  behind  the  work, 
was  invented  for  turning  long  shafts,  cast- 
iron  rollers,  cylinders,  and  a  great  variety  of 
work  where  a  quantity  of  the  same  kind  and 
dimensions  has  to  be  turned. 

The  plauing-machine  was  an  outgrowth  of 
the  slide-lathe.  Instead  of  the  object  turn 
ing  upon  centres  against  a  tool,  it  is  dogged 
to  a  traversing  -  table  and  moves  against 
the  tool  in  a  right  line.  This  machine-tool 
has  dispensed  to  a  great  extent  with  chip 
ping  and  filing,  and  is  at  the  bottom  of  all 
successful  fitting  of  machinery.  It  is  next 
in  importance  to  the  lathe.  It  was  invent 
ed  about  1820,  several  excellent  mechanics 
having  about  the  same  time  worked  at  and 
solved  the  problem — Clements,  who  was  a 
workman  in  Bramah's  shop,  Fox  of  Derby, 
Roberts  and  Reunie  of  Manchester.  Bra- 
mah  had,  as  far  back  as  1811,  employed  the 
revolving  cutter  to  plane  iron,  adapting  to 
metal  the  form  previously  used  on  wood- 
planing  machines;  this  is  the  milling -ma 
chine  lately  so  much  improved  and  so  de 
servedly  esteemed. 

The  first  planing -machines  were  moved 
by  a  chain  winding  on  a  drum ;  the  rack  and 
pinion,  and  eventually  the  screw  arrange 
ment,  were  substituted.  Clements's  ma 
chine,  described  in  his  letter  to  the  "  Society 
of  Arts"  (vol.  xlix.,  p.  157  et  seq.),  included  the 
reciprocating  bed,  guided  and  moved  hori 
zontally  and  automatically  with  a  greater  or 
lesser  stroke.  It  had  two  cutters  capable 
of  being  directed  backward  and  forward,  and 
at  different  elevations,  so  as  to  cut  at  each 
motion  of  the  bed.  The  cutters  were  fixed 
in  a  sliding  head,  and  were  shifted  automat 
ically  at  the  end  of  each  stroke,  horizontally 
or  vertically.  The  cutters  could  be  canted 
to  any  angle  to  plane  either  side  of  the  work. 
It  was,  in  fact,  the  planing-machiue  of  the 
present  day. 


76 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


The  next  great  improvement  in  the  ma 
chine  was  the  "Jim  Crow"  planer  of  Joseph 
Whitworth,  of  Manchester,  1835.  This  has 
the  self -re  versing  cutter,  which  "wheeled 
about  and  turned  about  and  did  just  so," 
operating  both  backward  and  forward  with 
one  tool  without  waste  of  time. 

Other  adaptations  known  by  special  names 
can  not  be  overlooked.  The  jack,  a  small  ma 
chine,  named  from  its  quick,  handy  ways 
and  compact  form.  The  slotting  -  machine 
and  the  key-grooving  machine,  by  Roberts 
of  Manchester,  have  mortise  chisels  recipro 
cated  vertically  by  an  eccentric,  while  the 
wheel  to  be  slotted  is  laid  horizontally  on 
the  lathe  and  fed  toward  the  cutter  between 
each  stroke.  The  wiiffittYjr-machme  has  been 
referred  to.  It  is  only  of  late  that  it  has 
been  esteemed  as  it  deserves  and  made  much 
use  of.  The  shaping-machine  is  one  in  which 
the  object  is  chucked  on  a  mandrel,  the  tool 
traverses  above  the  work  in  a  line  parallel 
with  the  axis  of  the  mandrel ;  the  latter  be 
ing  slightly  rotated  between  each  stroke 
constitutes  the  feed,  and  the  result  is  a  cir 
cular  or  curved  shape  attained  by  straight 
cuts. 

The  machine-tools  of  the  present  day  are 
a  marvel,  and  the  work  turned  out  by  them 
excels  in  quality  and  quantity  any  thing 
conceivable  by  the  worthies  of  the  first  part 
of  the  present  century.  Watt,  for  instance 
— to  select  the  most  prominent  of  the  men 
who  combined  to  revolutionize  the  world  of 
industry  while  smaller  men  were  making  all 
the  noise  in  the  manufacture  of  "  holy  alli 
ances"  which  hardly  survived  their  framers 
— Watt  would  have  been  infinitely  gratified 
and  astonished  at  the  development  and  per 
fection  of  the  machine-tools  of  the  present 
day.  He  would  see  in  them  the  cause  and 
the  effect ;  the  ponderous  and  yet  delicate 
machines  driven  by  the  engines  which  they 
had  created;  the  tools  the  makers  and  yet 
the  agents ;  the  engines  the  movers  of  the 
tools  by  which  they  came  to  exist;  their 
growth  parallel  in  fitness,  proportion,  and 
magnitude,  which  are  the  elements  of  beau 
ty,  grace,  and  majesty. 

A  word  as  to  the  constitution  of  the  ma 
chines  themselves,  of  the  means  by  which 
they  are  fashioned  and  adapted  to  perform 
their  specific  duties  with  smoothness,  direct 
ness,  and  economy  of  power. 


The  system  of  making  the  component 
parts  of  a  machine  or  implement  in  distinct 
pieces  of  fixed  shape  and  dimensions,  so  that 
corresponding  parts  are  interchangeable,  is 
known  as  assembling.  The  term  is,  howev 
er,  more  strictly  applicable  to  their  fitting 
together  after  being  separately  and  accu 
rately  made  according  to  fixed  patterns, 
and  constantly  compared  by  gauges  and 
templates  which  test  the  dimensions. 

This  system  of  interchangeability  of  parts 
was  first  introduced  into  the  French  artil 
lery  service  by  General  Gribeauval,  about 
1765.  He  reduced  the  gun-carriages  to 
classes,  and  so  arranged  many  of  the  parts 
that  they  could  be  applied  indiscriminately 
to  any  carriage  of  the  class  for  which  they 
were  made.  The  system  was  afterward  ex 
tended  into  several  of  the  European  serv 
ices  and  into  that  of  the  United  States. 

The  first  fire-arm  attempted  to  be  made 
on  this  system  was  the  breech-loader  of 
John  H.  Hall,  of  North  Yarmouth,  Massa 
chusetts,  1811,  of  which  10,000  were  made 
for  the  United  States,  $10,000  being  voted 
the  inventor  in  1836,  being  at  the  rate  of  one 
dollar  per  gun.  Some  of  them  were  cap 
tured  in  Fort  Donelson,  February  16,  1862. 
They  were  probably  the  first  breech-loading 
military  arms  ever  issued  to  troops. 

The  extent  to  which  the  system  of  gauges 
was  actually  carried  with  the  Hall  arm  is 
not  accurately  known,  but  it  is  doubtless 
true  that  the  principle  was  first  brought  to 
a  high  state  of  system  and  accuracy  by  Col 
onel  Colt,  of  Connecticut,  in  the  manufac 
ture  of  his  pistols.  Among  the  most  impor 
tant  of  the  extensions  of  the  principle  has 
been  the  making  of  special  machines  to 
fashion  particular  parts,  or  even  special 
portions  of  individual  pieces,  so  that  each 
separate  part  may  be  shaped  by  successive 
machines,  and  bored  by  others,  issuing  in 
the  exact  form  required. 

This  plan  requires  large  capital,  and  will 
not  pay  unless  a  great  number  of  similar 
articles  be  required,  but  has  been  extensive 
ly  introduced  into  this  country,  and  from 
hence  into  England,  and  to  some  extent  on 
to  the  continent  of  Europe.  All  the  gov 
ernment  breech-loading  fire-arms  are  thus 
made.  The  greater  number  of  the  military 
arms  of  Europe  and  Egypt  are  thus  made  in 
the  United  States  for  the  various  countries. 


BANK-NOTE  ENGRAVING. 


77 


The  Snider  gun,  a  modification  of  an  Ameri 
can  model,  is  made  at  the  Enfield  Arsenal, 
England,  on  special  machines  made  for  that 
purpose  in  duplicate  at  the  Colt  Works, 
Hartford,  Connecticut.  Pratt  and  Whitney, 
of  Hartford,  are  just  completing  for  Germany 
a  full  set  of  special  machines  and  gauges  for 
the  manufacture  of  the  Mauser  rifle,  adopt 
ed  by  Prussia  for  the  confederate  German 
States. 

The  first  watch  made  on  this  plan  was 
the  "  American"  watch  of  Waltham,  Massa 
chusetts,  the  system  extending  down  to  the 
almost  microscopic  screws  and  other  small 
parts.  All  the  prominent  sewing-machines 
are  so  made ;  the  same  with  Lamb's  knit 
ting-machine,  and  probably  others.  Many 
kinds  of  agricultural  implements,  including 
plows,  harvesters,  threshers,  and  wagons, 
are  made  of  interchangeable  parts.  The 
system  has  been  carried  into  locomotive 
building ;  about  seven  grades  of  engines,  it 
is  understood,  are  employed  on  the  Penn 
sylvania  Central  Railroad,  corresponding 
parts  of  a  given  grade  being  precisely  simi 
lar,  so  as  to  fit  any  engine  of  the  class. 
This  is  the  American  system  of  assembling. 

While  upon  the  subject  of  instruments 
of  precision,  one  or  two  instances  may  be 
given  where  the  result  was  a  marked  suc 
cess  and  affected  large  interests. 

The  American  system  of  bank-note  en 
graving  is  the  invention  of  Jacob  Perkins, 
of  Newburyport,  Massachusetts,  in  1837. 
Previous  to  his  time  the  engraving,  whether 
of  ornament  or  lettering,  had  been  simply 
cut  by  hand  upon  the  plate,  which  was  then 
printed  in  the  copper-plate  press.  Perkins's 
system  is  to  engrave  the  design  on  separate 
blocks  of  softened  steel,  which  are  subse 
quently  hardened.  Each  block  so  engraved 
is  used  to  make  a  raised  impression  on  a 
softened  steel  roller,  which  is  rocked  upon 
it  under  very  heavy  pressure.  The  roller  is 
then  hardened,  and  is  used  as  a  roller  die  to 
impress  the  steel  plate  from  which  the  notes 
are  printed.  Each  part  of  the  face  and 
back  of  the  note  is  upon  one  or  another  of 
the  roller  dies,  whose  separate  impressions 
upon  the  plate  combine  to  make  up  the 
whole  design,  roller  after  roller  being  used 
after  adjustment  to  its  proper  place  over  the 
plate.  The  table  is  provided  with  complete 
adjustments  of  peculiar  delicacy. 


PERKINS'S  TBANBFEBKING  PRESS  AND  BOLLER  DIE. 

The  invention  was  introduced  into  En 
gland  by  Perkins,  but  did  not  become  pop 
ular.  In  Ireland  it  fared  better.  In  this 
country  it  is  supreme. 

Postal  and  revenue  stamps  are  so  made  in 
all  instances.  England  makes  them  for  the 
varied  and  widely  separated  nations  of  her 
vast  empire.  America,  which  originated 
the  system,  makes  them  for  other  nations 
in  all  quarters  of  the  globe.  The  postal 
stamp  itself,  though  now  a  necessity,  is  an 
affair  but  of  yesterday,  as  it  were,  and  was 
an  outgrowth  of  cheap  postage,  for  which 
let  us  thank  Divine  Providence  and  Row 
land  Hill. 

Another  triumph  of  the  century  is  the 
watch.  The  invention  of  the  compensation- 
balance  of  John  Harrison  covered  the  period 
1728-1761.  He  died  in  1776.  Arnold  and 
Earnshaw  brought  it  to  something  near 
perfection.  Harrison's  fourth  chronometer 
was  sent  in  a  man-of-war  to  Jamaica,  which 
it  reached  five  seconds  slow.  On  the  return 
to  Portsmouth,  after  a  five-months'  voyage, 
it  was  one  minute  and  five  seconds  wrong, 
showing  an  error  of  sixteen  miles  of  lon 
gitude,  and  within  the  limit  of  the  act  of 
Parliament  of  Queen  Anne,  passed  in  1714. 
This  amount  of  accuracy  has  since  been 
very  much  exceeded.  He  received  the 
grant  of  £20,000  in  installments,  the  reward 
of  forty  years'  diligence. 

The  American  system  of  watch-making, 
by  gathering  all  the  operations  under  one 
roof,  making  the  parts  as  largely  as  possi 
ble  by  machinery,  each  part  being  made  in 
quantity  by  gauge  and  pattern,  and  the 


78 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


TUB   GBEAT  EQUATORIAL— UNITED   STATES   NAVAL   OBSERVATORY. 

pieces  afterward  assembled,  dates  back  to 
1352,  but  was  afterward  perfected,  and  the 
number  of  parts  reduced  from  800  to  156. 
In  the  year  mentioned  A.  L.  Denison  and 
three  coadjutors  started  the  business  in 
Roxbury,  Massachusetts,  thence  moved  to 
Waltham,  Massachusetts,  where  the  busi 
ness  now  occupies  a  large  factory,  employs 
700  hands,  and  turns  out  80,000  watches 
annually.  This  is  the  pioneer  establish 
ment.  Others  are  in  operation  at  Elgin, 
Illinois ;  Springfield,  Massachusetts ;  New 
ark  and  Marion,  New  Jersey. 

Achromatic  lenses  were  first  made  by  John 
Dollond,  of  London,  1758.  The  discovery 
rendered  the  telescope  of  high  powers  possi 
ble.  Without  going  into  the  optical  prin 
ciples  involved,  it  may  be  stated  that  with 
refracting  telescopes  before  Dollond  an  in 
strument  of  quite  moderate  magnifying  pow 
er  was  100  feet  long.  The  equatorial  of  the 


Washington  Observa 
tory  is  the  largest  re 
fractor  in  the  world. 
It  was  made  by  Alvan 
Clark  and  Sons,  of 
Cambridgeport,  Mas 
sachusetts,  the  glass 
being  cast  by  Chance 
and  Co.,  of  Birming 
ham,  England.  It  was 
mounted  in  Novem 
ber,  1873,  is  thirty- 
two  feet  long,  and, 
last  and  most  impor 
tant  of  the  statement, 
it  has  an  objective  of 
twenty-six  inches  di 
ameter. 

With  two  other  in 
struments  of  precision 
we  may  close  this  part 
of  the  subject,  both 
means  for  accurate 
measurement : 

1.  The  contact  level 
invented  by  Repsold^ 
of  Hamburg,  in  1820, 
as  improved  by  Wur- 
demann,  of  Washing 
ton.  It  is  an  adapta 
tion  of  the  spirit-lev 
el,  for  the  production 
of  exact  divisions  of 

scales,  and  for  the  determination  of  very 
minute  divisions  of  length.  It  consists  of 
a  delicate  level  pivoted  at  its  middle  and 
across  its  length  with  a  small  tilt-weight 
at  one  end,  which  tips  always  in  one  direc 
tion.  From  the  centre  of  the  level  down 
ward  extends  a  short  rigid  arm,  with  a 
plain  polished  surface  perpendicular  to  the 
chord  of  the  level  against  which  the  con 
tact  is  made.  The  carrier  of  this  instru 
ment  is  either  fixed  or  mounted  in  a  slide 
governed  by  a  micrometer  screw.  If,  now, 
the  end  of  a  rod  terminating  in  a  hardened 
steel  point  be  advanced  horizontally  till  it 
bears  against  the  contact  arm,  the  level  will 
gradually  assume  the  horizontal  position, 
and  the  movement  of  the  bubble,  as  indi 
cated  by  the  scale  upon  the  glass,  will  de 
pend  upon  the  relation  of  the  radius  to 
which  the  level  tube  is  ground  and  the 
length  of  the  contact  lever.  If  the  latter 


INSTRUMENTS  OF  PRECISION. 


79 


be  half  an  inch  long,  and  the  radius  of  the 
glass  tube  be  400  feet  (levels  for  astronom 
ical  purposes  are  ground  to  a  sweep  of  800 
and  1000  feet  radius),  the  relation  between 
the  lever  and  radius  is  as  1  to  9600,  and  as 
^U  of  an  inch  can  be  readily  read  from  the 
lever  scale,  450*00^  °f  au  iut'h  (9600x50)  will 
be  the  difference  in  length  which  each  such 
division  on  a  scale  indicates. 

2.  Whitworth's  micrometer  gauge  ia  ca 
pable  of  measuring  to  IQ^OOOO'  °f  an  inch- 
The  principle  of  its  action  may  be  readily 
understood  by  the  micrometer  screw  D, 
which  is  a  pocket  instrument  made  to  meas 
ure  to  Y^jy  of  an  inch.  The  screw  has  fifty 
threads  to  an  inch,  the  head  having  twenty 
divisions  on  its  circumference  ;  consequent 
ly  a  turn  of  the  head  through  one  division 
advances  the  screw  ^  x  ^  =J^QO  °f  an  incn- 

The  millionth  measuring  instrument, 
shown  by  three  views,  A,  B,  C,  has  two 
head-stocks  with  a  V  groove  between  them, 
in  which  the  square  bars  &  c  are  laid,  as  is 
also  the  standard  of  the  bar  d,  of  which 
the  length  is  to  be  tested.  The  sides  of  the 
groove  and  of  the  bars  are  worked  up  to  as 
true  a  plane  as  possible,  and  are  kept  at 
right  angles  to  each  other.  The  ends  of 
the  bars  are  also  made  square  with  their 
sides,  and  brought  to  true  planes,  the  ends 
being  canted  to  present  circular  instead  of 
square  faces.  Through  each  head-stock  runs 
an  accurately  pitched  micrometer  screw,  by 
which  6  and  c  are  driven  along  the  groove. 
The  screw  on  the  side  of  b  has  exactly  twen 
ty  threads  to  the  inch,  and  is  turned  by  the 
wheel  /,  the  circumference  of  which  is  di 
vided  into  250  parts.  Consequently,  by 
turning  the  wheel  forward  one  division  the 
bar  is  moved  soW  °^  an  incn- 

The  other  screw  has  a  similar  thread,  is 
driven  by  a  worm-wheel  of  200  teeth,  into 
which  gears  a  tangent  screw  h,  having 
fixed  upon  its  stem  the  graduated  wheel  g. 
The  circumference  of  this  wheel  being 
also  divided  into  250  parts,  a  movement  of 
one  division  corresponds  to  a  traverse  of 
&>xi&T>xzh=:Tt>-5faoTi  °f  an  inch  on  the 
bar  c.  Fixed  pointers  enable  the  exact 
movement  of  wheels  /  or  g  to  be  read  off, 
so  that  this  extremely  minute  difference  in 
the  length  of  any  bars  may  be  detected, 
provided  the  micrometer  screws  exert  an 
equal  pressure  in  every  case. 


WHITWOBTIl'S   MILLIONTH   MEASURING   GAUGE. 

This  equality  of  pressure  is  secured  by 
a  very  simple  and  beautiful  arrangement. 
Between  one  extremity  of  the  steel  bar  un 
der  comparison  and  the  sliding  bar  a  small 
steel  piece  with  true  parallel  sides  is  intro 
duced.  This  piece  is  called  the  feeler,  and 
its  ends,  e  e,  rest  upon  two  supports  on  the 
sides  of  the  bed.  When  little  or  no  pressure 
is  exerted  on  the  bar  d,  the  feeler  falls  back 
of  its  own  weight  if  one  of  its  ends  is  raised. 
A  slight  pressure  prevents  this  falling  back, 
and  the  friction  between  this  piece  and  the 
ends  of  the  bars  becomes  a  very  delicate 
measure  of  the  pressure  to  which  it  is  sub 
jected. 

ENGINEERING. 

How  shall  we  condense  within  the  limits 
of  the  section  of  an  article  even  a  list  of  the 
engineering  devices  and  expedients  which 
distinguish  the  century  nearly  closed  from 
any  which  has  preceded  it  ?  The  pyramids, 
temples,  and  obelisks  of  Egypt,  the  graceful 
architecture  of  Greece  and  of  the  Freema 
sons  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  Roman  roads 
and  aqueducts,  make  the  fame  of  the  past. 
The  present  has  a  new  set  of  devices,  and 
its  modes  and  structures  are  utterly  beyond 
the  conceptions  of  ancient  times. 

We  will  pass  over  the  works  which  differ 


80 


MECHANICAL  PEOGRESS. 


in  no  essential  respect  from  those  of  the  past. 
Quays,  sea-walls,  and  breakwaters  were  fa 
miliar  to  the  Mediterranean  nations,  and 
our  canals  differ  from  those  of  the  ancients 
only  in  having  locks — not  a  small  advance, 
by-the-way,  and  one  for  which  we  are  in 
debted  to  the  Italian  engineers,  the  brothers 
Domeuico.  The  canal  of  Sesostris — re-open 
ed  by  Pharaoh  Necho  about  605  B.C.,  again 
by  Ptolemy  Philadelphus  300  B.C.,  once  again 
by  the  Caliphs,  and  abandoned  when  Vasco 
da  Gama  circumnavigated  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope — conducted  the  water  of  the  Eed  Sea 
to  the  Nile  near  Belbeys,  the  Bubastis  Agria 
of  the  Eomans.  It  was  ninety-six  miles 
long.  The  track  of  the  present  Suez  Canal 
only  follows  the  former  course  to  the  Bitter 
Lakes,  and  then  passes  to  Port  Said  on  the 
Mediterranean.  The  sand  and  earth  of  the 
old  canal  were  drearily  excavated  by  fellahs 
who  toiled  with  wooden  shovels  and  bas 
kets.  The  steam-dredges  of  M.  De  Lesseps 
were  sixty  in  number,  of  two  kinds,  and  de 
posited  the  400,000,000  cubic  yards  of  mud 
and  sand  on  banks  at  a  regulated  distance 
from  the  canal. 

The  Pharos  of  Alexandria,  said  to  have 
been  450  feet  high,  was  a  beacon  to  the  road 
stead  of  Alexandria.  This  city  was  built 
by  what  might  have  seemed  the  whim  of 
a  man  who  in  the  plenitude  of  his  power 
came  to  Rhacotis,  a  place  occupied  by  a  lit 
tle  group  of  hovels,  and  spread  his  Macedo 
nian  cloak  on  the  ground  for  the  plan  of  a 
city  to  bear  his  name.  He  saw  it  rise  in 
his  mind's  eye,  and  gave  his  directions  for 
the  avenues,  the  Serapaum,  the  Bruchion, 
and  other  public  buildings,  took  up  his  line 
of  march  for  the  teeming  East,  and  never 
saw  Alexandria.  Yet  posterity  approved 
his  judgment,  and  his  city  has  embalmed 
his  name. 

One  of  our  contributions  in  the  line  of 
light-houses  is  the  dovetailed  block  system 
introduced  by  Smeaton  in  1760  at  the  Ed- 
dystone,  copied  by  the  Stephensons  at  Bell 
Eock,  in  the  Frith  of  Forth,  and  at  the 
Skerry vores,  and  still  later  at  Wojf  Island. 
Others  are  the  screw-pile  and  the  truss- 
frame  systems,  which  are  convenient  in 
many  places  where  the  column  of  mason 
ry  is  not  suitable.  Farther,  the  mode  of 
lighting  is  much  more  eminently  superior  to 
the  past  than  is  the  mere  structure.  When 


Smeaton  had  finished  the  Eddystone  it  was 
lighted  by  twenty-four  tallow-candles  stuck 
in  a  hoop.  Even  the  Tour  de  Corduan,  put 
up  with  so  much  expense  in  1610  at  the 
mouth  of  the  Garonne,  was  for  a  long  time 
lighted  with  burning  logs  in  a  large  cres 
set.  The  catoptric  system  of  lamps  with 
parabolic  reflectors  was  introduced  into  the 
Tour  de-  Corduan  soon  after  the  invention 
of  the  circular -wick  and  centre  -  draught 
lamp  by  Argand,  of  Geneva,  in  1784 — a  lamp 
which  made  the  effective  illumination  of 
light-houses  possible. 

The  dioptric  system,  by  lenses,  was  at 
tempted  in  England  at  the  South  Foreland 
light  in  1752  and  the  Portland  light  in  1759, 
but  failed  for  want  of  skill.  It  was  revived 
and  improved  by  Fresnel  in  1810.  It  was 
adopted  in  the  Lundy  Island  light  in  1834, 
and  is  the  best  light,  having  several  grades 
of  size,  according  to  importance  of  posi 
tion. 

In  pile-driving  we  have  better  machin 
ery  than  the  Eomaus,  who,  however,  made 
good  work  in  bridges  built  on  piles,  and  in 
constructing  coffer-dams  for  building  stone 
piers  in  river-beds.  Elm  piles  driven  by 
the  Eomans  at  London  were  in  good  order 
when  removed  to  build  the  abutments  of 
London  Br-idge  in  1829.  Caesar  threw  a  pile 
and  trestle  bridge  across  the  Rhine  in  ten 
days.  Trajan's  bridge  across  the  Danube 
was  4770  feet  long,  having  twenty  semicir 
cular  arches  of  180  feet  5  inches  span  each. 
The  piers  were  of  stone,  the  superstructure 
wood.  There  were  also  many  bridges  in 
Eome. 

For  working  beneath  the  surface  of  the 
water  we,  however,  have  several  methods 
unknown  to  the  ancients,  and,  indeed,  only 
used  to  valuable  purpose  within  the  centu 
ry.  The  first  use  of  the  diving-bell  in  en 
gineering  was  by  Smeaton  in  1779.  It  had 
been  used  for  a  century  or  two  as  a  curios 
ity  or  in  reclaiming  sunken  treasures,  and 
had  been  much  improved  by  Halley  and  by 
Spalding  in  1774,  before  it  came  into  Sinea- 
ton's  hands. 

The  pneumatic  caisson,  which  now  forms 
so  important  an  aid  in  sinking  piers  to  sol 
id  foundations  beneath  river-beds,  is  the 
invention  of  M.  Triger,  of  France,  where  it 
was  first  used  in  sinking  a  shaft  for  a  coal 
pit  through  a  stratum  of  quicksand,  to  reach 


BRIDGE-BUILDING. 


81 


the  coal-measures  in  the  vicinity  of 
the  river  Loire,  in  France.  It  con 
sisted  of  a  tube  made  in  sections,  so  as 
to  be  extended  as  the  shaft  deepened. 
The  lower  end  was  open,  and  divided 
by  a  floor  with  a  tightly  fitting  trap 
door  from  a  middle  chamber,  the  ceil- 
iiig  of  which  had  a  similar  door.  By 
means  of  an  air-compressing  pump  the 
water  was  kept  out  of  the  lower 
chamber,  where  the  men  worked,  and 
the  buckets  were  handed  up  through 
the  floors  to  the  top,  the  middle  cham 
ber  forming  an  air-lock,  which  was  al 
ternately  in  communication  with  the 
working-chamber  below  and  with  the 
air-chamber  above  it. 

The  figure  shows  a  caisson  used 
some  years  afterward  in  building  the 
piers  of  a  bridge  at  Copenhagen,  Den 
mark.  A  much  improved  and  ex 
tended  plan  was  adopted  by  Captain 
James  B.  Eads  in  building  the  river 
piers  of  the  Illinois  and  St.  Louis  Rail 
way  Bridge  across  the  Mississippi; 
and  by  Colonel  W.  A.  Roebling  for  the 
piers  of  the  suspension-bridge  across 
the  East  River,  New  York.  In  each 
of  the  last-mentioned  cases  the  cais 
son  is  a  very  heavy  structure,  de 
signed  when  it  reached  the  solid  rock 
to  remain  there,  be  built  up  full  of 
masonry  or  concrete,  and  then  sup 
port  the  pier  which  was  built  upon  it 
as  it  descended ;  the  Triger  caisson, 
after  its  function  as  a  pneumatic  ex 
cavating  chamber  was  completed,  formed  a 
lining  for  the  shaft  in  a  treacherous  soil ;  the 
Copenhagen  caisson  was  lifted  as  the  pier 
built  at  the  bottom  progressed  upwardly. 


CAISSON    AT   COPENHAGEN. 

The  next  illustration  shows  an  East  River 
caisson.  The  mode  adopted  for  getting  rid 
of  the  excavated  material  in  the  New  York 
caisson  is  the  invention  of  M.  Fleur  St.  Denis, 


"tf 

CAISSON   OF  TUE   EAST   EIVEB   BRIDGE,  NEW   YORK. 


82 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


FLOATING  DEBBIOK,  DEPARTMENT  OF  PUBLIC  DOCKS,  NEW  YORK, 


chief  engineer  des  Chemins  de  Fer  de  1'Est, 
in  France.  It  consists  of  a  water -shaft 
whose  lower  end  is  submerged  in  water  in 
a  basin,  and  which  is  traversed  by  a  dredg 
ing  bucket  or  grapple,  according  as  mud  or 
rock  has  to  be  raised.  The  condensed  air 
in  the  other  part  of  the  interior  of  the  cais 
son  keeps  water  excluded,  and  makes  it  hab 
itable  for  the  workmen. 

In  the  St.  Louis  caisson  the  sand,  mud, 
and  stones  as  large  as  a  hickory-nut  were 
driven  out  of  the  collecting  basin  in  the 
floor  of  the  working  chamber  by  means  of 
a  powerful  jet  of  air  which  lifted  a  column 
of  water  in  a  tube,  and  with  it  the  finer 
excavated  material,  the  pipe  discharging  it 
over  the  side  into  a  lighter. 

The  docks  of  some  principal  sea-ports  are 
a  marvelous  feature  both  in  character  and 
in  extent.  London  and  Liverpool  are  cele 
brated  for  tidal  docks.  The  first  named  had 
a  particular  object  in  grouping  the  mer 


chantmen  of  special  trades  togeth 
er  in  basins  where  the  access  be 
tween  vessels  and  warehouses 
might  be  free,  and  within  walls 
which  were  guarded  by  the  cus 
tom-house  authorities.  It  was  also 
desirable  to  produce  more  wharf 
room.  The  high  tides  of  the 
Mersey  render  the  port  of  Liver 
pool  very  inconvenient  for  river 
and  lighter  work,  and  make  tidal 
basins  a  necessity.  The  quays  of 
Montreal  are  the  best  in  America. 

The  large  floating  derrick  of  the 
New  York  Department  of  Public 
Docks  picks  up  a  block  of  100  tons, 
is  towed  to  the  place  of  deposit, 
and  then  lowers  the  block  into  the 
position  it  is  to  occupy  in  the  new 
river  wall. 

The  dry-docks  of  the  principal 
naval  stations  of  the  world  are 
a  great  engineering  success,  and 
would  have  vastly  astonished 
Archimedes,  who  had  no  resource 
but  a  bank  of  earth  to  embay  his 
vessel,  and  then  pump  out  the 
pond. 

The  floating  dock  Bermuda  is  an 
iron  vessel  of  a  rectangular  shape, 
with  a  rounded  bow  and  a  strong 
caisson -gate  at  the  stern.  The 
vessel  has  a  double  skin,  with  a  large  in 
tervening  space.  Into  the  inner  basin  a 
ship  is  floated  while  the  dock  is  partially 
submerged ;  the  caisson  being  closed,  the 
water  in  the  dock  and  space  intervening 
between  the  two  skins  is  pumped  out  so 
that  the  interior  may  be  dry  to  allow  work 
on  the  vessel,  and  the  jacket  may  have  suf 
ficient  flotative  power  to  carry  its  load. 

The  Bermuda  was  built  in  England,  and 
was  towed  to  Bermuda  by  war  vessels. 
This  dock  cost  $1,250,000,  and  has  the  fol 
lowing  dimensions :  extreme  length,  381 
feet ;  width  inside,  83  feet  9  inches ;  depth, 
74  feet  5  inches.  The  weight  is  8350  tons. 
The  dock  is  U-shaped,  and  the  section 
throughout  is  similar.  It  is  built  with  two 
skins  fore  and  aft  at  a  distance  of  twenty 
feet  apart.  The  space  between  the  skins  is 
divided  by  a  water-tight  bulk-head,  running 
with  the  middle  line  the  entire  length  of 
the  dock,  each  half  being  divided  into  three 


FLOATING  DOCKS. 


83 


FLOATING   DOCK    "BERMUDA." 


chambers  by  like  bulk-heads.  The  three 
chambers  are  respectively  named  "  load," 
"  balance,"  and  "  air"  compartments.  The 
first-named  chamber  is  pumped  full  in  eight 
hours  when  a  ship  is  about  to  be  docked, 
and  the  dock  is  thus  sunk  below  the  level 
of  the  horizontal  bulk-heads  which  divide 
the  other  two  chambers.  Water  sufficient 
to  sink  the  structure  low  enough  to  per 
mit  a  vessel  to  enter  is  forced  into  the  bal 
ance  chambers  by  means  of  valves  in  the 
external  skin.  The  vessel  having  floated 
iu,  the  next  operation  is  to  place  and  se 
cure  the  end  caissons,  which  act  as  gates. 
When  the  water  is  ejected  from  the  "load" 
chamber,  the  dock  with  the  vessel  in  it  rises, 
the  water  in  the  dock  being  allowed  to  de 
crease  by  opening  the  sluices  in  the  cais 
sons.  The  dock  is  trimmed  by  letting  the 
water  out  of  the  "balance"  chamber  into 
the  structure  itself.  The  inside  of  the  dock 
is  cleared  of  water  by  valves  in  the  skin,  and 
it  is  left  to  dry.  When  it  becomes  neces 
sary  to  undock  the  vessel  the  valves  in  the 
external  skins  of  the  "balance"  chamber 
are1  opened  in  order  to  fill  them,  and  the 
culverts  in  the  caissons  are  also  opened,  and 
the  dock  sunk  to  a  given  depth.  From  keel 
to  gunwale  nine  main  water-tight  ribs  ex 
tend,  further  dividing  the  distance  between 
the  two  skins  into  eight  compartments; 
thus  there  are  altogether  forty-eight  water 


tight  divisions.  Frames  made  of  strong 
plates  and  angle-iron  strengthen  the  skins 
between  the  main  ribs.  Four  steam  en 
gines  and  pumps  on  each  side — each  pump 
has  two  suctions,  emptying  a  division  of  an 
"  air"  chamber — are  fitted  to  the  dock,  and 
these  also  fill  a  division  of  the  "  load"  cham 
ber.  When  it  becomes  necessary  to  clean, 
paint,  or  repair  the  bottom  of  the  dock,  it 
is  careened  by  the  weight  of  water  in  the 
"  load"  chambers  of  one  side,  and  the  middle 
line  is  raised  about  five  feet  out  of  water. 
The  Royal  Alfred,  bearing  the  flag  of  the 
admiral  on  the  station,  and  weighing  GOOO 
tons,  was  lifted  by  this  dock,  her  keel  rest 
ing  on  a  central  line  of  blocks  arranged  on 
the  floor  of  the  dock,  the  ship  being  shored 
up  with  timbers  all  around  the  top-sides. 

Steam-pumps  are  important  among  the 
engineering  devices  of  the  day.  The  neces 
sity  of  pumping  water  from  mines,  from 
ponds  in  draining,  or  from  sunken  vessels, 
coffer-dams,  or  wet  excavations,  has  given 
great  importance  to  that  special  application 
of  the  steam-engine. 

The  Cornish  engine  has  already  been  re 
ferred  to,  but  there  is  a  host  of  machines 
for  use  on  shipboard,  for  wrecking,  at  rail 
way  watering  stations,  and  used  by  manu 
facturers  who  require  water  in  large  quan 
tity. 

Perronet  was  the  greatest  engineer  of  his 


84 


MECHANICAL  PKOGRESS. 


PEBBONET'S   OHAPELETS   (CHAIN  -  PUMPS)  AT   ORLEANS, 
FBANOE. 

time,  the  builder  of  the  famous  bridge  of 
Neuilly,  and  many  other  structures  in  France, 
the  finest  of  their  day,  some  of  which  yet  re 
main  witnesses  to  his  skill  and  perfect  taste. 
It  is  understood  that  his  masterpiece,  the 
bridge  of  Neuilly,  was  partially  destroyed  by 
the  French  during  the  German  invasion,  to 
render  it  impassable  to  the  enemy.  This 
was  the  first  level  bridge.  The  Waterloo 
Bridge,  by  Rennie,  is  even  a  more  magnifi 
cent  example.  This  is  men 
tioned  to  introduce  the  fact 
that  the  chief  engineer  of  the 
ponts  et  chaussees  in  the  reign  of 
Louis  XVI.  had  no  better  con 
trivance  for  pumping  out  his 
coffer-dams  than  a  chain-pump 
— the  old  noria,  the  na  4ra  of 
the  Arabs,  "the  wheel  broken 
at  the  cistern"  of  Eccles.,  xii.  6. 
Better  made,  it  is  true,  but 
the  same  otherwise.  Perronet's 
chapelets  (d) — so  called  because 
the  buckets  were  strung  along 
on  a  band  like  the  beads  of  a 
rosary — were  worked  by  horse 


power  at  Orleans,  twelve  at  a  time  being 
employed,  making  140  revolutions  per  hour. 
The  pallets  acted  as  buckets,  and  passed  at 
the  rate  of  9600  per  hour,  e  and  /  are  views 
of  another  chapelet  of  Perronet,  driven  by  a 
water-wheel  in  the  stream  outside  the  coffer 
dam.  The  current  water-wheels  used  for 
raising  water  for  the  city  of  London,  1731, 
were  under  the  arches  of  London  Bridge,  and 
gave  way  to  the  Boulton  and  Watt  engine. 

For  drainage  purposes  with  moderate  lifts 
we  have  much  improved  lately,  and  princi 
pally  since  1840,  about  which  time  the  cen 
trifugal  pump  came  into  notice,  the  first 
form  being  an  inversion  of  the  turbine,  the 
wheel  being  driven  by  steam  to  raise  the 
water  in  the  vertical  chute. 

In  the  fens  of  Lincolnshire  for  low  lifts  the 
scoop-wheel  is  much  employed.  At  Haar 
lem  Lake,  Holland,  are  the  largest  pump- 
ing-engines  in  the  world,  perhaps.  They 
are  three  in  number,  have  annular  cylinders 
of  twelve  feet  diameter,  with  inner  cylinders 
of  seven  feet  diameter.  One  engine  works 
eleven  pumps,  and  the  others  eight  each. 
Each  engine  lifts  sixty-six  tons  of  water  per 
stroke  to  a  height  of  ten  feet ;  when  pressed 
each  lifts  109  tons  per  stroke  to  that  height. 
Running  economically,  each  lifts  75,000,000 
pounds  of  water  one  foot  high  for  ninety-four 
pounds  of  Welsh  coal.  The  net  effective 
force  of  each  is  350  horses  ;  the  consumption 
of  fuel  is  two  and  a  quarter  pounds  per 
horse-power  per  hour.  The  surface  drained 
by  the  three  engines  is  45,230  acres,  an  aver 
age  lift  of  the  water,  depending  on  the  state 
of  the  tides,  being  sixteen  feet.  All  other 
drainage  enterprises  sink  into  insignificance 


CFBBENT  WATER-WHEEL,  LONDON  BRIDGE,  1731. 


ENGINES  FOR  TUNNELING. 


85 


beside  those  of  Holland.  They  include  an 
area  of  223,062  acres  drained  by  mechanical 
means. 

Prominent  among  the  engineering  enter 
prises  of  the  day  are  the  tunneling  of  mount 
ain  chains  and  the  removal,  by  drilling  and 
blasting,  of  submarine  obstructions. 

It  is  just  about  250  years  since  gunpow 
der  -was  first  used  in  blasting  by  the  Ger 
man  miners  in  Hungary ;  now  it  seems 
strange  that  any  great  enterprise  in  rock 
should  be  attempted  without  it.  The  pa 
tient  labor  of  the  men  who  chiseled  their 
way  through  a  mile  of  rock  near  Vicovaro 
in  making  the  second  Roman  aqueduct,  the 
Anio  Vetus,  is  rather  sad  than  exhilarating 
when  we  consider  the  unpaid  labor  of  the 
poor  slaves  who  hewed  out  the  tunnel. 

Two  vast  jobs  of  tunneling  ranges  of 
mountains  have  lately  been  completed — the 
Mont  Cenis  and  the  Hoosac  tunnels.  An 
other,  larger  one  is  in  progress  —  the  St. 
Gothard.  In  each  case  the  work  was  done, 
or  is  being  done,  by  drills  operated  by  com 
pressed-air  engines,  the  escaping  air  at  the 
workings  being  an  element  of  great  value, 
as  it  provides  fresh  air  at  that  point  and 
establishes  an  outward  current. 

This  whole  business  of  exhausting  air, 
compressing  air,  and  using  the  comparative 
vacuum  or  the  positive  pressure,  is  very  new. 
It  is  true,  Otto  Guericke  had  an  air-pump  in 
1650,  and  Samuel  Pepys  says,  February  15, 
1665,  of  his  visit  to  the  Royal  Society  at 
Gresham  College,  "  It  is  a  most  acceptable 
thing  to  hear  their  discourse  and  to  see  their 
experiments;  which  were  this  day  on  fire, 
and  how  it  goes  out  in  a  place  where  the  ayre 
is  not  free,  and  sooner  out  where  the  ayre  is 
exhausted,  wrhich  they  showed  by  an  engine 
on  purpose." 

These  were  but  chamber  experiments,  and 
air  used  in  an  engine  can  not  probably  be 
traced  back  of  Glazebrook's  English  patent 
of  1797,  which  had  the  principal  features  of 
the  modern  approved  forms.  Stirling's  en 
gine,  1827,  was  used  at  the  Dundee  Foundry, 
Scotland,  for  some  years.  Medhurst  patent 
ed  in  1799  the  device  of  condensing  air  to  be 
used  at  the  workings  into  reservoirs  at  the 
bottom  of  the  shaft  by  engines  at  the  sur 
face.  Bompas  had  an  air-driven  carriage  in 
1828.  The  rock-drills  at  the  Bardonneche 
end  of  the  Mont  Cenis  tunnel  were  driven  by 


air  compressed  by  a  curious  apparatus  de 
vised  by  Sommeilleur,  the  volume  of  air  com 
pressed  daily  being  826,020  cubic  feet,  giving 
137,670  feet  at  the  drills  uuder  a  pressure 
of  six  atmospheres.  Air-pumps  condensed 
the  air  at  the  French  end  of  the  tunnel. 

Air,  steam,  and  gunpowder  are  working 
hand  in  hand  through  the  mountains  and 
under  the  water.  Now  18,500  pounds  of 
gunpowder  in  three  charges,  simultaneous 
ly  fired,  tear  at  one  crash  400,000  tons  of 
chalk  from  the  face  of  Round  Down  Cliff, 
near  Dover ;  now  twenty-three  tons  of  pow 
der  in  kegs  heave  the  roof  from  the  previous 
ly  excavated  cavern  50  by  140  feet  beneath 
the  Blossom  Rock  in  the  harbor  of  San 
Francisco.  Jumper  drills  have  long  been 
pegging  away  at  the  works  in  the  East 
River,  where  dangerous  rocks  and  reefs  are 
being  removed  to  a  safe  depth,  or  cut  away 
to  improve  the  approaches  or  prevent  dan 
gerous  currents  and  eddies.  The  works  at 
Hallett's  Point  are  among  the  most  impor- 


IIEADINU    OF  TUB    EXCAVATION,  HAtT.ETT'S    POINT    BEEF, 
EAST  EIVEB,  NEW   YORK. 

tant  of  these,  and  here  the  headings  are 
driven  radiating  like  the  sticks  of  a  fan, 
and  are  joined  by  cross  galleries  which 
leave  square  pillars  to  support  the  rock 
ceiling  on  which  the  sea  beats.  The  gal 
leries  are  numbered,  and  einbouch  into  a 
common  area  (a),  whence  the  excavated  ma 
terial  is  lifted  by  cranes ;  c  is  the  shore  line. 
The  roof  will  come  off  some  day  with  a  bang, 
and  the  fragments  will  fall  into  the  pit,  and 
may  be  removed  thence  by  grappling. 

Closely  allied  to  this  work  is  that  of  bor 
ing  Artesian  and  oil  wells.  These  also 
seem  to  belong  to  us  of  "the  latter  days,", 
although  it  has  always  been  the  case  that 
wells  dug  in  some  strata  become  Artesian. 
If  the  source  of  supply  be  high  enough,  they 


MECHANICAL  PEOGEESS. 


eras  Station  of  the  Midland  Counties 
Railway,  England,  are  eminent  in 
stances.  The  former  was  constructed 
by  Buckhout,  and  is  652  feet  long,  199 
feet  2  inches  between  walls.  It  covers 
about  three  acres.  The  St.  Pancras  Sta 
tion  has  a  span  of  240  feet,  a  length  of 
690  feet,  covering  five  platforms,  ten 
lines  of  rails,  and  a  cab  stand  twenty- 
five  feet  wide. 

The  use  of  iron  in  structures  marks 
the  work  of  the  century.  Engineers 
have  in  their  adaptation  of  the  new  ma 
terial  contrived  a  new  set  of  forms  and 
parts,  and  made  an  entirely  new  set  of 
calculations.  The  genius  and  skill  Avere 
not  wanting  before,  we  may  say,  but  the 
previous  century  had  not  the  iron  in 
quantity. 

IRON  ABOH  BRIDGES.  Bridge-building  affords  a  remarkable 

a  is  a  representation  of  the  cast-iron  arch  bridge  of  600    ffroup  of  structures  in  iron.     There  are 
feet  span  projected  by  Telford  for  crossing  the  Thames.      . 

b  was  a  bridge  of  cast-iron  sections,  500  feet  span,  proposed    four    forms,    the    arch,    truss,   suspension, 
by  Telford  for  the  Menai  Straits  in  preference  to  the  suspen-    tubular. 
sion-bridge  of  570  feet  span  decided  upon  by  the  commit 
tee,    c,  the  middle  arch  of  Southwark  Bridge,  240  feet  span,    more  bold. 


The  projects  become  more  and 


run  over,  as  at  Artois,  from  whence  they  are 
named. 

If  the  Chinese  of  the  province  On-Tong- 
Kias  did  really  bore  the  flowing  wells  to  a 
depth  of  from  1500  to  1800  feet,  we  must 
admit  that  we  have  but  few  to  exceed  that 
depth.  London's  Trafalgar  Square  wells  are 
only  393  feet ;  they  soon  reach  water  seams 
in  the  chalk.  The  well  at  Calais,  France, 
is  1138  feet ;  Donchery,  Ardennes,  1215  feet ; 
Grenelle,  1802;  Passy,  1913;  brine  well  at 
Kissingen,  2000 ;  Belcher's  sugar  refinery, 
St.  Louis,  2197.  The  Columbus,  Ohio,  2700 
feet,  and  St.  Louis  County  Farm,  3235  feet, 
are  failures  as  Artesian  wells. 

Iron  has  entered  largely  into  modern  struc 
tures,  and  the  time  seems  near  at  hand  when 
important  buildings  will  be  made  of  brick, 
iron,  and  cement.  Sir  Joseph  Paxton  made 
a  long  step  ahead  in  1851,  when  he  construct 
ed  of  iron  the  building  to  which  England 
invited  the  representatives  of  all  nations. 
The  constructors  of  iron  houses  in  our  cities 
must  abandon  the  attempt  to  imitate  in  iron 
the  shapes  which  are  proper  to  such  mate 
rials  as  brick  and  stone. 

The  great  success,  so  far,  is  in  roofs.  Those 
of  the  Grand  Central  Railway  De"p6t,  Forty- 
second  Street,  New  York,  and  the  St.  Pan- 


The  first  iron  bridge  was  one  of  cast- 
iron  sections  across  the  Severn  at  Colebrook- 
dale,  in  England,  erected  in  1779  by  Darby 
and  Wilkinson,  unless  we  may  mention  a 
foot  chain-bridge  seventy  feet  long  across 
the  Tees  in  1741,  and  credit  the  chain-bridge 
in  a  mountain  pass  at  King-tong,  in  China. 
In  1796  Wilson  erected  an  iron  arch  bridge 
100  feet  above  the  water  over  the  Wear  at 
Sunderland.  In  1818-25  Telford  spanned 
the  Menai  Straits  by  his  so-called  chain- 
bridge.  Iron  rods  with  coupling  links  form 
the  catenary.  Southwark  Bridge  (c)  over 
the  Thames  is  or  was  a  structure  of  three 
arches  of  cast-iron  voussoirs,  and  was  erect 
ed  in  1819. 

The  highest  bridge  in  the  -world  is  the 
Verrugas  Viaduct,  on  the  Lima  and  Oroya 
Railway,  in  the  Andes  of  Peru.  It  is  12,000 
feet  above  the  level  of  the  sea,  575  feet 
long,  and  formed  of  three  iron  truss  spans 
on  iron  piers. 

The  bridge  lately  built  across  the  Missis 
sippi  at  St.  Louis  has  a  compound  system 
of  steel  tubular  arches  supporting  the  truss 
and  road-beds.  It  has  three  spans  of  497, 
515,  and  497  feet  respectively.  The  middle 
arch  has  but  one  fellow  in  the  world,  that 
of  Kuilinburg,  in  Holland.  Its  engineer  is 
Captain  Eads,  and  it  has  lately  been  opened 


SUSPENSION-BRIDGES. 


amidst  great  rejoicing.  It  has  a  double- 
track  railway  upon  the  lower  level,  and  a 
roadway  thirty  -  four  feet  wide  and  two 
footways  each  eight  feet  wide  upon  the 
upper  level.  The  Illinois  roads  which  con 
verge  upon  this  viaduct  have  freight  de"- 
p6ts  near  the  water,  but  the  passenger 
trains  pass  through  a  tunnel  4800  feet  in 
length  beneath  the  river-side  part  of  the 
city,  and  reach  the  up-town  de"p6t.  Each 
span  consists  of  four  arches,  having  two 
members  each,  an  upper  and  a  lower  one. 
Each  member  is  of  two  parallel  cast-steel 
tubes  nine  inches  in  exterior  diameter  set 
closely  together,  and  each  made  in  four 
segments,  whose  junctions  form  ribs.  The 
upper  and  lower  members  are  eight  feet 
apart.  The  whole  structure  is  stiffened  by 
systems  of  diagonal,  vertical,  and  horizontal 
braces. 

The  arch  formed  a  very  important  mem 
ber  of  many  wooden  bridges,  and  still  does 
of  some  iron  trusses. 

Another  tubular  arch  bridge  is  that  of  the 
Washington  Aqueduct  across  Rock  Creek, 
erected  by  General  Meigs.  It  has  a  span  of 
200  feet  and  a  rise  of  twenty  feet,  and  con 
sists  of  two  ribs,  each  composed  of  seven 
teen  cast-iron  pipes,  flanged  and  bolted  to 
gether.  The  pipes  are  lined  with  staves  to 
prevent  freezing,  and  have  a  clear  water 
way  of  three  feet  six  inches.  Through  them 
passes  the  water  for  the  supply  of  the  city 
of  Washington. 

The  Fairmount  Bridge  across  the  Schuyl- 
kill  is  100  feet  wide,  was  built  by  the  Pho> 
nixville  Bridge  Company,  and  is  the  finest 
example  of  an  iron  truss  bridge  in  this 
country. 

Those  Chinese  prevent  many  a  broad  and 
full  statement  by  having  anticipated  the 
Western  barbarians  in  so  many  things :  gun 
powder,  the  mariner's  compass,  movable- 
type  printing,  paper  of  rags,  glazing  of  pot 
tery,  silk,  and  boring  for  gas  and  brine. 
Suspension-bridges  also  have  been  long  used 
in  China  and  Thibet.  One  noticed  by  Tur 
ner,  near  Tchin-Chien,  was  140  feet  long, 
on  four  catenary  chains ;  one  in  Quito,  ob 
served  by  Humboldt,  was  of  rope  four  inch 
es  in  diameter,  made  of  agave  fibre ;  one  in 
Aligpore,  in  Hiudostan,  is  130  feet  in  length, 
and  made  of  cane  with  iron  fastenings ; 
Hooker  notices  several  in  Nepaul ;  Scamozzi 


refers  to  suspen 
sion  -  bridges  in 
Europe  in  1615. 

The  suspen 
sion  -  bridge  was 
waiting  for  iron. 
The  first  iron  sus 
pension-bridge  in 
Europe,  possibly 
in  the  world,  was 
a  chain  -  bridge 
across  the  Tees 
in  1741.  Telford 
threw  one  across 
the  Menai  Straits, 
570  feet,  in  1820 ; 
it  is  of  rods  with 
coupling  links. 
The  Fribourg 
Bridge,  880  feet, 
was  erected  in 
1830.  The  Ni 
agara  Railway 
Bridge,  821  feet, 
was  erected  by 
Roebling,  1855. 
The  Wheeling 
Bridge,  across  the 
Ohio,  1010  feet, 
erected  by  Ellet, 
was  blown  down. 
The  Cincinnati 
Bridge,  across  the 
Ohio,  was  con 
structed  by  Roeb 
ling  in  1866.  It 
is  1057  feet  be 
tween  piers;  each 
cable  has  5180 
wires,  each  laid 
with  a  given 
strain  to  bear  its 
part  of  the  load. 
This  was  a  grand 
conception.  The 
weight  of  wire  is 
1,050,183  pounds. 
The  new  Niagara 
Bridge,  just  be 
low  the  basin  of 
the  falls,  is  1264 
feet  span,  190  feet 
high,  and  was 
erected  in  1869. 


03  '     .       ! 

!  ii 


88 


MECHANICAL  PKOGRESS. 


above  the  water ;  that  no  centring  should 
be  used  to  temporarily  obstruct  naviga 
tion.  Stepheuson  made  the  first  estimates, 
and  Fairbairn  brought  into  use  his  great 
knowledge  in  the  strength  of  materials 
and  skill  in  the  disposition  of  parts  to 
bear  strains  to  which  different  portions 
of  a  structure  are  subjected.  The  tubes 
are  respectively  260,  472,  472,  and  260 
feet,  the  larger  ones  weighing  about 
4,032,000  pounds  each.  The  tubes  were 
built  on  floats,  towed  to  their  positions, 
raised  by  powerful  hydrostatic  jacks,  the 
masonry  being  built  beneath  them  as  the 
lifting  proceeded.  The  jacks  rested  on 
beams  on  the  ledges  of  the  towers.  The 
lifting  chains  weighed  224,000  pounds 
each,  and  were  of  six-feet  sections,  which 
were  taken  out,  a  section  at  a  time,  after 
each  lift  was  made,  and  the  tube  rested 
on  the  masonry  beneath  it  while  the  pis 
ton  of  the  jack  descended  ready  for  an 
other  lift.  The  pressure  of  the  water 
beneath  the  ram  was  2%  tons  per  square 
inch.  The  tubes  were  lifted  100  feet 
above  tide-water,  ascending  in  high  per 
pendicular  grooves  in  the  faces  of  the 
towers,  which  were  closed  up  by  masonry 
as  the  lifting  proceeded.  It  was  opened 

IRON  TRUSS   AND   LATTICE   BRIDGES.  *°r   iTEmC  1U   lOoO. 

a,  Z>,  c,  are  forms  of  trusses  for  moderate  spans,     a,        The  Victoria   Bridge    at  Montreal   had 
rectannglar-tube  bridge     6  iron  arch  and  lattice  girder  h  extremely  heavy  work.     It  is  176 

bridge,    c,  strut  girder  bridge,    d,  the  principal  span  of 

the  Kuilinburg  Railway  bridge  over  the  Leek,  a  branch  of  feet  less  than  two  miles  long,  having 
the  Rhine  It  has  nine  spans;  the  one  shown  is  515  feet  twenty.five  8paT18  the  centre  one  330  feet, 
total  length,  492  feet  clear  span.  Its  only  rival  in  length 

is  the  middle  span  of  Captain  Eads's  bridge  across  the  the  others  each  240  feet  long.  The  centre 
Mississippi  at  St.  Louis,  e  is  a  truss  bridge  over  the  Avon  span  is  60  feet  above  the  summer  level  of 
in  England,  the  mid  length  resting  on  a  cluster  of  screw 

piles,  the  water,  and  has  a  slight  descent  to 

ward  each  end.  The  cost  was  £1,250,000. 
But  one  of  the  bridges  mentioned  above 
was  standing  when  the  old  bell  of  the  red 
brick  house  in  Philadelphia  rang  out,  "Pro 
claim  liberty  throughout  the  land  and  to  all 
the  inhabitants  thereof!"  The  solitary  ex 
ception  was  the  chain -bridge  across  the 
Tees.  This  bridge  has  long  since  passed 
away,  was  but  a  solitary  precursor  of  the 
coming  age  of  iron  bridges,  and  in  mode  of 
structure  chains  have  given  way  to  wire, 
first  of  iron,  then  of  steel. 


We  are  now  waiting  for  the  completion 
of  the  New  York  and  Brooklyn  Bridge,  5862 
feet  between  termini,  1600  feet  between 
river  piers,  and  80  feet  wide. 

The  tubular  bridge  erected  at  Conway, 
Wales,  preceded  that  over  the  Menai  Straits. 
Succeeding  them  is  the  Victoria  Bridge 
across  the  St.  Lawrence  River  at  Montreal. 
The  principle  of  all  is  the  same :  a  tube  of 
rectangular  section  forming  a  hollow  gird 
er.  The  material  is  cast  and  wrought  iron, 
so  disposed  as  to  secure  the  valuable  feat 
ures  of  each  kind.  It  was  demanded  that 
trains  should  be  permitted  to  cross  each 
way  simultaneously  at  full  speed  on  the 
two  tracks ;  that  it  should  be  100  feet 


WOOD-WORKING. 

In  no  department  of  mechanical  progress 
has  the  advancement  been  more  thorough 
than  in  the  machinery  for  the  working  of 


THE  CIRCULAE  SAW. 


89 


PORTABLE   CIRCULAR   SAW. 


wood.  Up  to  the  beginning  of  the  last 
quarter  of  the  eighteenth  century  what 
were  the  tools  and  modes  of  the  wood 
worker  ?  With  the  axe,  adze,  pit-saw,  whip- 
saw,  handsaw,  chisel,  and  rasp  excellent 
work  was  done ;  but  it  may  be  said  that, 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  saw -mills, 
there  was  no  machinery  for  wood-working. 
How  infrequent  were  the  saw-mills  may  be 
gathered  from  the  fact  that  one  established 
in  England  in  1663  by  a  Dutchman  was 
abandoned  from  fear  of  personal  violence 
on  the  part  of  the  populace,  and  in  1767 
one  at  Limehouse,  in  the  eastern  part  of 
London,  was  destroyed  by  a  mob  of  saw 
yers  who  considered  their  craft  in  danger. 

The  writer  distinctly  recollects  when  logs 
and  tree  trunks  were  habitually  sawed  from 
end  to  end,  to  work  them  into  dimension 
stuff,  by  two  sawyers,  one  standing  on  the 
log  and  the  other  in  a  pit  beneath  with  a 
veil  over  his  eyes  to  keep  out  the  sawdust. 
And  what  a  hard-working,  sad,  drunken  set 
these  sawyers  were,  and  how  the  top-sawyer 
bossed  the  wretch  in  the  hole,  who  pulled 
down,  while  he  above,  with  shoulders  like 
an  Atlas,  swung  his  weight  upon  the  handles 
above !  This  lasted  well  into  our  century  ; 
but  now  we  have  a  host  of  saw-mills  of 
various  kinds  working  on  the  most  exten 
sive  scale  at  the  great  lumbering  centres, 
and  machines  for  special  work  in  all  cities 


where  the  stuff  thus  roughly  "got  out" 
into  square  stuff  or  merchantable  lumber  is 
sawed  into  plank,  dimension  lumber,  slats, 
scale-boards,  veneers,  and  what  not. 

The  circular  saw  was  introduced  into  En 
gland  in  1790,  but  its  inventor  is  not  known. 
General  Sir  Samuel  Bentham,  the  most  re 
nowned  of  all  im-entors  of  wood-working 
machinery,  and  to  whom  we  shall  have  to 
refer  several  times,  patented  in  1793  the 
bench,  slit,  parallel  guide,  and  sliding  bevel 
guide.  The  machine  has  now  attained  an 
excellence  and  completeness  which  leave 
little  to  be  desired. 

In  the  stationary  form  of  the  machine 
the  saws  are  either  single  or  in  gangs.  The 
portable  kind  has  an  upper  saw  to  complete 
the  kerf  made  only  partially  through  the 
larger  logs  by  the  lower  saw.  Such  is 
known  as  a  double  saw.  The  log  carriage 
travels  on  ways,  the  feed  being  by  a  pinion 
meshing  into  a  rack  beneath  the  carriage. 

After  the  cut  the  head-blocks  are  simul 
taneously  moved  up,  bringing  the  log  a  dis 
tance  nearer  to  the  saw  equal  to  the  thick 
ness  of  the  board  desired,  plus  the  width  of 
the  kerf  made  by  the  saw.  Very  rapid  and 
handy  are  these  saws,  but  the  men  of  76 
never  dreamed  of  such  a  thing.  We  had 
rude  gate  saws  driven  by  nutter  wheels,  or 
geared  up  for  motion  from  a  larger  wheel. 
There  was  then  no  premonition  of  the  saw- 


90 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


mills  which  hum  in  all  our  ports  and  buzz 
in  all  the  forests  of  the  land. 

The  veneer  saw,  a  peculiar  adaptation  of 
the  circular  saw,  with  thin  segmental  teeth 
on  a  thin  hub  of  large  diameter,  was  invent 
ed  by  Braruah. 

Nor  must  we  forget  the  scroll-saw,  also 
named  a  jig  saw  from  its  rapid  vertical  mo 
tion.  It  has  a  narrow  thin  blade  which 
eats  its  way  in  a  wonderful  manner  through 
the  stuff  which  is  moved  against  it,  sliding 
on  the  surface  of  a  flat  table  through  which 
the  saw  reciprocates.  The  band  saw  is  for 


BAND   SAW. 

the  same  purpose,  but  is  a  steel  ribbon 
with  a  serrated  edge,  and  runs  on  two 
band  wheels,  one  of  which  is  driven  by  the 
steam-power. 

The  planing-machine  for  wood  assumed 
three  shapes  before  it  settled  into  its  pres- 


ent  preferred  form;  indeed,  there  are  yet 
two  kinds.  General  Bentham's  machine, 
patented  in  1791,  was  like  an  immense  plane 
pushed  over  the  surface  of  the  board.  Bra- 
mah's  machine,  1802,  is  what  is  called  the 
traverse  planer,  the  cutters  being  on  the  low 
er  edge  of  a  revolving  disk,  which  revolves 
with  its  vertical  arbor  above  the  board, 
which  passes  beneath  it.  The  more  com 
mon  and  generally  useful  form  of  the  plan- 
ing-machine  has  revolving  cutters  on  hor 
izontal  axes,  which  work  the  top  of  the 
board.  By  an  extension  of  the  principle 
another  cutter  may  work  the  lower  surface, 
and  two  others  on  vertical  axes  dress  the 
edges,  or  square  stuff  may  be  dressed  on  all 
sides,  or  one  or  more  of  the  cutters  may  have 
such  conformation  as  to  plane  mouldings  on 
the  stuff. 

This  is  the  moulding-machine,  whose  use 
fulness  it  is  hard  to  exaggerate,  but  the 
admirable  Bentham  and  the  equally  useful 
and  perhaps  equally  brilliant  Bramah  would 
gaze  with  keen  zest  upon  the  outgrowth  of 
their  genius  and  pains. 

Another  form  of  moulding-machine  has  a 
vertical  shaft,  with  cutters  of  the  conforma 
tion  required  protruding  through  a  table, 
so  as  to  work  the  edges  of  the  stuff  brought 
against  them,  directed  by  the  hand  or  by  a 
guide. 

The  joiner,  or  general  wood-worker,  is  anoth 
er  of  the  late  additions  to  the  shop.  The 
number  of  years  it  has  been  in  use  can  al 
most  be  counted  on  the  fingers  of  the  two 
hands.  Though  the  term  may  not  have 
been  so  intended,  yet  it  is  well  placed,  for 


MOTJT.BING-MAOIIINE. 


MORTISING-MACHINES  AND  LATHES. 


it  holds  a  very  commandiiig 
rank.  It  planes  flat,  mould 
ing,  and  beaded  surfaces;  it 
rips  or  crosscuts  ;  it  bores  and 
counterbores  ;  it  mortises  and 
tenons,  executes  squaring-up, 
grooving,  tonguing,  rabbet 
ing,  mitring,  chamfering,  and 
wedge-cutting ;  it  is  a  jack- 
of-all-work,  the  handy  man  of 
the  shop,  with  unflagging  en 
ergy  and  singular  versatility. 
It  well  represents  the  mature 
mind  of  the  ages,  being  a  mul- 
tum  in  parvo,  the  combination 
of  a  set  of  separate  machines, 
possessing  the  attributes  of 
each,  which  it  is  ready  to  turn 
to  account  at  any  time,  not 
always  together,  but  in  rapid 
succession  at  short  notice. 

The  mortising-machine  may 
have  had  a  precarious  exist 
ence  before  General  Sir  Sam 
uel  Bentham,  but  we  have  no 
trace  of  it.    Bentham  describes 
the  self-acting  machine  in  his 
patent  of  1793.     His  descrip 
tion  includes  the  operation  by 
which  a  hole  previously  bored  is  elongated 
by  a  chisel  into  a  slot,  and  also  the  mode 
of  making  the  mortise  by  a  rotating  cutter 
during  the  traverse  of  the  work.     He  also 
had  a  pivoted  table  for  oblique  mortising, 
and  a  double  or  forked  chisel  for  making 
narrow  parallel  mortises. 

Brunei's  machine  for  mortising  the  shells 
of  ships'  blocks  was  made  for  the  British 
Admiralty  in  1804.  The  block  is  chucked 
in  a  carriage,  and  has  an  automatic  feed 
movement  by  means  of  a  screw.  The  chis 
el  (or  chisels  for  blocks  with  more  than  one 
score)  is  in  a  vertically  reciprocating  slider 
in  the  frame  above. 

The  latest  improvements  in  mortising- 
machines  have  much  increased  their  capaci 
ty  and  range  of  work,  special  machines  be 
ing  made  for  various  duties.  One  principal 
feature  is  that  for  bringing  the  chisel  into 
action  and  determining  its  depth  of  stroke 
by  simply  pressing  upon  a  treadle,  the  chisel 
being  quiescent  as  soon  as  the  foot  is  lifted, 
and  this  without  disconnection  with  the 
motor. 


GENERAL    \VOOP-WORKER. 


The  tendency  of  the  age  is  to  rotary  mo 
tion.  The  first  machine  in  the  wTorld,  per 
haps,  was  the  throwing  wheel  of  the  potter. 
In  the  oldest  of  the  Egyptian  paintings  the 
creative  spirit,  Knep,  is  represented  as  turn 
ing  man  upon  the  potter's  wheel.  The  Greek 
tornos  does  not  appear  to  have  been  much 
superior  to  the  pole  lathe  which  was  used  by 
our  ancestors,  and  is  yet  the  useful  machine 
of  the  Kabyles  of  Africa  and  the  mountain 
eers  of  the  Carpathians.  In  this  the  work 
is  rotated  in  one  direction  by  a  treadle  and 
a  cord  which  winds  on  the  mandrel,  and  in 
the  other  by  the  recoil  of  a  spring  pole.  Our 
ancestors  did  not  use  turned  work  to  any 
great  extent ;  the  hatchet  and  the  drawing- 
knife  fashioned  the  furniture  of  the  rustic ; 
a  rather  smoother  mode  of  preparation  fell 
to  the  lot  of  that  made  for  the  gentler  born. 
Now  the  turning  lathe  is  the  machine  of 
speed ;  broom  handles  are  turned,  and  pails, 
clothes-pins,  and  the  very  commonest  of  ar 
ticles. 

The  wood-turning  lathe  preceded  that  of 
metal  many  centuries,  as  that  for  clay  long 


92 


MECHANICAL  PEOGEESS. 


BLANOHAED'S  SPOKE  LATHE. 

preceded  the  wood-lathe.  We  pass  at  once 
to  the  lathe  for  turning  irregular  forms,  in 
vented  by  Thomas  Blanchard,  of  Boston, 
Massachusetts,  in  1828,  and  since  much  im 
proved  by  himself  and  others. 

It  is  made  for  turning  spokes,  axe-han 
dles,  gun-stocks,  and  various  other  crooked 
and  difficult  shapes.  The  illustration  shows 
it  as  adapted  for  turning  spokes.  These 
have  very  different  shapes  at  different  parts 
of  their  lengths,  and  spokes  for  different 
kinds  of  vehicles  require  very  different 
shapes  and  proportions.  Like  the  job  of 
standing  the  egg  on  end,  suggested  by 
Christopher  Colon  to  his  curious  friends,  it 
is  very  easy  to  understand  when  explained  ; 
but  it  was  a  very  ingenious  contrivance  and 
a  great  acquisition.  The  model  is  placed 
upon  a  slowly  rotating  mandrel  at  top ;  a  tra 
cer  rests  against  each  side  of  it,  and  governs 
the  motions  of  the  cutter  frame,  causing  the 
revolving  cutter  to  advance  or  recede  to  or 
from  the  stuff  which  is  chucked  between 
the  centres  of  a  mandrel  below,  and  caused 
to  rotate  in  correspondence  with  the  model 
above.  The  cutter  frame  has  a  longitudi 
nal  motion  along  the  frame,  its  cutter  pass 
ing  from  end  to  end  of  the  stick,  and  cut 
ting  more  or  less  deeply  in  exact  conformity 
with  the  model  above.  The  piece  to  be  cut 
is  not  shown  in  position,  as  it  would  hide 
the  view  of  the  cutter  head. 

It  would  not  be  fair  to  omit  the  state 
ment  that  Condamine,  De  la  Hire,  and  Plu- 
inier  mention  lathes  in  which  the  cutter  is 
governed  by  a  tracer  passing  over  the  irreg 
ular  surface  of  a  model ;  also  that  Brunei's 
machine  for  making  the  groove  around  ships' 
blocks  for  the  ropes  by  which  they  are  at 
tached  to  the  rigging  has  a  revolving  disk 


of  brass  with  two  cutters  which  receive 
their  direction  and  depth  from  a  shaper 
placed  parallel  thereto. 

The  first  important  collection  of  special 
wood-working  tools  was  the  machinery  for 
making  tackle  blocks,  invented  by  the  elder 
Brunei,  and  made  by  Maudslay,  1802-08,  for 
the  British  Admiralty.  Fortunately  Gener 
al  Beutham  was  at  that  time  inspector  of 
naval  works,  and  so  it  only  took  twelve 
months  to  obtain  the  sanction  of  the  com 
missioners  to  the  adoption  of  the  plans  of 
the  three  excellent  masters. 

The  machines  are  in  three  different  sets, 
three  in  a  set,  for  making  different  sizes, 
each  set  having  a  certain  range  of  adjusta 
bility  as  to  the  sizes  of  blocks  turned  out. 
Altogether  they  make  214  sizes  and  kinds. 
With  two  additional  machines  for  making 
dead-eyes,  two  for  making  iron  pins,  and 
one  large  boring  machine,  the  number  of 
machines  is  fifty.  They  were  set  up  in 
1808 ;  cost  $230,000.  The  saving  over  hand 
labor  is  variously  estimated  at  from  $83,000 
to  $150,000  per  annum.  Brunei,  "the  in 
genious  American  mechanic,"  as  Tomlinson 
calls  him,  received  £1  per  diem  for  superin 
tendence,  £1000  for  the  models,  and  £17,000 
for  his  head-work. 

The  factory  system  is  now  in  full  vogue 
with  wood-workers,  and  they  can  not  desire 
a  more  honorable  and  thoroughly  excellent 
triumvirate  of  leaders  thanBentham,  Brunei, 
Maudslay. 

Our  space  will  allow  of  scarcely  more 
than  a  recapitulation  of  the  remaining 
achievements  which  distinguish  the  pres 
ent  century. 

ELEVATORS. 

The  elevator,  as  an  ordinary  apparatus  in 
a  hotel,  business  house,  or  building  devoted 
to  offices,  is  an  American  institution.  The 
man-engine  and  the  hoisting  platform  or 
cage  have  been  for  nearly  a  century  the  or 
dinary  means  of  ascending  mining  shafts ; 
the  cage  has  more  lately  been  introduced 
into  factories  to  save  the  operators  the  labor 
of  climbing,  and  now  the  winding  apparatus 
has  been  much  improved,  the  car  luxuri 
ously  furnished  and  lighted,  and  safety  de 
vices  introduced  to  prevent  overwinding 
and  to  arrest  descent  if  the  rope  breaks. 

There  are  three  principal  forms :  1.  That 
in  which  the  winding  drum  is  driven  by  a 


ELEVATORS. 


93 


steam-engine,  the  rope  passing  over  a  pulley 
above  the  shaft,  and  thence  downward  to 
the  suspended  cage.  2.  The  hydraulic  ele 
vator,  in  which  water  from  the  city  main 
acts  upon  a  ram  with  great  force,  and  fleets, 
as  the  sailor  might  say,  the  blocks  of  a  com 
pound  tackle,  drawing  upon  the  rope  which 
passes  over  the  sheaves  at  a  rate  propor 
tioned  to  the  number  of  sheaves  involved. 
3.  The  direct  hydraulic  lift;  in  this  the 
platform  is  supported  by  a  piston  working 
in  a  cylinder  into  which  water  is  admitted 
from  the  city  main.  This  requires  a  piston 
as  long  above  the  lowest  floor  as  the  height 
to  be  lifted,  and  a  well  or  cylinder  as  great 
a  depth  below  it.  As  the  water  runs  into 
the  cylinder  it  acts  against  the  lower  end 
of  the  piston,  and  Avhen  the  platform  is  to 
be  lowered,  a  faucet  is  opened,  which  al 
lows  the  water  to  escape.  It  is  safe,  and  is 
probably  a  French  invention — the  Ascenseur 
Edoux. 

Besides  these,  there  is  a  peculiarly  Amer 
ican  system  of  hoisting  and  storing  grain, 
forming  a  prominent  feature  in  the  views 
of  our  sea-board  and  lake  cities.  An  eleva 
tor-leg,  as  it  is  termed,  reaches  into  the  bin 
or  well  into  which  the  wagons  or  cars  have 
been  discharged,  or  into  the  hold  of  the 
vessel.  This  leg  is  the  extension  device 
round  which  passes  an  endless  belt  with 
cups,  each  of  which  runs  up  full  of  grain 
and  discharges  into  a  hopper  above,  where 
the  grain  is  weighed,  and  from  whence  it 
passes  by  spouts  to  the  various  bins.  From 
these  it  is  drawn,  when  reshipped,  into  cars 
or  vessels. 

In  the  American  practice  the  grain  is  dis 
charged  into  the  hopper  of  a  weighing  ma 
chine  gauged  exactly  for  one  hundred  bush 
els;  by  opening  a  valve  the  contents  are 
sent  by  a  spout  to  the  bin,  the  valve  closed, 
and  the  elevating  process  resumed.  Seven 
thousand  bushels  an  hour  are  thus  weighed. 
An  elevator  at  Milwaukee  is  280  feet  long 
and  80  feet  wide.  The  total  length  of  the 
great  driving-belt,  urged  by  a  200  horse 
power  engine,  is  280  feet,  that  is,  the  half, 
extending  from  cellar  to  comb,  is  140  feet, 
and  the  down  half  is  of  course  equal  to  it. 
This  belt  is  36  inches  wide  and  three-quar 
ters  of  an  inch  thick,  and  is  made  of  six  plies 
or  thicknesses  of  canvas,  with  sheets  of  India 
rubber  laid  between  them.  It  drives  nine 


receiving  elevators,  or  belts  set  with  buck 
ets,  each  of  which  lifts  the  grain  140  feet. 
The  buckets  are  made  of  thick  tin  bound 
with  hoop-iron,  and  are  well  riveted  to  the 
belt  at  intervals  of  fourteen  inches.  They 
are  6  inches  across  the  mouth,  18  inches  long, 
and  when  full  each  contains  a  peck.  They 
do  not  usually  go  up  quite  full,  but,  allow 
ing  for  this,  there  are  100  pecks  (25  bushels) 
loaded  on  one  side  of  the  belt  whenever  it 
is  at  work.  If  all  nine  are  running  at  once, 
as  is  often  the  case,  the  quantity  of  wheat 
lifted  on  these  swift-running  belts  is  225 
bushels.  The  established  weight  of  a  bush 
el  of  No.  2  Milwaukee  spring  wheat  is  55 
pounds.  This  would  make  the  total  lift  of 
the  receiving  elevators  during  the  time 
they  are  at  work  over  12,000  pounds. 

The  bins  into  which  this  wheat  is  poured 
are  of  great  size,  being  60  feet  deep,  20  wide, 
and  10  across,  containing  12,000  cubic  feet. 
The  total  receiving  and  storing  capacity  of 
this  building  is  1,500,000  bushels.  Of  the 
crop  of  1869  it  received  7,000,000  bushels. 

In  discharging  into  the  lake  grain  ves 
sels,  as  soon  as  a  ship  is  moored  beside  an 
elevator  the  hatches  are  removed,  and  great 
spouts  extended  over  them  from  the  bottom 
of  one  of  the  bins  described.  The  gate  is 
raised,  and  a  torrent  of  wheat  pours  down. 
The  loading  power  of  these  spouts  is  12,000 
bushels  an  hour.  A  vessel  with  a  capacity 
for  18,000  bushels  may  bo  loaded  in  an  hour 
and  a  half.  The  Oswego  and  Ogdensburg 
schooners,  and  vessels  destined  for  the 
Welland  Canal,  usually  take  from  12,000  to 
20,000  bushels.  The  Buffalo  vessels  are  lar 
ger,  often  receiving  30,000,  and  in  a  few 
cases  45,000  bushels. 

No  other  mode  of  handling  grain  has  ever 
been  devised  which  affords  such  facilities 
for  unloading,  weighing,  storing,  loading, 
moving  from  one  bin  to  another  for  exam 
ination  or  for  ventilation.  A  hundred  years 
ago  the  shovel,  sack,  and  the  hoisting  chain, 
or  else  the  wheelbarrow,  were  the  usual  fa 
cilities  of  the  grain  merchant. 

DOMESTIC  MACHINERY. 

Domestic  machinery  is  not  the  least  impor 
tant  of  the  features  which  characterize  the 
present  age. 

The  sewing-machine  is  an  American  inven 
tion  of  the  last  forty  years.  As  was  pre- 


94 


MECHANICAL  PKOGRESS. 


viously  remarked  of  reapers,  the  European 
attempts  at  making  machines  to  supersede 
the  hand  method  served  to  exhibit  the  dif 
ficulty  of  the  problem,  but  in  no  important 
degree  to  solve  it.  The  shoe-sewing  ma 
chine  of  Thomas  Saint,  patented  in  England 
in  1790,  had  a  single  thread,  which  was  driv 
en  by  a  forked  needle  through  a  hole  pre 
viously  punched  by  an  awl,  and  was  then 
caught  by  a  looper  which  held  the  loop  so 
that  it  was  entered  by  the  needle  and 
thread  in  their  next  descent,  making  a  cro 
chet  stitch.  The  feed  and  the  stitch-tight 
ening  movements  were  automatic. 

The  sewing-machine  of  Thimouuier,  of 
Paris,  was  used  in  1830  for  making  army 
clothing.  Eighty  of  these  machines,  made 
of  wood,  were  destroyed  by  a  mob,  which 
regarded  them  as  an  "  invention  of  the  ene 
my."  They  were  afterward  made  of  metal. 
Adams  and  Dodge,  of  Monkton,  Vermont,  in 
1818,  and  more  especially  J.  J.  Greenough, 
of  New  York,  in  1842,  added  improvements. 
Walter  Hunt,  1832-35,  made  and  sold  lock 
stitch  sewing-machines,  but  neglected  to 
pursue  the  business,  which  consequently  at 
tracted  but  little  attention  at  the  time.  His 
extreme  versatility  prevented  success  ;  his 
inventions  absorbed  his  time,  and  he  seem- 
iugly  had  none  left  for  securing  the  pecun 
iary  results  of  his  genius.  He  just  missed, 
and  by  mere  inattention,  one  of  the  grandest 
opportunities  of  the  century.  Elias  Howe, 
with  inferior  inventive  abilities,  but  with 
an  adaptedness  to  follow  out  a  single  object 
persistently,  and  with  business  ability,  reap 
ed  the  field.  The  world,  as  we  have  had  oc 
casion  to  remark  previously,  thanks  the  man 
who  gives  an  improvement  into  its  hands. 
The  name  of  Elias  Howe  is  indissolubly  as 
sociated  with  the  success  of  the  sewing- 
machine.  This  machine  is  no  exception  to 
the  ordinary  rule  that  an  invention  is  a 
growth  rather  than  an  inspiration,  and  the 
discussion  on  the  relative  merits  of  invent 
ors  has  been  both  voluminous  and  acrimo 
nious.  Examiners,  commissioners,  judges, 
each  in  their  turn  have  found  it  a  very  knot 
ty  question  how  to  apportion  the  respective 
credits.  It  is  no  small  matter  to  conceive 
the  need  and  apply  one's  mind  to  the  intri 
cacies  of  the  problem.  Then  come  the  de 
tails.  The  original  machine  had  a  simple 
needle,  and  made  a  running  stitch  ;  next  we 


see  a  machine  which  made  a  succession  of 
loops,  forming  a  crochet  stitch  ;  here  the  ma 
chine  paused  a  while.  A  score  of  years  was 
passed  in  devising  modes  of  feeding,  contin 
uous  or  intermitting,  by  various  arrange 
ments  of  parts.  The  greatest  advance  up 
to  that  time  was  the  lock  stitch,  invented 
by  Hunt,  and  made  by  passing  a  shuttle 
containing  a  lower  thread  through  the  loop 
of  an  upper  thread  carried  down  through 
the  cloth  by  an  eye-pointed  needle.  This 
was  also  the  feature  of  the  "  Howe"  machine. 
Following  this  were  many  improvements, 
variations,  and  nice  adjustments,  such  as  A. 
B.  Wilson's  four-motion  feed  and  rotating 
looping -hook,  the  latter  of  which  draws 
down  the  needle  thread,  and  drops  through 
it  the  spool  containing  the  lower  thread. 
There  is  no  room  here  even  to  recite  the 
prominent  improvements.  Finally,  the  ma 
chine  is  much  indebted  to  the  skill  and  en 
terprise  of  the  mechanics  and  tradesmen 
in  whose  hands  it  has  grown  to  the  won 
derful  proportions  it  now  exhibits.  With 
out  impugning  the  genius  of  the  earlier  in 
ventors,  it  may  still  be  said  that  the  present 
proximate  perfection  of  the  machine  is  due 
to  the  men  who  took  up  the  work  where 
Howe  left  it. 

The  original  Howe  machine  had  a  curved 
eye-pointed  needle  attached  to  the  end  of  a 
vibrating  lever,  and  carrying  the  upper 
thread.  The  shuttle,  carrying  the  lower 
thread  between  the  needle  and  the  upper 
thread,  was  driven  in  its  race  by  means  of 
two  strikers  carried  on  the  ends  of  vibra 
ting  arms  worked  by  tAvo  cams.  The  cloth 
was  attached  by  pins  on  the  edge  of  a  thin 
steel  rib  called  a  baster-plate,  which  had 
holes  engaged  by  the  teeth  of  a  small  in- 
termittingly  moving  pinion.  This  was  the 
feed,  and  clumsy  enough. 

Space  permits  but  one  illustration,  and 
the  Singer  is  given  as  a  representative  ma 
chine.  The  well-known  table  and  treadle 
are  omitted,  and  the  principal  •working 
parts  only  are  shown.  The  motion  derived 
from  the  treadle  is  imparted  to  the  hori 
zontal  shaft,  and  communicated  in  two  di 
rections  to  the  needle  bar  and  to  the  shuttle 
driver.  Various  subsidiary  movements  oc 
cur  which  are  tolerably  familiar  to  our  read 
ers,  and  need  not  be  explained  at  length. 

About  2000  patents  have  been  granted  in 


SEWING-MACHINES. 


BINGES   SEWING-MACHINE. 


the  United  States  for  sewing-machines: 
one  improvement  after  another,  until  there 
seems  to  be  no  end  to  the  devices.  Some 
have  reference  to  special  parts,  others  are 
adaptations  of  the  machine  to  new  uses  and 
materials  to  which  it  had  not  before  been 
accustomed. 

If  required  to  point  out  three  mechanical 
contrivances  upon  which  the  most  extraor 
dinary  versatility  of  invention  has  been  ex 
pended,  the  writer  would  most  unhesitating 
ly  instance  the  harvester,  the  breech-loading 
fire-arm,  and  the  sewing-machine;  each  of 
these  has  thousands  of  patents,  and  each 
of  them  is  the  growth  of  the  last  forty 
years. 

Although  each  of  these  was  on  trial,  and 
to  some  extent  a  success,  previous  to  1850, 
yet  it  may  be  said,  in  general  terms,  that 
their  celebrity  and  usefulness  date  from 
about  that  time.  The  Hussey  and  M'Cor- 
mick  reapers  were  largely  introduced  to  our 
countrymen  by  their  success  at  the  London 
World's  Fair  in  1851 ;  the  breech-loaders 
were  forced  upon  an  unwilling  Ordnance 
Bureau  by  the  exigencies  of  the  late  war, 
the  demand  of  the  public,  and  the  stern  de 
termination  of  some  civilians  who  were  in 
authority ;  the  first  valuable  working  sew 
ing-machine  was  the  "  Singer,"  made  in  the 
fall  of  1850.  Last  year  (1873)  about  600,000 


sewing  -  machines    were    made    and    sold ; 
232,444  of  these  were  of  the  "  Singer." 

The  security  of  patents  has  encouraged 
men  of  talent,  capital,  and  enterprise  to  en 
gage  in  the  sewing-machine  business,  and 
as  much  as  $40,000,000  is  now  estimated  to 
be  employed  in  that  manufacture.  The 
retail  prices  of  sewing-machines  bear  no 
proper  relation  to  their  cost,  but  the  prices 
to  the  consumer  result  from  the  method 
of  selling  by  means  of  a  system  of  agen 
cies  and  traveling  canvassers,  to  the  latter 
of  whom  so  large  a  profit  is  allowed  that 
they  can  afford  to  sell  them  on  time,  on  tri 
al,  or  on  payment  by  installments.  There 
are  cheaper  means,  as  with  ordinary  tools 
and  articles  of  consumption  and  wear,  of 
bringing  the  producer  and  consumer  togeth 
er  ;  but  in  the  sale  of  sewing-machines  no 
substitute  has  been  found  for  the  personal 
solicitations  of  canvassers,  who  scour  the 
country  with  their  wagons,  and  receive  for 
their  pay  one-half  of  the  purchase  price. 
The  organization  of  the  corps  of  agents  by 
the  general  agent  absorbs  another  fifteen 
per  cent.,  so  that  the  manufacturer  receives 
only  about  thirty-five  per  cent,  of  the  price. 
This  system  will  not  last  longer  than  the 
necessity  for  personal  effort  at  the  homes  of 
the  people  ;  and  when  it  becomes  an  estab 
lished  want  in  every  family,  as  it  is  now  an 


96 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


actual  need,  the  price  may  be  expected  to 
come  down  to  what  will  afford  but  a  usual 
profit  upon  the  capital  and  skill  employed. 
The  principal  patents  have  already  expired, 
and  the  business  will  soon  be  open  to  com 
petition,  when  the  best  devised  and  con 
structed  machines  will  be  sold  merely  on 
their  own  merits,  without  the  adventitious 
aids  of  exclusive  rights  to  sustain  prices. 

The  business  of  boot  and  shoe  making 
has  received  a  fillip  from  the  introduction 
of  machinery,  enriching  the  manufacturers 
and  cheapening  the  product.  Without  oc 
cupying  room  by  even  naming  the  machines 
which  furnish  the  shoe  factory,  it  may  be 
stated  that  the  M'Kay  sewing-machine  was 
the  result  of  three  years'  mental  labor  and 
hand-work,  and  involved  an  expenditure  of 
$130,000  before  a  practical  working  machine 
was  completed  and  put  in  operation  in  1861. 
Since  this  time  225,000,000  pairs  of  boots  and 
shoes  have  been  made  on  these  machines  in 
the  United  States,  besides  many  millions 
in  England  and  on  the  continent  of  Europe. 
A  very  skillful  operator  has  occasionally 
sewed  as  many  as  900  pairs  in  a  day  of  ten 
hours,  and  any  good  operator  can  easily 
sew  from  500  to  600  pairs  per  day. 

The  knitting-machine  is  another  form  of 
iron-fingered  curiosity,  which  will  knit  at 
an  unexampled  rate,  and  with  admirable 
evenness  of  tension.  It  is  singular,  too,  the 
variety  of  stitch  that  may  be  made  on  the 
machine  by  certain  peculiar  dispositions  and 
combinations  of  the  needles. 


We  must  not  forget  the  apple-parer,  which 
was  quoted  some  thirty  years  since  in  En 
gland  as  the  last  comical  vagary  of  the  fun 
ny  and  awkward  American  cousin.  A  par 
ing  bee  may  be  had  without  apple-parers, 
but  it  takes  much  longer  to  empty  the  ap 
ple  baskets  and  fill  the  kettle  with  the  quar 
ters,  which  are  stewed  in  boiled  cider  to 
make  apple-butter  for  the  winter  pies  and 
"  sass."  It  was  no  chance  thought  or  mere 
whim  that  set  our  folks  to  work.  American 
patents  for  apple-parers  were  granted  in 
1803,  1809,  1810,  and  since  that  time  about 
eighty  patents  have  been  granted  for  other 
implements  for  the  same  purpose. 

Besides  this  we  have  for  the  cook  and 
kitchen-maid  the  almond-peeler,  pea  and 
bean  shellers,  peach  and  cherry  stoners, 
raisin  -  seeders,  bread  and  cheese  cutters, 
butter-workers,  sausage  grinders  and  stuff- 
ers,  coffee-mills,  corn-poppers,  cream-freez 
ers,  dish-washers,  egg-boilers,  flour-sifters, 
flat-irons,  knife  -  sharpeners,  and  lemon- 
squeezers.  Then  we  have  for  the  dairy 
maid  the  milking-machines,  milk -coolers, 
churns,  cheese-presses,  and  a  number  of  oth 
er  aids  to  leisure. 


LAMB'S  KNITTING-MACHINE. 


SAFES. 


97 


We  have,  moreover,  the  baby-jumper  and 
baby-walker  for  the  nursery,  and  a  wonder 
ful  variety  of  brooms,  mops,  carpet  stretch 
ers  and  fasteners,  for  the  footman  and  house 
maid. 

Nor  must  the  washing -machine,  another 
strictly  American  notion,  be  disregarded. 
There  are  hundreds  of  patents.  The  typical 
forms  are  few  ;  the  variations  on  these  forms 
are  most  amusingly  numerous.  The  ins  and 
the  outs  of  invention  have  been  wonderful 
ly  diversified.  The  typical  forms  are,  agi 
tators,  rubbers  (reciprocating  and  rotary), 
centrifugal,  pressure-rollers,  pounders,  dash 
ers,  plunger  and  balls,  and  the  circulatory 
system. 

The  wringer,  consisting  of  a  pair  of  rub 
ber  rollers,  is  a  necessary  laundry  imple 
ment. 

SAFES. 

In  former  times  strong  rooms  and  iron- 
bound  oaken  boxes  were  used  to  hold  the 
cash  and  the  muniments  of  merchants  and 
families.  Such  chests  were  fastened  by  let 
ter  locks,  which  are  the  predecessors  of  our 
permutation  locks.  These  boxes  were  hard 
ly  burglar-proof,  and  no  defense  against  fire, 
but  were  a  security  against  peculation  by 
dishonest  servants. 

About  1776  began  the  manufacture  of 
sheet -iron  safes,  banded  with  hoop  iron 
crossing  on  the  outside  at  right  angles. 
These  were  fastened  by  locks  throwing 
several  bolts,  and  also  by  a  bar  with  hasp, 
staple,  and  padlock.  Cast-iron  chests  were 
used  in  1800. 

Attempts  were  previously  made  to  render 
strong  rooms  fire-proof  by  building  the  walls 
double  and  pouring  in  gypsum ;  but  the  first 
attempts  at  fire-proof  portable  safes  were 
early  in  the  nineteenth  century,  and  con 
sisted  of  wooden  boxes  covered  with  sheet 
iron  and  riveted  bands,  and  an  intervening 
thickness  of  gypsum. 

After  various  experiments,  in  which  the 
wooden  box  was  saturated  with  potash  lye 
or  alum  to  render  it  incombustible,  and  was 
coated  inside  the  sheet-iron  casing  with  clay, 
lime,  graphite,  or  mica,  the  boxes  were  made 
of  iron  inside  and  outside,  with  intervening 
non-combustible  material,  and  known  as 
"double  chests."  Such  was  the  fire-proof 
safe  patented  in  England  in  1801.  Asbes- 
tus  was  used  in  1834.  Chubb  in  1835  at- 
7 


tempted  to  make  the  safe  burglar-proof  by 
lining  it  with  steel  or  case-hardened  iron 
plates. 

In  1843  Wilder  made  a  safe  of  heavy  plates 
of  iron,  with  a  filling  of  hydrated  gypsum. 
Hydraulic  cement,  steatite,  alum,  and  the 
neutralized  and  dried  residuum  of  the  so- 
called  soda-water  manufacture,  were  suc 
cessively  used. 

Another  idea  was  to  connect  the  inter 
vening  space  of  the  safe  with  the  water 
main,  to  prevent  a  charring  heat  from  reach 
ing  the  contents  when  the  outside  became 
exposed  to  fire. 

Lillie  used  slabs  of  chilled  cast  iron,  and 
flowed  cast  iron  over  wrought -iron  ribs. 
Herring  made  safes  with  boiler-iron  exteri 
or,  hardened  steel  inner  safe,  and  the  inter 
space  filled  with  a  casting  of  franklinite 
over  rods  of  soft  steel. 

The  American  safe  of  the  best  quality  is 
really  a  first-class  production,  and  is  not 
equaled  elsewhere.  The  locks  are  also  won 
derful  specimens  of  ingenuity,  worthy  of  an 
extended  notice. 

Safe-deposit  companies  in  our  principal 
cities  have  ranks  of  safes  with  curious 
unpickable  locks  inclosed  in  a  room  with 
grated  doors,  lighted  by  gas,  and  watched 
by  attendants.  These  are  rented  to  private 
parties. 

Various  plans  have  also  been  devised  to 
give  notice  of  tampering  with  the  safe — 
electro -magnetic  alarms,  whistles  sounded 
by  setting  free  a  body  of  compressed  air  im 
prisoned  between  the  air-tight  walls,  gen 
erating  asphyxiating  gas  in  the  chamber  to 
choke  the  burglars.  It  is  a  race  between 
the  skilled  mechanic  and  the  equally  skill 
ful  professional  thief. 

FIRE-ARMS  AND   ORDNANCE. 

From  the  old  wall  piece  or  arquebuse  with 
which  the  Swiss  defeated  Charles  the  Bold 
in  1476,  to  the  Sharps,  Remington,  Win 
chester,  or  Maynard  rifle,  or  the  Parker  shot 
gun,  is  a  great  step.  So  of  the  pieces  used 
by  the  cavalry  of  1554,  and  named  from  Pis- 
toja,  to  the  Colt  or  the  Smith  and  Wesson 
revolver  of  our  day.  Equally  great  is  the 
advance  in  ordnance  from  the  cannon  used 
at  the  siege  of  Cordova,  1280,  and  those  with 
which  Ferdinand  captured  Gibraltar  from 
the  Moors  in  1308.  The  bore  of  the  larger 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


cannon  down  to  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth 
century  was  as  great  as  any  modern  pieces ; 
but  they  carried  large  stones,  had  small 
powder  chambers  like  a  mortar,  and  could 
not  possibly  have  withstood  the  modern 
charges  of  powder.  The  bronze  gun  Tzar 
Pooschka,  cast  A.D.  1586,  had  a  bore  of  36 
inches ;  its  projectile  was  said  to  weigh 
2000  pounds,  but  its  powder  chamber  had 
only  19  inches  bore,  only  about  1  to  3.6  the 
area  of  the  ball  chamber.  Its  weight  was 
86,248  pounds.  The  bronze  gun  of  Bejapoor, 
A.D.  1548,  had  a  calibre  of  28.5  inches,  weight 
89,600  pounds ;  that  of  Mohammed  II.,  A.D. 
1464,  25  inches,  weight  41.888  pounds. 

The  modern  guns  are  of  scarcely  equal 
calibre,  seldom  of  greater  weight,  but  are  of 
very  much  greater  strength,  and  the  force 
of  the  projectile,  due  to  its  velocity,  may  be 
said  to  be  out  of  comparison  greater  than 
that  of  those  pieces  of  antiquity. 

The  Woolwich  (England)  35 -ton  gun 
weighs  79,084  pounds ;  the  large  Armstrong 
(Big  Will),  50,400 ;  Krupp's  14-inch,  100,000 ; 
Rodman's  smooth-bore  20-inch,  116,497.  Ev 
ery  body  is  casting  heavier  and  heavier  guns, 
and  these  figures  will  not  long  represent  the 
condition  of  things.  The  latest  advance  is 
in  the  guns  for  the  British  armor-clad  Inflex 
ible,  which  has  armor  24  inches  thick,  and  is 
to  be  furnished  with  four  guns  of  81  tons 
weight  each  (181,440  pounds).  The  total 
length  of  this  gun,  including  the  plug-screw 
at  the  breech  end,  is  27  feet ;  length  of  bore, 
24  feet;  calibre  not  determined,  but  either 
14  or  16  inches.  The  ball  of  the  piece,  reck 
oned  at  14  inches  calibre,  will  be  from  1000 
to  1200  pounds,  the  charge  of  powder  one- 
sixth  of  the  weight  of  the  ball.  The  1000- 
pound  shot,  at  an  initial  velocity  of  1300 
feet  per  second,  will  have  a  punching  force 
of  11,715  foot-tons,  the  ball  of  1200  pounds  a 
penetrative  force  of  14,058  foot-tons.  Eight 
years  ago  the  English  7-ton  gun  was  con 
sidered  the  limit  of  production.  Entirely 
new  sets  of  tools  and  plants  have  succeed 
ed  each  other,  as  the  35-ton  and  81-ton  guns 
have  been  produced.  , 

In  getting  gracefully  back  again  from  the 
great  guns  of  the  world  to  the  military  and 
sporting  arms,  we  may  pause  a  moment  to 
regard  a  class  of  weapons  which  partake  of 
the  characteristics  of  each,  known  as  ma 
chine  guns,  having  a  plurality  of  barrels,  and 


mounted  upon  a  carriage.  The  first  hint  of 
these  was  a  piece  upon  a  tripod,  having  a 
chambered  breech  revolving  behind  a  single 
barrel.  This  was  patented  in  England  in 
17 18.  The  clumsy  contrivance  which  Fieschi 
used  in  firing  on  Louis  Philippe  had  a  row  of 
barrels  fired  simultaneously,  and  anticipated 
in  the  horizontal  arrangement  of  its  barrels 
the  Requa  battery  in  this  country  and  the 
Abbertini  mitrailleur  of  the  continent  of 
Europe.  The  mitrailleur  of  the  French  has 
a  cluster  of  barrels,  in  whose  rear  is  placed 
a  chambered  plate,  each  of  whose  chambers 
corresponds  to  one  of  the  cluster  of  barrels, 
against  whose  rear  it  is  locked  before  firing. 

The  most  efficient  weapons,  all  things 
considered,  are  the  Gatling  battery  gun  and 
the  Taylor  machine  gun. 

The  Gatling  gun,  invented  by  Mr.  J.  R. 
Gatling,  of  Indianapolis,  has  now  a  regular 
place  in  the  military  equipment  of  the  United 
States  and  of  England.  It  has  a  revolving 
cluster  of  parallel  barrels,  in  the  rear  of 
each  of  which,  and  rotating  therewith,  is 
its  own  loading,  firing,  and  spent-capsule- 
retracting  mechanism.  The  usual  American 
ammunition  with  metallic  capsule  and  the 
fulminate  in  the  flange  is  used.  The  bar 
rels  and  the  mechanisms  for  loading  and 
firing  are  rigidly  secured  upon  an  axial 
shaft,  which  is  revolved  by  means  of  bevel 
gearing  and  a  crank.  The  ammunition  is 
fed  in  at  a  hopper.  Each  barrel  receives  its 
charge  as  it  comes  to  the  top  in  the  course 
of  its  revolutions,  and  fires  as  it  comes  to 
its  lowest  position,  the  firing  being  thus 
consecutive,  and  with  a  rapidity  depending 
upon  the  rate  of  rotation  of  the  crank.  The 
complement  of  the  hopper,  400  cartridges, 
may  be  fired  in  one  minute  if  desired.  The 
gun  is  manufactured  at  the  Colt  Works, 
Hartford. 

The  Taylor  gim  is  the  invention  of  Mr. 
Taylor,  of  Knoxville,  Tennessee,  and  has  a 
cluster  of  stationary  barrels,  in  the  rear  of 
which  is  a  chamber  to  receive  the  cartridges ; 
these  are  secured  in  a  charging  block,  and 
forced  into  the  barrels  by  a  lateral  move 
ment  of  the  vertical  handle  seen  in  the  en 
graving.  This  handle  is  attached  to  an  os 
cillating  sleeve  having  internal  studs,  which 
work  in  spiral  grooves  in  a  sliding  breech 
cylinder.  The  latter  carries  plungers,  one 
for  each  barrel,  containing  central  firing 


FIRE-ARMS  AND  ORDNANCE. 


99 


TAYLOR'S  MACHINE  GUN. 


pins,  retracted  by  rotation  of  a  crank  shaft 
carrying  suitable  tappets,  so  that  the  bar 
rels  may  be  discharged  in  rapid  succession. 
The  piece  is  built  at  the  Remington  Works, 
Ilion,  New  York. 

The  military  and  sporting  rifles  and  shot 
guns  of  our  country  have  no  superiors.  The 
trial  at  Creedmoor  (1874)  between  the  Amer 
ican  and  Irish  teams  did  not  prove  the  supe 
riority  of  the  breech-loader  over  the  muzzle- 
loader,  nor  conversely ;  nor  is  there  any  dif 
ference  worth  mentioning  between  a  string 
of  931  (Irish)  and  of  934  (American)  in  a  pos 
sible  1080.  It  proved,  however,  the  excel 
lent  character  of  the  guns  and  the  steadi 
ness,  sight,  and  skill  of  the  men  on  both 
sides.  The  value  of  the  breech-loading  gun 
has  been  determined  by  other  considerations 
than  the  actual  shooting  force,  as  rapidity 
of  loading,  the  avoidance  of  shifting  the  gun 
end  for  end  in  loading,  and  also  of  assum 
ing  positions  in  handling  which  expose  the 
marksman.  The  American  style  of  fixed  am- 
munition,  carrying  its  fulminate  in  the  base 
of  the  cartridge,  has  also  a  great  conven 
ience,  and  has  riveted  the  former  conclusion 
of  the  greater  value  of  the  breech-loader. 

The  cartridge  was  introduced  by  Gustavus 
Adolphus,  who  was  killed  at  Lutzen  in  1632. 
It  at  first  only  contained  the  powder,  the 
bullets  being  carried  in  a  bag.  The  idea  of 
using  sheet  metal  for  cartridge  cases  origi 
nated  with  the  French.  In  1826  Cazalat  pat 
ented  a  metallic  cartridge  case,  drawn  from 
a  single  piece  of  copper,  and  having  an 
opening  in  the  centre  of  the  base  for  the 
communication  of  fire  from  the  fulminate, 


which  was  covered  with  water-proof  paper. 
Lefaucheux  and  Flobert,  of  Paris,  improved 
and  introduced  the  metallic  cartridge,  but 
it  has  received  its  final  improvements  in 
this  country,  being,  in  fact,  a  prominent 
feature  in  what  is  known  as  the  American 
system. 

The  systems  of  breech-loading  are  three : 
the  "  movement  of  barrel,"  the  "  movement 
of  breech  block,"  and  the  "revolver."  Of 
these  genera  there  are  thirteen  species  and 
twenty-six  varieties.  Of  the  different  modes 
there  are  about  1050  patents  in  the  United 
States  Patent-office,  beginning  with  the  pat 
ent  of  J.  H.  Hall,  of  North  Carolina,  in  1811, 
for  a  rising  breech  block,  which  slipped  from 
behind  the  bore  to  allow  the  cartridge  to  be 
inserted  at  the  breech.  Ten  thousand  of 
these  arms  were  made  for  the  United  States 
government  between  1811  and  1839,  and  some 
of  them  were  captured  at  the  taking  of  Fort 
Donelson. 

While  it  is  true  that  the  use  of  breech 
loaders  dates  back  to  the  sixteenth  century, 
that  form  of  arm  being  almost  as  old  as  the 
muzzle-loader,  the  actual  use  of  breech-load 
ers  on  a  large  scale  in  military  service,  or 
the  habitual  use  of  them  by  sportsmen,  is 
quite  modern.  The  Hall  gun  of  1811,  men 
tioned  above,  was  manufactured  on  a  small 
scale,  and  appears  to  have  been  locked  up 
in  arsenals,  where  it  was  forgotten.  The 
needle-gun  was  introduced  into  the  Prussian 
service  to  a  limited  extent  in  1846,  and  into 
the  Danish  and  Norwegian  soon  afterward. 
The  Schleswig  -  Holstein  war  was  fought 
with  needle-guns.  The  French  ChassepOt 


100 


MECHANICAL  PKOGRESS. 


is  reputed  to  have  been  first  used  in  the 
Italian  struggle  in  the  Garibaldi  times. 

Previous  to  our  own  war  of  1861-65  our 
principal  breech-loading  arms  were  Sharps's, 
Burnside's,  Maynard's,  Merrill's,  and  Spen 
cer's.  The  number  of  breech-loaders  pur 
chased  by  the  United  States  government  be 
tween  January  1, 1861,  and  January  30, 1866, 
is  stated  to  have  been  as  follows,  arms  of 
which  the  purchases  were  below  10,000  be 
ing  omitted : 


Burnside 55,567 

Gallagher 22,728 

Joslyn 11,261 

Merrill 14,295 

Maynard 20,002 


Remington 20,000 

Sharps 80,512 

Henry 30,062 

Spencer 94,156 

Starr 25,603 


Some  of  the  above  have  fallen  out  of 
public  notice ;  the  Sharps,  Maynard,  Rem 
ington  and  Winchester  (known  during  the 
war  as  the  Henry ),  Ward-Burton,  Colt,  and 
Springfield  have  taken  front  rank  as  mili 
tary  and  sporting  rifles,  while  the  Parker, 
Maynard,  and  Remington  are  the  prominent 
shot-guns.  Reference  has  been  made  to  the 
American  system  of  assembling  the  parts, 
which  are  made  interchangeable,  and  also 
to  the  development  of  the  system  by  Colonel 
Colt,  in  the  manufacture  of  his  revolving- 
chambered  pistol.  The  Smith  and  Wesson 
arm  is  made  by  the  same  process. 

In  18G6  Prussia  with  breech-loaders  de 
feated  Austria  with  muzzle-loaders.  A  few 
years  afterward  the  Prussian  Zundnadelge- 
ivelir  and  the  French  Chassepot  struggled  for 
pre-eminence  on  the  soil  of  France. 

It  may  be  added  that,  with  a  single  ex 
ception,  the  main  features  of  all  the  prom 
inent  military  rifles  originated  in  the  Unit 
ed  States.  The  exception  is  the  European 
needle-gun,  which  is  never  likely  to  be  used 
here.  The  English  "  Martini-Henry"  gun  is 
but  a  modification  of  the  American  "  Pea- 
body."  Six  hundred  thousand  of  the  Mar 
tini-Henry  gun  are  now  being  made  for  the 
Turkish  government.  The  "Winchester 
Repeating  Arms  Company,"  of  New  Haven, 
Connecticut,  is  making  the  ammunition  for 
these  guns.  Four  thousand  tons  of  lead 
have  been  cast  into  bullets  for  the  car 
tridges,  and  the  boxing  costs  $100,000. 
These  cartridges  will  freight  eight  vessels 
of  500  tons  each.  The  first  metallic  car 
tridge  used  in  a  military  arm  was  that  of 
Dr.  Edward  Maynard.  It  was  a  cylindrical 
water-proof  cartridge. 


TELEGRAPH. 

When  the  men  of  1776  threw  down  the 
gage  of  battle,  there  were  no  means  of  sig 
naling  news  other  than  by  such  semaphores 
as  had  existed  in  one  form  or  another  for 
2500  years  past,  and  are  yet  used  by  the 
Indians  of  the  plains.  Visible  signals  by 
swinging  arms  mounted  on  the  tops  of  masts 
or  of  elevated  buildings  signaled  the  events 
even  of  Trafalgar  and  Waterloo  along  the 
Falmouth  and  Dover  roads  to  London.  In 
a  less  pretentious  way,  concerted  fires  and 
smokes  by  night  or  by  day  were  made  by 
the  nations  of  antiquity,  as  recorded  by 
Homer  and  Jeremiah ;  by  the  Highlanders, 
as  recounted  by  Scott ;  and  by  the  Indians 
of  our  Western  plains,  as  lately  described 
by  General  Custer. 

The  sernaphoric  system  of  Polybius  was 
adapted  to  spell  out  messages  letter  by  let 
ter.  Signaling  by  flags  and  lanterns  is  em 
ployed  in  military  and  railway  practice. 

The  electric  telegraph  preceded  the  elec 
tro-magnetic  by  many  decades.  Gray,  in 
1729,  noticed  the  conductivity  of  certain 
bodies;  Nollet  soon  after  passed  a  shock 
through  180  men  of  the  French  guards,  and 
a  line  100  toises  in  length ;  Watson  observed 
that  the  transmission  of  the  shock  through 
12,000  feet  of  wire  was  practically  instan 
taneous,  and  signaled  an  observer  by  this 
means.  Then  came  a  number  of  experi 
menters,  each  of  whom  added  something  to 
the  stock  of  knowledge  on  the  subject.  Le 
Sage,  of  Geneva  (1774),  had  a  wire  for  each 
letter,  and  pith-ball  electroscopes  for  the  ex 
cited  agents.  Lamond  (1787)  had  a  single 
wire  and  concerted  movements  of  the  pith 
ball.  Cavallo,  in  1795,  proposed  to  trans 
mit  letters  by  combinations  of  dots  and 
spaces.  The  next  year  Betancourt  con 
structed  a  telegraph  between  Madrid  and 
Araujuez,  a  distance  of  twenty-seven  miles. 
The  messages  were  read  by  the  divergence 
of  pith  balls. 

Then  came  the  discoveries  of  Volta,  Gal- 
van  i,  Oersted,  Ampere,  Faraday,  and  Henry. 
The  experiments  of  the  first  two  mentioned 
are  at  the  bottom  of  the  discoveries  in  dy 
namic  electricity.  Oersted,  in  1820,  ob 
served  that  the  magnetic  needle  had  a  tend 
ency  to  assume  a  direction  at  right  angles 
to  that  of  the  excited  wire.  The  farther 
experiments  of  Oersted  and  Ampere,  and 


TELEGRAPH. 


10, 


the  discovery  of  Faraday  that  magnetism 
was  induced  in  a  bar  of  soft  iron  under  the 
influence  of  a  voltaic  circuit,  and  that  of 
Sturgeon,  in  1825,  that  a  soft  iron  bar  sur 
rounded  by  a  helix  of  wire  through  which  a 
voltaic  current  is  passed  is  magnetized  dur 
ing  the  time  such  current  continues,  gave 
rise  to  the  first  really  convenient  and  prac 
tical  system  of  electro-telegraphy.  One  dif 
ficulty  remained — the  resistance  of  the  trans 
mitting  wire  to  the  comparatively  feeble 
current  engendered  by  the  voltaic  battery. 
This  was  overcome  by  Professor  Henry,  who, 
in  1831,  invented  the  form  of  magnet  now  in 
use,  and  discovered  the  principle  of  combina 
tion  of  circuits  constituting  the  receiving  mag 
net  and  relay,  or  local  battery,  as  they  are  fa 
miliarly  known  in  connection  with  the  Morse 
apparatus.  The  effect  of  a  combination  of 
circuits  is  to  enable  a  weak  or  exhausted 
circuit  to  bring  into  action  and  substitute 
for  itself  a  fresh  and  powerful  one.  This  is 
an  essential  condition  to  obtaining  iiseful 
mechanical  results  from  electricity  where  a 
long  circuit  of  conductors  is  used. 

In  1832  Professor  Morse  began  to  devote 
his  attention  to  the  subject  of  telegraphy, 
and  in  that  year,  while  on  his  passage  home 
from  Europe,  he  invented  the  form  of  tele 
graph  since  so  well  known  as  "  Morse's." 

A  short  line  worked  on  his  plan  was  set 
up  in  1835,  though  it  was  not  until  June  20, 
1840,  that  he  obtained  his  first  patent,  and 
nearly  four  years  elapsed  before  means 
could  be  procured,  which  were  finally  grant 
ed  by  the  government  of  the  United  States, 
to  test  its  practical  working  over  a  line  of 
any  length,  though  he  had  as  early  as  1837 
endeavored  to  induce  Congress  to  appropri 
ate  a  sum  of  money  sufficient  to  construct  a 
line  between  Washington  and  Baltimore. 

Morse's  first  idea  was  to  employ  chemical 
agencies  for  recording  the  signals,  but  he 
subsequently  abandoned  this  for  an  appa 
ratus  which  simply  marked  on  strips  of  pa 
per  the  dots  and  dashes  composing  his  al 
phabet.  The  paper  itself  is  now  generally 
dispensed  with,  at  least  in  this  country,  and 
the  signals  read  by  sound — a  circumstance 
which  conduces  to  accuracy  in  transmission, 
as  the  ear  is  found  less  liable  to  mistake  the 
duration  and  succession  of  sounds  than  the 
eye  to  read  a  series  of  marks  on  paper. 

Professor  Morse  deserves  high  honor  for 


the  ingenious  manner  in  which  he  availed 
himself  of  scientific  discoveries  previously 
made  by  others,  for  many  important  discov 
eries  of  his  own,  and  for  the  courage  and 
perseverance  which  he  manifested  in  en 
deavoring  to  render  his  system  of  practical 
utility  to  mankind  by  bringing  it  promi 
nently  to  the  notice  of  the  public,  and  he 
lived  to  see  it  adopted  in  its  essential  feat 
ures  throughout  the  civilized  world. 

The  attention  of  Wheatstone  in  England 
appears  to  have  been  drawn  to  the  subject 
of  telegraphy  in  1834.  His  first  telegraph 
comprised  five  pointing  needles  and  as  many 
line  wires,  requiring  the  deflection  of  two 
of  the  needles  to  indicate  each  letter.  His 
first  dial  instrument  was  patented  in  1840. 
Modifications  were,  however,  subsequently 
made  in  it.  The  transmission  of  messages 
was  effected  by  a  wheel  having  fifteen  teeth 
and  as  many  interspaces,  each  representing 
a  letter  of  the  alphabet  or  a  numeral,  and 
thirty  spokes  corresponding  to  this,  and 
forming  part  of  the  line.  The  circuit  was 
closed  by  two  diametrically  opposite  springs 
so  arranged  that  when  one  was  in  contact 
with  a  tooth  the  other  was  opposite  a  space, 
when  the  transmitter  was  turned  until  op 
posite  a  particular  letter  and  held  there,  a 
continuous  current  being  produced,  causing 
an  index  on  the  indicating-dial  at  the  other 
end  of  the  line,  wrhich  had  thirty  divisions 
corresponding  to  those  of  the  transmitter, 
to  turn  until  it  arrived  opposite  the  letter  to 
be  indicated.  The  revolution  of  the  index 
was  effected  by  clock-work,  the  escapement 
of  which  was  actuated  by  an  electro-magnet 
at  either  end  of  a  pivoted  beam,  the  ends 
of  which  carried  two  soft  iron  armatures. 
One  of  the  line  wires,  as  well  as  one  of  the 
contact  springs  of  the  transmitter,  and  one 
of  the  electro  magnets  of  the  indicator,  were 
afterward  dispensed  with. 

A  magneto-electric  apparatus  was  sub 
sequently  substituted  for  the  voltaic  bat 
tery. 

The  single-needle  telegraph  of  Cooke  and 
Wheatstone  is  caused  to  indicate  the  letters 
and  figures  by  means  of  the  deflections  to 
the  right  or  left  of  a  vertical  pointer ;  for 
instance,  the  letter  A  is  indicated  by  two 
deflections  to  the  left,  N  by  two  deflections 
to  the  right,  I  by  three  consecutive  deflec 
tions  to  the  right  and  then  one  to  the  left, 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


MORSE  APPARATUS,  CIRCUIT   AND  BATTERY. 


MORSE  KEY. 


MOUSE  REGISTER. 


and  so  on.  This  is  extensively  employed  in 
Great  Britain  and  India. 

Bain,  in  1846,  patented  the  electro-chem 
ical  telegraph,  which  dispensed  with  the 
relay  magnet  at  intermediate  stations,  and 
subsequently  Gintl,  in  Austria,  and  Bonelli 
constructed  telegraphs  of  this  class  varying 
in  details  from  that  of  Bain. 

The  above  diagram  shows  the  system  of 
indicator,  relay,  local  battery,  lines,  and  key. 

The  middle  figure  shows  the  key,  which  is 
worked  by  the  sender  of  the  message,  and 
the  lower  figure  the  register,  by  which  mo 
tions  of  the  stylus  under  the  excitement 
which  renders  it  temporarily  magnetic  are 
recorded  on  the  paper  in  dots  or  dashes, 
according  to  the  length  of  time  during 
which  the  circuit  is  maintained.  This  is 
the  principal  instrument  in  America  and 
on  the  continent  of  Europe.  Room  fails 
to  tell  of  the  autographic  systems  of  Ca- 
selli  and  Bonelli ;  the  printing  telegraphs 
of  House  and  Hughes;  the  automatic  tel 
egraphs  of  Edison  and  others. 

The  duplex  telegraph,  by  which  messages 
are  sent  over  the  same  wire  in  contrary  di 
rections  at  the  same  time,  is  so  strange  that 


DUPLEX   TELEGBAPII. 

a  diagram  and  short  description  will  be 
given.  Several  plans  of  duplex  telegraph 
have  been  proposed.  The  device  selected 
for  illustration  is  that  of  Stearns,  of  Boston, 
which  is  based  upon  the  plan  of  Gintl,  of 
Austria,  1853.  The  relay,  or  receiving  in 
strument,  is  composed  of  two  pairs  of  elec 
tro-magnets  (m  m)  acting  in  opposite  direc 
tions  upon  a  common  armature  lever  (A). 
The  key  is  the  armature  of  an  electro-mag 
net  which  is  in  a  local  circuit  controlled  by 
a  Morse  key  (K).  LB  is  the  local  battery. 
The  main  battery  (MB}  current  is  equally 
divided  between  the  relay  magnets  (m  m), 
one-half  passing  through  one  set  of  mag 
nets  to  the  line  I,  and  the  other  half  passing 
through  the  other  magnets  and  a  rheostat 
(E),  equal  to  the  resistance  of  the  main  line, 
to  earth.  The  relay  magnets  are  thus  equal 
ly  excited,  and  their  influence  upon  the  ar 
mature  neutralized,  so  that  the  outgoing 
current  gives  no  signal  at  the  sending  sta 
tion.  A  current  received,  however,  traverses 
only  one  set  of  the  electro-magnets,  destroy 
ing  the  equilibrium,  and  causing  a  signal. 
The  key  is  so  constructed  that  it  closes  one 
circuit  to  the  earth  before  breaking  another, 
thus  always  preserving  the  continuity  of 
the  circuit,  a  condition  essential  in  systems 
of  this  kind.  A  condenser  ( C)  is  placed  in  a 
shunt  circuit  to  the  magnets  in  the  short  or 
home  circuit,  in  order  to  neutralize  the  ef 
fect  of  the  extra  current  on  the  line  mag 
nets  of  the  relay. 

ELECTROPLATING. 

Electroplating  is  an  invention  of  the  cen 
tury.  Volta  himself  experimented  about 
1800.  Cruikshauk  noticed  the  corrosion  in 
one  wire  and  the  precipitation  of  metallic 


ELECTKIC  LIGHT. 


103 


ELEOTKOPLATINQ. 

silver  on  the  other  when  passing  the  "  gal 
vanic  influence"  through  the  wires  in  a  bath 
of  nitrate  of  silver.  Wollaston  experimented 
in  1801.  Spencer  made  casts  from  coins  in 
1838.  Jacobi,  of  Dorpat,  soon  after  gilded 
the  iron  dome  of  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Isaac, 
at  St.  Petersburg,  with  274  pounds  of  ducat 
gold,  deposited  by  battery.  The  art  has 
grown  into  use,  and  now  baser  metals,  in 
the  shape  of  articles  for  household  service, 
are  cased  with  silver ;  electrotyped  forms 
are  used  as  printing  surfaces ;  nickel  is  de 
posited  on  numerous  articles  which  are  ex 
posed  to  damp,  and  on  others  to  add  to  their 
beauty,  as  with  movements  of  watches.  It 
is  impossible  to  enumerate  the  uses  and  ap 
plications,  and  not  easy  to  exaggerate  the 
value  of  the  art. 

ELECTRIC  LIGHT. 

The  electric  light  is  eminently  the  child  of 
the  century.  In  its  production  and  its  uses 
it  touches  nowhere  upon  the  knowledge  or 
the  methods  of  the  men  of  the  previous  pe 
riods.  It  is  a  pure  gain  of  the  present.  The 
bright  spark  from  the  electrical  machine  had 
been  observed  by  Wall  in  1708,  the  Leyden- 
jar  was  invented  by  Cunceus  in  1746,  and 
the  experiments  of  Dufay,  Nollet,  Gray, 
Franklin,  and  others  soon  gave  valuable  re 
sults.  Another  whole  series  of  observations 
and  inventions  founded  upon  the  discoveries 
of  Volta  and  Galvani  was  necessary  before 
the  transient  spark  was  succeeded  by  the  in 
tense  and  unremitting  light  developed  be 
tween  two  pieces  of  carbon  placed  at  the 
positive  and  negative  ends  of  a  voltaic  cir 
cuit.  The  electricity  may  be  developed  ei 
ther  by  a  battery,  or  from  magnets  in  con 
nection  with  a  series  of  helices  arranged 
on  a  rotating  wheel,  the  latter  source  be 
ing  preferred  for  light-houses  and  in  other 
situations  where  permanency  is  intended. 
The  battery  is  the  usual  source  for  lect 


ures  in  theatres  having  no  regular  labora 
tory. 

The  electric  light  was  first  brought  into 
notice  by  Greener  and  Staite  in  1846,  in  an 
arrangement  by  which  small  lumps  of  pure 
carbon  nearly  in  contact,  and  inclosed  in  air 
tight  vessels,  were  rendered  luminous  by  cur 
rents  of  galvanic  electricity.  The  break  in 
the  continuity  of  the  circuit  at  this  point 
causes  resistance,  generating  intense  heat 
and  the  consumption  of  the  carbon,  which  is 
accompanied  by  an  extremely  brilliant  light. 
As  the  carbon  burns  away,  one  or  both  of  the 
pieces  require  to  be  advanced,  and  the  chief 
difficulty  was  found  to  be  in  maintaining 
the  points  at  such  a  distance  from  each  oth 
er  as  to  render  the  light  continuous.  This 
is  now  effected  by  means  of  an  electro-mag 
net  and  clock  movement,  the  duty  of  the 
latter  being  to  bring  the  points  together  as 
they  are  gradually  consumed,  while  the 
magnet  checks  the  clock  action  when  not 
desired. 

This  light  is  very  largely  used  in  the  lect 
ure-room.  It  was  introduced  into  Dunge- 


ELEOTKIO   LIOUT. 


104 


MECHANICAL  PKOGRESS. 


ness  Light-house,  on  the  southeast  coast  of 
England,  in  1862;  at  La  Heve,  France,  a 
year  or  two  later.  It  was  used  in  the  ex 
cavating  chamber  in  the  base  of  the  deep 
caissons  of  the  St.  Louis  Bridge ;  during  the 
excavation  of  the  docks  at  Cherbourg ;  on 
various  festal  occasions  in  cities  of  America 
and  Europe. 

FIRE-ENGINES,  ETC. 

In  fire-engines  America  has  hardly  a  rival. 
When  our  century  commenced  a  clumsy 
hand-engine  was  employed,  a  gradual  im 
provement  upon  the  mere  syringe  which 
was  used  from  the  tune  of  Trajan  down  to 
the  sixteenth  century.  At  Augsburg,  about 
1518,  force-pumps  were  mounted  on  wheels 
and  worked  by  levers.  At  Nuremberg,  in 
1657,  the  town  engine  had  a  cistern  and 
pump  mounted  on  a  sled;  the  brakes  were 
worked  by  twenty-eight  men,  and  threw  a 
stream  through  an  inch  nozzle  to  a  height 
of  eighty  feet.  The  Van  der  Heyden  broth 
ers  about  this  time  much  improved  the  de 
vice.  Newsham's  engine,  about  the  end  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  had  the  double- 
acting  force-pump  with  air  chamber.  This 


was  not  superseded  till  about  1832,  when 
our  personal  recollections  commenced,  and 
about  that  time  improvements  were  rapidly 
made  which  culminated  in  the  gorgeous 
hand-engines  with  which  we  ran,  of  which 
we  boasted,  and,  lamentable  to  say,  about 
which  we  fought. 

Steam-power  forcing -pumps  for  extin 
guishing  fires  were  in  use  long  before  port 
able  steam  fire-engines.  The  first  steam 
fire-engines  were  perhaps  those  mounted 
on  barges  on  the  river  Thames,  and  which 
were  moved  or  towed  to  fires  occurring  on 
the  river  front.  Next  was  undoubtedly  the 
portable  steam-engine  of  Captain  Ericsson. 
This  was  made  in  Manchester,  England, 
about  1830,  a  little  after  he  constructed  the 
"  Novelty"  locomotive,  which  contended  for 
the  prize  on  that  famous  day  in  1829  on  the 
Liverpool  and  Manchester  Kailway.  He 
also  made  a  steam  fire-engine  in  New  York 
in  1842-43. 

But,  after  all,  the  steam  fire-engine  as  a 
fixed  and  valuable  fact  hails  from  Cincin 
nati,  Ohio,  where  the  talents  of  the  brothers 
Latta  and  Mr.  Shawk,  inventors  and  build 
ers,  were  seconded  by  the  enterprise  of 


STEAM   FIRK-ENGINR  "WASHINGTON.  NO.  1,"  BROOKLYN,  NEW  YORK. 


FIRE-ALARMS. 


105 


Miles  Greenwood.  The  "  Citizens'  Gift,"  one 
of  the  first  successful  engines,  was  built  in 
1853,  and  in  1866  was  still  among  the  most 
useful  of  her  class.  Since  that  time  the 
principal  cities  of  North  America  have  been 
supplied  with  steam  fire-engines ;  also  many 
of  the  largest  cities  of  England,  and  some 
few  on  the  continent  of  Europe. 

The  American  system  of  fire-alarms  is  like 
ly  to  work  its  way  gradually  into  the  cities 
of  Europe.  It  is  one  of  those  things  which 
are  difficult  to  introduce,  and  impossible  to 
dispense  with  when  once  tried.  We  can 
not  imagine  such  an  impertinent  and  ab 
surd  proposition  as  to  go  back  to  the  old 
times  when  the  flames  of  a  burning  house 
were  the  signal  to  the  watchman  in  the 
tower  of  the  engine-house. 

The  fire-alarm  telegraph  first  in  use  was 
merely  a  connection  by  Morse  telegraph  be 
tween  fire-alarm  stations.  This  was  in  use 
in  New  York  and  Berlin  in  1851.  The  pres 
ent  system  is  founded  tipon  the  patented  in 
vention  of  Farmer  and  Channing,  1857.  Mr. 
Channing  wrote  upon  the  subject  in  1845, 
and  in  1848  Mr.  Farmer  devised  a  means  of 
ringing  bells  by  electricity,  and  in  an  exper 
imental  trial  that  year  the  bell  in  the  tower 
of  Boston  City  Hall  was  rung  by  an  operator 
in  New  York.  The  fire-alarm  telegraph  was 
first  put  up,  in  the  year  1852,  in  Boston. 

The  primary  requisites  of  a  fire-alarm 
telegraph  system  are  a  telegraph  line,  a 
central  receiving  station,  and  a  number  of 
signal  boxes  suitably  distributed  for  trans 
mitting  an  alarm. 

When  there  are  a  number  of  such  boxes, 
as  in  most  cities,  they  are  not  arranged 
upon  the  same  circuit,  but  upon  several 
circuits  connected  to  some  central  station. 
The  signal  boxes  generally  used  contain  a 
spring  or  weight  and  gearing,  rotating  a 
circuit-breaking  wheel  and  a  fly  for  regu 
lating  the  speed.  The  circuit  wheel  in  one 
form  is  provided  with  projections,  upon 
which  a  spring  presses  and  closes  the  cir 
cuit,  which  is  broken  as  the  spring  passes 
over  the  intervals  between  the  cogs;  in 
another  form  the  surface  of  the  wheel  is 
smooth,  an  insulating  material  being  let 
into  the  wheel  so  as  to  break  the  circuit. 
A  train  of  gearing,  upon  one  shaft  of  which 
is  a  cam  or  lug,  operates  the  pivoted  ham 
mer.  This  gear  is  held  in  rest  by  the  ar 


mature  of  a  magnet  acting  as  a  detent ;  so 
every  time  a  current  passes,  the  armature 
allows  the  gearing  to  revolve,  and  the  ham 
mer  strikes  once.  At  the  same  time  the 
smaller  alarm  gongs  are  struck  in  the  en 
gine-houses.  In  the  houses  the  horses  are 
kept  ready  harnessed.  At  the  end  of  the 
halter  strap  (where  halters  are  used)  is  a 
ring  through  which  a  bolt  upon  the  manger 
passes,  securing  the  horse ;  from  the  bolts  a 
string  or  lever  passes  to  a  weight  or  spring 
kept  inactive  by  the  gong-hammer  lever; 
the  first  stroke  releases  the  weight,  which, 
falling,  pulls  the  string  or  lever,  withdraw 
ing  all  the  bolts  securing  the  halters,  and 
loosing  the  horses.  When  halters  are  not 
used,  but  the  horses  are  turned  into  box- 
stalls,  the  latter  have  sliding  gates,  which 
are  raised  by  the  same  kind  of  devices. 

In  the  strictly  automatic  system  there  is 
no  operator  at  the  central  station,  but  a  re 
peater  of  very  complex  organization,  having 
connection  with  all  the  various  circuits,  so 
that,  an  alarm  coming  in  on  any  one  cir 
cuit,  the  repeater  is  prevented  from  receiv 
ing  from  any  other  circuit  (to  avoid  inter 
ference  of  signals),  and  caused  to  repeat 
the  alarm  automatically  upon  all  the  cir 
cuits,  including  the  various  alarm  devices. 
A  register  is  also  used  with  the  repeater. 

ATMOSPHERIC  RAILWAY,  ETC. 

The  pneumatic  tube  and  atmospheric  railway 
are  other  achievements  of  the  century.  It 
can  not  be  said  that  they  have  come  into 
extensive  use  for  passengers,  but  for  small 
parcels  and  letters  they  have  been  in  suc 
cessful  use  for  fifteen  years  in  London. 

Dr.  Papin,  of  Blois,  in  France,  suggested 
the  idea  about  the  end  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  but,  like  some  other  children  of  his 
fertile  brain,  it  never  grew  up.  Medhurst 
in  1810  patented  the  idea  of  forcing  a  car 
riage  on  a  pair  of  tracks  along  an  air-tight 
tube  by  means  of  compression  of  air  be 
hind  it. 

Vallance  in  1824  patented  the  other  mode, 
exhausting  the  air  in  front  of  it.  The  idea 
was  carried  out  at  the  Sydenham  Palace, 
near  London,  where  an  ordinary  railway 
carriage  with  a  somewhat  elastic  piston 
traveled  in  an  elliptical  tunnel  eight  by 
nine  feet  in  its  minor  and  major  diameters. 
The  same  idea  is  carried  out  in  Beach's  short 


106 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


tunnel  under  Broadway,  New  York,  which 
has  been  visited  by  many  of  our  readers. 

Out  of  this  grew  the  atmospheric  railway, 
in  which  a  piston  traveling  in  a  tube  is  con 
nected  to  a  carriage  running  upon  rails  out 
side,  a  long  valve  filling  a  slot  in  the  top 
of  the  tube  being  displaced  by  a  bar  de 
pending  from  the  carriage,  and  falling  into 
place  again  behind.  This  plan  had  many 
modifications,  and  was  actually  employed  on 
two  railways,  but  afterward  abandoned — 
from  1844  to  1855  on  the  Kingstown  and 
Dalkey,  Ireland,  If  miles ;  from  London  to 
Croydon,  England,  10  miles.  Good  speed 
was  attained,  heavy  grades  readily  ascend 
ed,  collision  was  impossible,  but.it  was  too 
liable  to  get  out  of  order. 

The  atmospheric  brake  for  railway  cars  is 
another  recent  feature,  and  has  only  at 
tained  its  present  excellence  after  many 
attempts.  As  many  as  twenty-four  patents 
were  granted  from  1841  to  1865  for  brakes 
actuated  upon  each  car  by  a  single  impulse 
by  the  engineer,  many  of  them  employing 
air  or  steam  as  the  means  of  applying  the 
shoes  to  the  car  wheels. 

The  Westinghouse  brake  employs  air  as 
the  means  of  transmitting  power  to  the 
brakes.  This  is  condensed  to  the  required 
extent  into  a  reservoir  by  a  steam-pump 
upon  the  locomotive.  From  the  reservoir 
it  is  conducted  back  beneath  the  cars  of  the 
train  by  pipes  connected  beneath  the  train 
by  flexible  tubes  and  valved  couplings.  Un 
der  each  car  is  a  cylinder  to  which  the  com 
pressed  air  is  admitted  forward  of  a  piston, 
the  stem  of  which  is  connected  to  a  bell- 
crank  attached  to  the  brake  levers  by  rods, 
so  that  when  air  is  admitted  by  the  en 
gineer  to  the  pipes  connected  to  the  cylin 
ders  under  each  car,  the  brakes  of  each  are 
simultaneously  applied. 

One  test  may  be  mentioned.  September 
18,  1869,  a  train  of  six  cars  descending  the 
Horseshoe  Bend  of  the  Pennsylvania  Cen 
tral  Railway,  a  grade  of  ninety-six  feet  to 
the  mile,  at  the  rate  of  thirty  miles  per  hour, 
was  brought  to  a  stand-still  in  420  feet — 
seven  car  lengths. 

Blowers  and  blowing  engines  are  but  forms 
of  air-compressing  or  air-exhausting  pumps, 
but  it  is  hard  to  overvalue  them.  They  in 
crease  the  draught  in  metallurgic  furnaces ; 
furnish  vital  air  to  close  and  fetid  places, 


such  as  mines,  cisterns,  holds  of  ships ;  sup 
ply  warmed,  cooled,  moistened,  or  medica 
ted  air  to  public  buildings,  schools,  hos 
pitals,  etc. ;  furnish  a  drying  atmosphere  to 
lumber  and  grain  kilns  and  powder  mills ; 
assist  in  evaporating  liquids  and  removing 
the  steam  from  the  vicinity  of  the  boiling 
solution;  raise  liquids  on  the  principle  of 
the  Giffard  injector,  as  in  oil  wells  and  sub 
aqueous  caissons ;  assist  in  the  dispersion 
of  liquids,  as  in  atomizers  and  some  forms 
of  ice  machines;  remove  dust  and  chips 
from  saw-mills  and  planers,  the  fatal  dust 
from  the  stones  and  glazers  of  cutlers ;  sup 
ply  breath  to  organs. 

The  blower  of  three  centuries  since  con 
sisted  of  one  open-ended  box  slipping  into 
another ;  it  was  used  for  furnaces  in  that 
very  remarkable  city,  Nuremberg,  and  was 
an  improvement  over  the  ordinary  bellows. 
Later,  about  1621,  a  bellows  was  used  con 
sisting  of  a  valve  oscillating  in  a  sector 
chamber.  The  fan-blower  dates  from  1729. 
The  water-bellows  was  invented  by  Horn- 
blower. 

The  first  powerful  blast  machines  were 
probably  those  erected  by  Smeaton  at  the 
Carron  Iron-works,  1760.  The  furnaces  grew 
larger  in  size,  and  more  powerful  blowers 
were  needed.  Watt's  engine  came  just  in 
time  to  crown  the  whole  affair  with  success 
and  revolutionize  the  iron  trade.  Neilson 
invented  the  hot  blast  in  1828. 

Power  blowers  are  now  used.  The  forms 
are  piston ;  fan ;  vertical  open-ended  cylin 
der  plunging  in  water ;  pair  of  wheels,  with 
alternate  vanes  and  packing  surfaces,  and 
rotating  in  concert. 

BALLOONS. 

Aerostation  is  almost  all  within  the  centu 
ry.  Since  Icarus  fell  into  the  ^Egean  Sea 
very  little  advance  has  been  made  in  flying 
machines,  the  flight  of  Daedalus  from  Crete 
to  Sicily  being  altogether  the  most  success 
ful  on  record.  Some  presume  to  doubt  this. 
Ballooning  was  rendered  possible  upon  the 
discovery  of  hydrogen  gas  by  Cavendish  in 
1766.  It  is  true  it  had  been  produced  before, 
but  was  not  understood  or  used.  Dr.  Black 
the  next  year  suggested  its  use  for  aerosta 
tion.  The  brothers  Montgolfier  ascended 
by  a  fire  balloon  in  1783 ;  the  ascensive 
power  was  obtained  by  heated  air  rising 


GAS. 


107 


from  a  fire  made  in  the  open  mouth  of  the 
balloon.  Pilatre  de  Roziere  and  the  Mar 
quis  d'Arlandes  repeated  the  experiment  the 
same  year.  MM.  Charles  and  Eobert  infla 
ted  their  balloon  with  hydrogen  gas,  and  as 
cended  9700  feet  and  reached  a  distance  of 
twenty -five  miles  in  one  hour  and  three- 
quarters.  Ascensions  after  this  became  fre 
quent.  Pilatre  and  Remain  tried  to  com 
bine  a  hydrogen  balloon  with  a  fire  balloon ; 
the  expanding  gas  reached  the  fire,  the 
whole  was  consumed,  and  the  aeronauts  per 
ished.  Balloons  of  observation  were  used 
by  the  French  army  at  Liege  and  Fleurus 
in  1794.  This  was  repeated  at  Solferino  in 
1859,  and  with  our  Army  of  the  Potomac. 
The  most  remarkable  ascent  for  a  long  time 
was  that  of  Gay-Lussac,  in  1804,  who  reached 
the  height  of  23,040  feet.  Glaisher,  it  is  said, 
afterward  ascended  to  a  height  of  seven 
miles.  Green,  in  1820,  introduced  the  plan 
of  inflating  with  the  ordinary  illuminating 
gas  of  the  streets. 

The  history  of  the  balloon  since  this  time 
embraces  many  names — Wise,  King,  Lowe, 
and  Donaldson  in  this  country ;  Gifford,  Go- 
dard,  and  De  Lome  in  France.  M.  Godard 
conducted  the  balloon  postal  administration 
during  the  siege  of  Paris.  Wise's  trip  from 
St.  Louis  is  the  longest  on  record,  nearly  1200 
miles. 

WEIGHING  MACHINES. 
Probably  no  invention,  if  we  except  that 
of  the  locomotive,  has  to  so  great  a  degree 


expedited  the  transactions  of  commerce  as 
the  platform  balance,  invented  by  the  Fair 
banks  Brothers  about  1830.  The  business 
of  making  these  weighing  machines  has 
grown  to  enormous  proportions.  From  the 
Fairbanks  manufactory  at  St.  Johusbury, 
Vermont,  50,000  scales  are  sent  out  annual 
ly  to  all  parts  of  the  world. 

GAS. 

Illuminating  gas  was  unknown,  except  as 
a  surface  emanation  or  a  laboratory  produc 
tion,  in  the  year  1776.  In  China  from  time 
immemorial  the  natural  flow  of  carbureted 
hydrogen  has  been  used  for  lighting,  and  for 
boiling  the  brine  yielded  by  salt  wells.  Sim 
ilar  convenient  applications  have  been  made 
at  Fredonia,  New  York,  Portland,  on  Lake 
Erie,  Wigan,  Scotland,  in  lighting,  and  at 
Kanawha,  West  Virginia,  in  evaporating 
brine.  Gas  emanating  from  a  well  1200  feet 
deep  is  used  at  the  "  Siberian  Works,"  Pitts- 
burg,  under  the  boilers  and  in  the  puddling 
furnaces.  The  fire -worshipers  of  Persia 
have  regarded  such  emanations  with  high 
respect,  and  the  holy  fires  of  Baku,  on  the 
Caspian,  have  a  great  local  fame,  and  are 
thus  maintained. 

Gas  was  first  obtained  by  the  distillation 
of  coal  in  1688  by  Dr.  Clayton ;  Boyle  refers 
to  it  in  that  year.  Watson,  Bishop  of  Llan- 
daff,  1756,  Lord  Dundonald,  1786,  distilled 
coal  and  tar  and  burned  the  issuing  gas. 
Murdock  was  the  first  to  light  a  building 


BIAQKAM   OF   GA8-WOKK8. 


MECHANICAL  PKOGRESS. 


with  it.  He  thus  lighted  his  house  and  of 
fices  at  Kedruth,  Cornwall,  in  1792.  In  1798 
he  lighted  with  gas  the  works  of  Boulton 
and  Watt  at  Soho.  He  illuminated  these 
buildings  in  1803  in  the  rejoicings  for  peace : 
Trafalgar,  Austerlitz,  and  Jena,  within  four 
years  afterward,  are  a  curious  commentary. 
Murdock's  name  stands  at  the  head  of  the 
list  as  the  man  who  reduced  the  idea  to 
practice.  In  1804-05  he  lighted  the  cotton 
factory  of  Phillips  and  Lee,  Manchester, 
with  a  brilliancy  estimated  to  be  equal  to 
3000  candles.  This  was  a  grand  success. 

In  1803  Winsor  lighted  the  Lyceum  Thea 
tre,  in  London,  and  obtained  a  patent  for 
lighting  streets  by  gas.  He  established  the 
first  gas  company.  The  first  street  lighted 
wras  one  side  of  Pall  Mall,  in  1807 ;  Westmin 
ster  Bridge  and  the  Houses  of  Parliament,  in 
1813 ;  London  streets  commonly  were  light 
ed  in  1815 ;  Paris,  the  same  year ;  Baltimore, 
1816 ;  Boston,  1822 ;  New  York,  1825. 

This  is  all  very  recent,  and  yet  how  far 
into  the  past  the  dim  period  of  street  oil- 
lamps  seems  to  have  retreated !  The  mode 
of  making  illuminating  gas  is  pretty  gen 
erally  understood.  The  coal  is  baked  in  re 
torts,  and  the  gas  flows  therefrom  in  com 
pany  with  other  vapors,  which  are  removed 
by  successive  operations.  It  is  conducted 
first  to  the  convoluted  pipes  of  the  con 
denser,  by  which  it  is  cooled  and  the  tar 
precipitated.  Thence  it  passes  to  the  wash 
er,  where  the  ammonia  is  seized  by  the  wa 
ter,  allowing  the  gas  to  pass  on  to  the  puri 
fier,  where  it  is  deprived  of  its  sulphur  and 
carbonic  acid  by  dry  lime,  or  latterly  by  the 
hydrated  sesquioxide  of  iron.  Clegg  in 
vented  the  purifier  and  wet  meter  in  1807  ; 
Malam  the  dry  meter  in  1820. 

SILVER. 

The  silver  processes  now  adopted  in  our 
Western  Territories  are  the  result  of  long 
care  and  observation,  with  chemical  analy 
ses — the  union  of  experimental  test  and  sci 
entific  deduction. 

Amalgamating  pans  and  barrels  are  made 
in  great  variety;  roasting  furnaces  and 
processes  have  been  adapted  to  the  varying 
characters  of  ore  and  the  means  at  command 
for  treating.  One  of  the  most  satisfactory 
of  the  latter  must  stand  as  a  representative 
of  the  whole  family,  as  i  fc  is  not  possible  to 


STETEFELDT'S  BOASTING  FUKNAOE. 

treat  the  matter  either  at  length  or  in  de 
tail. 

The  Stetefeldt  roasting  furnace  for  silver 
ores  containing  sulphur  is  what  is  technical 
ly  known  as  a  shaft  furnace  ;  the  ground  and 
stamped  ore  is  dusted  in  a  shower  into  a 
vertical  shaft,  up  which  the  flame  of  a  fur 
nace  is  directed. 

The  ground  ore  is  mixed  with  salt,  and 
pulverized  at  the  stamp  battery.  The  pulp 
is  carried  by  a  conveyer  to  the  feeder  at  the 
top  of  the  shaft,  and  shaken  through  the 
sieve  so  as  to  fall  in  a  shower  through  the 
flame  of  the  gas  entering  at  the  side  aper 
tures  low  down  in  the  shaft.  The  principal 
portion  falls  to  the  bottom,  but  the  finer 
matter  passing  over  is  exposed  to  a  flame 
arising  from  the  mingled  air  and  the  car 
bonic  oxide  of  a  charcoal  fire  discharging 
into  the  downcast  shaft  leading  to  the  series 
of  chambers  in  which  fine  metallic  dust  is 
eventually  deposited,  and  from  which  it  is 
removed  from  time  to  time. 

In  the  furnace  shaft  a  double  decomposi 
tion  takes  place,  which  converts  the  sulphide 
of  silver  into  the  chloride,  in  which  latter 
condition  it  is  brought,  as  one  may  say, 
within  the  grasp  of  the  mercury.  In  the 
presence  of  sulphurous  gases  from  the  sul 
phide  of  silver  the  chloride  of  sodium  is  de 
composed,  and  yields  its  chlorine  to  the  sil 
ver,  forming  the  chloride  of  silver,  wThile  the 
sulphurous  gases  uniting  with  the  soda  form 
sulphate  of  soda,  which  is  washed  out  with 
the  tailings.  The  material  from  the  furuace 
is  ready  for  the  amalgamating  pan. 

ICE. 

Ice  is  one  thing  in  which  Americans  rev 
el  in  the  summer-time.  No  other  nation 
lays  in  such  a  stock,  or  so  peremptorily  de 
mands  an  abundant  supply.  American  ice 


ICE-MAKING  MACHINES. 


109 


FERDINAND   O.VEKE's   CONTINUOUS   APPARATUS   FOB   ICE-MAKING. 


is  sold  in  London, 
Calcutta,  and  a 
hundred  places  be 
tween  the  two.  Usually  the  ice  is  "har 
vested"  on  ponds  or  rivers  in  the  North,  and 
the  business  has  created  a  whole  set  of  pe 
culiar  contrivances  for  scraping  off  the  sur 
face  and  removing  snow ;  sawing  the  sheet 
into  blocks  without  quite  detaching ;  split 
ting  them  oif;  floating  them  to  the  hoist; 
elevating  them  by  endless  chains ;  delivering 
them  to  the  men  who  stow  them  in  a  solid 
mass  occupying  the  whole  interior  of  the 
barn. 

More  specially  noticeable,  however,  are 
the  machines  for  congealing  water  into  ice, 
and  which  are  commencing  to  work  at  a 
price  below  that  at  which  the  ice  can  be 
gathered  and  transported. 

Speaking  in  short  terms,  there  are  four 
modes  of  making  ice — vaporization,  radia 
tion,  liquefaction,  and  sudden  reduction  of 
pressure. 

Vaporization  in  a  partial  vacuum  formed 
the  basis  of  Dr.  Cullen's  attempts  in  1755  ; 
in  1777  Nairne  used  sulphuric  acid  to  absorb 
the  vapor  rising  from  water  in  an  exhausted 
receiver.  Edmoud  Carry's  apparatus  is  on 
this  principle,  and  is  used  to  produce  the 
carafes  frappfas  so  common  in  Parisian  res 
taurants.  In  the  continuous  operation  of 
Ferdinand  Carre"  ammonia  is  employed  as 
being  more  volatile  than  water,  and  under 


ordinary  atmospheric  pressure  permanently 
gaseous.  The  apparatus  is  somewhat  com 
plicated,  but  effective.  The  water  is  in  cans 
in  a  bath  of  uncongealable  liquid,  cooled 
by  zigzag  tubes,  into  which  the  liquid  am 
monia  is  conducted  to  expand,  and  thereby 
convert  the  sensible  heat  of  the  surround 
ing  bath  into  latent,  due  to  its  assumption 
of  the  gaseous  condition.  There  are  many 
modifications  of  the  vaporization  principle, 
but  no  room  to  tell  of  them. 

Liquefaction  is  auother  mode,  and  snow 
and  ice  are  used  in  connection  with  salts. 
Combinations  of  salts  are  also  used.  Ma- 
chiues  are  also  used  in  which  air  is  exhaust 
ed  by  a  steam-engine  from  a  receiver,  the 
expansion  of  liquid  into  a  gaseous  condition 
drawing  heat  from  the  water  sufficient  to 
congeal  it. 

SUGAR. 

Sugar  is  mentioned  by  Dioscorides  and 
Pliny  as  a  kind  of  honey  obtained  from  cane, 
and  was  introduced  into  Europe  by  the 
Arabs.  The  first  mention  of  it  in  European 
annals  is  in  the  account  of  Nearchus,  who 
commanded  the  fleet  of  Alexander.  The 
Crusades  added  to  the  European  knowledge 
of  it,  and  in  the  twelfth  century  it  was  grown 
in  Sicily.  Thence  it  was  taken  to  Madeira 
in  1420,  and  thence  to  the  Canaries,  to  Bra 
zil,  and  to  San  Domingo  in  1506 ;  to  Barba- 
does  from  Brazil  in  1641.  It  is  a  native  of 
the  East  Indies,  and  its  name  is  from  the 


110 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


MODEHN    SUCiAU   PROCESS. 


Sanskrit,  sarJcara  ;  Persian,  schakar  ;  Hindos- 
tanee,  schukur  ;  Arabic,  sulckar.  i'anda  (can 
dy)  is  also  Sanskrit. 

It  was  used  for  many  centuries  as  a  vehi 
cle  in  medicine  before  it  became  an  article 
of  food.  For  the  refining  processes  we  are 
indebted  to  the  Venetians  of  the  sixteenth 
century.  As  time  passed,  the  clarification, 
defecation,  and  crystallization  proceeded  on 
a  gradually  improving  scale,  boiling,  set 
tling,  filtering,  white  of  egg,  skimming,  bone- 
black,  etc.,  being  used.  Loaf-sugar  was  first 
made  in  Venice. 

The  vacuum -pan  is  the  invention  of 
Charles  E.  Howard,  an  English  refiner,  about 
1813.  In  this  a  partial  vacuum  is  obtained 
over  the  sirup,  so  that  it  will  boil  at  a  much 
lower  temperature.  This  not  merely  saves 
fuel,  but  prevents  charring  and  discolora 
tion  of  the  sugar.  The  modes  of  handling 
the  sirup,  so  to  speak,  are  also  much  simpli 
fied  and  assisted,  the  cane  juice,  by  means 
of  pumps  or  by  gravity,  flowing  from  the 
mill  to  the  filters,  to  the  defecators,  to  the 


CENTRIFUGAL   VILTKB. 


filters  again,  to  the  vacuum-pan,  and  to  the 
cooler. 

Another  very  important  aid  in  sugar-mak 
ing  apparatus  is  the  centrifugal  filter,  pat 
ented  by  Hurd,  of  Massachusetts,  1844.  In 
this  the  magma  is  placed  in  a  foraminous 
cylinder,  and  rotated  with  great  rapidity,  so 
that  the  liquid  portion — the  water  and  the 
uncrystallizable  sugar — is  expelled  by  cen 
trifugal  force,  leaving  the  granulated  sugar 
in  the  cylinder. 

This  really  beautiful  contrivance  has  since 
been  adapted  for  many  purposes  as  a  drainer 
filter,  and  as  a  substitute  for  the  clothes- 
wringer. 

PORCELAIN. 

Porcelain,  although  not  finer  in  texture 
than  the  Chinese  article  of  many  ages  back, 
nor  of  more  graceful  and  agreeable  shapes 
than  the  vases  of  Etruria  and  Greece,  has, 
as  far  as  we  are  concerned  in  the  art,  made 
almost  all  its  progress  within  the  century 
just  passing  away. 

Wedgwood's  improvements,  1759-70,  date 
the  commencement  of  a  new  era  for  us, 
although  Bottcher  was  half  a  century 
earlier,  and  founded  the  works  of  Dres 
den.  The  establishment  of  the  porce 
lain  -  works  at  Sevres,  in  France,  was 
somewhat  later.  In  Prussia,  Austria, 
Russia,  Bavaria,  and  France  the  works 
are  governmental.  Staffordshire,  the  old 
home  of  Wedgwood,  is  the  centre  of  the 
English  works,  which  are  all  private  ven 
tures  ;  the  exports  being  largely  to  the 
United  States. 


GLASS-MAKING. 


Ill 


GLASS-MAKING)  IN    EGYPT,  1500   B.O. 

GLASS. 

Glass  was  known  in  ancient  Nineveh,  and 
was  skillfully  worked  by  the  ancient  Egyp 
tians,  though  it  was  mostly  ornamental,  and 
did  not  probably  enter  much  into  the  com 
mon  uses  of  life.  Pliny  describes  the  mode 
of  making  it,  and  it  was  used  all  down 
through  the  ages  to  our  own  time.  It  is 
only  within  the  last  three  centuries  that  its 
use  has  become  common.  The  manufac 
ture  of  blown  glass  was  introduced  into 
England  in  1559  ;  plate-glass  in  1673. 

Cylinder  glass  was  made  for  some  scores 
of  years  before  it  was  introduced  into  En 
gland  in  1846,  just  in  time  for  the  great  Ex 
hibition  building  of  1851,  which  was  design 
ed  by  Sir  Joseph  Paxton,  and  roofed  with 
cylinder  glass  made  by  Chance  and  Co.,  of 
Birmingham. 

The  process  is  as  follows :  The  workman 
collects  a  mass  of  glass  (a)  around  the  end 
of  his  blowing  tube,  and  then  distends  and 
rounds  it  by  blowing  and  rolling  it  on  the 
marver,  or  flat  cast-iron  table.  The  subse 
quent  operations  consist  in  reheating,  blow 
ing,  and  swinging,  until  the  diameter  and 
then  the  length  of  the  cylinder  required  are 
attained,  the  glass  successively  assuming 
the  forms  b  c  represented  in  the  figure.  In 
the  fourth  stage,  where  it  has  assumed  a 
conoidal  form  (<Z),  the  point  is  very  thin, 
and  the  blower,  having  filled  the  shell  with 
air  at  a  pressure,  places  it  in  the  furnace, 
when  the  expansion  of  the  air  by  heat  causes 
the  conoid  to  burst  at  the  apex  (e).  The 
edge  of  the  hole  is  then  trimmed  with  shears, 
and  enlarged  by  the  pucellas,  a  peculiar  hand 
tool,  which  resembles  a  pair  of  spring  sugar- 
tongs  with  flat  jaws.  The  cylindrical  form 


(/)  being  then  perfected,  the  cylinder  is 
ready  to  be  removed  from  the  blowing 
tube,  a  circular  piece  of  glass  coming 
away  with  the  tube,  so  as  to  make  an 
opening  in  the  other  end  of  the  cylinder. 
This  separation  is  effected  by  a  red-hot 
bent  iron,  in  which  the  cylinder  is  turned 
round  a  few  times,  so  as  to  expand  the 
glass  at  that  point  (#).  A  drop  of  water 
on  the  heated  line  makes  an  instant 
fracture.  The  cylinder  is  then  split  by 
a  diamond,  or  by  means  similar  to  that 
which  removed  the  disk  from  the  end  (h). 
Flatting  and  annealing  finish  the  process. 
These  are  accomplished  in  separate  fur 
naces,  or  apartments  heated  by  the  same 
furnace.  In  the  combined  form  the  flatting 
furnace  consists  of  consecutive  chambers 
heated  by  a  furnace  beneath.  The  cylinder 
is  placed  on  the  heated  floor  of  the  flatting 
furnace,  with  the  cracked  side  uppermost. 
The  heat  of  the  furnace  causes  it  to  soften 
and  spread  out,  when  all  the  curves  and 
lumps  are  removed  by  a  straight  piece  of 
wood  fastened  crosswise  at  the  end  of  an 
iron  handle,  and  wetted  before  applying. 
The  flatting  stone  is  made  very  smooth,  as 
any  inequalities  are  transferred  to  the  glass. 
The  sheet  of  glass  is  then  pushed  into  the 

f 


8UCOK88IV1!  STAGES  OF  OTLINI>BR  GLASS. 


112 


MECHANICAL  PROGEESS. 


annealing  chamber,  where  it  is  set  upon 
edge,  arid  left  to  cool  gradually. 

The  operations  of  making  crown  and  cyl 
inder  glass  are  exceedingly  interesting,  and 
have  some  marked  peculiarities.  Wonder 
ful  is  the  command  attained  by  skill  over 
the  plastic  stuff,  and  in  no  other  art  except 
pottery  is  there  such  a  growth  beneath  the 
hand  of  the  operator. 

The  lower  illustration  shows  the  men, 
each  one  on  his  platform,  one  swinging  his 
prolonged  bulb  above  his  head,  another 
blowing  and  swinging  it  beneath  his  feet, 
while  a  third  is  observing  the  operation  of 
heating  the  glass,  which  he  keeps  constant 
ly  turning  round  by  means  of  the  rod  to 
wrhich  it  is  attached. 

In  articles  of  bijouterie  and  virtu  we  have 
nothing  to  claim  of  elegance  or  beauty  over 
the  Venetians  of  centuries  back.  In  glass- 
cutting  the  most  interesting  of  modern  in 
ventions  is  Tilghman's  sand  blast,  by  which 
a  stream  of  sharp  sand  or  emery  is  directed 
upon  glass  to  drill  it,  as  may  be  required, 
or  to  sink  a  pattern  into  it,  or  sink  a  panel 
around  a  raised  pattern.  It  is  also  used  for 
drilling  stone,  and  even  the  hardest  varie 
ties,  such  as  agate  and  porphyry. 


As  Pliny  remarked  in  the  first  century  of 
our  era.  "  All  the  usages  of  civilized  life  de 
pend  in  a  remarkable  degree  upon  the  em 
ployment  of  paper;  at  all  events,  the  remem 
brance  of  past  events."  This  he  said  of  the 
material  obtained  by  splitting  apart  the 
successive  folds  of  the  papyrus  stalk,  a  reed 
growing  plentifully  then  in  the  marshy 
grounds  of  Egypt,  but  which  is  now  some 
what  rare. 

Paper,  as  we  understand  it,  was  not  then 
known  to  the  Mediterranean  nations,  and 
perhaps  not  out  of  China.  Paper  made  by 
the  maceration  of  rags  was  introduced  into 
Europe  by  the  Spanish  Saracens  during  the 
eighth  century.  It  was,  of  course,  made  by 
hand,  as  it  is  in  Asia  at  present. 

All  paper-making  machinery  is  included 
within  our  century.  By  the  hand  process 
the  rags,  being  sorted,  washed,  and  bleach 
ed,  are  cut  in  pieces,  and  then  ground  or 
beaten  to  a  pulp.  This  was  done  in  mortars 
till  the  invention  of  the  rag  engine  in  Hol 
land,  about  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth 


PULPING   ENGINE. 

century.  As  now  practiced,  the  beater  or 
pulping  engine  grinds  the  rags  into  pulp, 
which  is  transferred  to  a  vat. 

By  the  hand  process,  which  is  extinct  in 
Europe  and  America,  except  for  some  grades 
of  drawing  and  writing  papers,  the  paper- 
maker  dips  into  the  vat  a  shallow  triangular 
frame,  known  as  the  mould,  having  a  closely 
woven  wire-cloth,  a  sort  of  flat  sieve  with 
wire  meshes.  Lying  upon  this  is  an  open 
rectangular  frame  like  a  slate  frame,  and 
known  as  a  deckle,  which  forms  a  margin  for 
the  sheet  of  paper  to  be  made.  He  dips  the 
two  into  the  pulp,  and  withdraws  them  in 
horizontal  position,  the  mould  being  full. 
The  water  drips  away  as  the  man  shakes 
the  mould  to  felt  the  fibres,  and  he  transfers 
the  soft  sheet  to  a  sheet  of  felt,  over  which 
he  lays  another  sheet  of  felt,  on  this  a  sec 
ond  sheet  of  moulded  pulp,  and  so  on,  until 
the  pile  is  high  enough  to  be  pressed.  It  is 
a  second  time  piled,  without  the  felt  sheets, 
and  again  pressed,  then  sized,  calendered, 
and  made  into  reams. 

Ten  centuries  passed  and  saw  the  civil 
ized  nations  of  the  world  making  paper  thus. 

A  few  years  after  the  commencement  of 
our  century,  Robert,  a  Frenchman,  devised 
a  machine  for  making  a  web  of  paper  from 
pulp.  Before  1800  he  had  made  it  succeed 
in  a  degree,  but  it  took  a  number  of  years 
and  the  brains  of  many  co-workers  before 
valuable  results  were  attained.  The  scene 
of  the  effort  was  shifted  from  the  paper  mill 
of  Francois  Didot,  of  Essones,  France,  to  the 
works  of  the  wealthy  brothers  FoUidiinier, 
in  England,  who  were  assisted  by  Donkin  in 
bringing  the  machine  to  perfection. 

In  the  Fourdrinier  or  flat  web  machine  the 
previously  prepared  pulp  is  introduced  into 
a  vat,  where  it  is  thinned  with  water  pre 
viously  expressed  from  the  sheet  during  its 
formation,  and  agitated  by  means  of  a  ro 
tary  stirrer.  Passing  through  a  peculiarly 
formed  strainer,  the  invention  of  Ibbotson, 
by  which  it  is  freed  from  knots,  the  pulp,  in 
a  stream  the  thickness  of  which  is  regulated 


INDIA  RUBBER. 


113 


according  to  that  of  the  paper  to  be  made, 
falls  upon  an  apron,  which  conducts  it  a 
short  distance  to  an  endless  wire-gauze  flat 
web,  by  which  it  is  carried  forward  and  over 
a  box  partially  exhausted  of  air;  this  flat 
tens  the  web  of  paper,  and  partially  extracts 
the  water.  The  width  of  the  sheet  is  gov 
erned  by  traveling  deckles  or  side  straps, 
which  prevent  any  portion  of  the  pulp  from 
passing  away  at  the  sides  of  the  wire-gauze. 
The  web  is  then  conducted  upon  endless 
blankets  between  two  sets  of  rollers,  which 
express  most  of  the  remaining  water,  and 
partially  obliterate  the  marks  of  the  wire- 
gauze,  and  dried  by  passing  between  several 
pairs  of  hollow  steam-heated  rollers,  being 
finally  wound  upon  a  roller  at  the  farther 
end  of  the  machine,  or  delivered  on  to  anoth 
er  machine  by  which  it  is  cut  into  lengths. 

In  1809  Mr.  Dickinson,  an  English  paper 
manufacturer,  invented  the  cylinder  machine. 

In  this  a  hollow  brass  cylinder  perforated 
with  holes  and  covered  with  wire-gauze  is 
substituted  for  the  flat  web  of  the  Fourdri- 
iiier  machine.  The  air  is  partially  exhaust 
ed  from  the  cylinder  through  its  hollow  jour 
nals,  producing  the  same  effect  as  the  vacu 
um  box  over  which  the  web  passes  in  the 
Fourdrinier  machine.  The  remaining  part 
of  the  process  of  manufacture  is  very  simi 
lar  in  each.  Combinations  of  the  two  sys 
tems  are  found :  a  web  of  cylinder  paper, 
which  is  strongest  in  one  direction,  and  one 
of  Fourdrinier  paper  being  united;  also  a 
number  of  webs  united  before  drying  to 
form  a  heavy  paper  or  card  -  board ;  or  a 
fine  web  of  pulp  has  fibres  of  silk  strewed 
upon  it  to  be  imbedded  in  the  paper  to  form 
a  paper  for  fractional  currency.  The  qual 
ity  of  paper  depends  mainly  upon  that  of 
the  material,  though  the  making  is  respon 
sible  for  the  evenness  of  its  thickness  and 
the  smoothness  of  its  surface.  The  best 
quality  made  in  this  country  is  hardly  so 
good  as  that  made  from  the  longer  fibres  of 
silk  or  brousaonetia  by  the  Chinese ;  but  our 
best  is  from  new — that  is,  unworn — linen 
stocks,  the  clippings  of  garment  making. 
Cotton  rags  are  not  so  good,  and  old,  worn 
rags,  partly  rotten,  are  worse.  After  this  we 
reach  still  commoner  material  for  stout 
brown  paper,  such  as  hemp  and  old  rope, 
and  the  cheapest  of  all  is  straw,  for  wrap 
ping  paper. 

8 


INDIA    RUBBER. 

What  would  the  men  before  76  have  said 
to  the  India  rubber  manufacture  ?  The  sub 
stance  was  first  brought  to  England  from  Bra 
zil  as  a  curiosity  early  in  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury,  and  about  1776  it  seems  that  Priestley 
suggested  that  it  was  "  excellently  adapted 
for  removing  pencil  marks  from  paper."  It 
was  dissolved  in  turpentine,  and  used  by 
Peal  in  1791  as  water-proofing  composition 
for  fabrics.  Hancock  and  Mackintosh,  about 
1823,  were  the  first  to  apply  the  gum  to  the 
uses  of  water -proof  clothing.  The  gum 
was  placed  between  two  thicknesses  of  fab 
ric,  and  was  a  sticky  affair  at  the  best.  The 
business  never  really  prospered  until  the 
discovery  of  the  vulcanizing  process  by  Good 
year,  the  subject  of  his  patent  of  June  15, 
1844.  He  preferred  the  proportions  of  twen 
ty-five  caoutchouc,  five  sulphur,  seven  white 
lead;  but  these  quantities  and  the  nature 
of  the  substances  employed  were  varied  by 
Goodyear  himself  and  by  his  successors.  The 
same  may  be  said  of  the  heat  employed  in 
combining  the  substances,  this  being  gener 
ally  proportionate  to  the  degree  of  hardness 
required  in  the  vulcanite. 

The  history  of  invention  does  not  furnish 
an  instance  of  greater  persistence  under  dis 
couragement  than  is  afforded  by  the  strug 
gles  of  Charles  Goodyear.  It  was  a  purely 
tentative  process.  He  first  mixed  the  gum 
with  half  its  weight  of  magnesia  to  dry  it 
and  remove  the  stickiness ;  but  the  com 
pound  softened.  He  then  tried  India  rub 
ber  sap  with  magnesia,  with  better  results. 
Next  he  tried  surface  treatment  with  nitric 
acid.  This  scheme,  which  seemed  promis 
ing,  was  overthrown  by  the  financial  crisis 
of  1837.  After  a  number  of  attempts,  Good 
year  shifted  on  to  the  line  previously  trav 
eled  by  Hayward — the  use  of  sulphur.  Hay- 
ward  had  mixed  and  covered  the  rubber 
with  sulphur,  and  exposed  it  to  the  sun's 
rays,  producing  a  superficial  hardening. 
While  experimenting  with  some  goods  which 
had  been  thus  made  and  returned  as  rotten, 
a  piece  of  it  was  charred  by  contact  with 
the  stove,  and  the  result  was  sufficient  to 
indicate  to  the  alert  miiid  of  Goodyear  that 
what  was  needed  was  the  baking  of  the 
rubber  and  sulphur  together.  He  then  de 
voted  himself  to  details,  the  proper  propor 
tions  for  given  qualities  of  goods,  the  mate- 


114 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


rials  to  be  added  to  give  color  and  solidity, 
the  uses  to  which  this  admirahle  compound 
may  be  put.  The  results  of  his  genius,  care, 
and  persistence  are  all  around  us. 

METEOROLOGICAL  INSTRUMENTS. 

The  meteorological  instruments  of  the  pres 
ent  day  derive  much  of  their  public  interest 
from  the  tri-daily  report  of  the  numerous 
stations  to  the  Signal-office  in  Washington, 
where  the  generalizations  are  made,  and 
from  whence  conjectures  for  the  following 
twenty-four  hours  are  transmitted.  The 
principal  instruments  are  the  anemometer,  for 
direction  and  rate  of  the  wind ;  the  barome 
ter,  for  the  atmospheric  pressure;  the  ther- 
mometer,  for  atmospheric  temperature. 

Weather-cocks  for  indicating  the  direction 
of  the  wind  are  as  old  as  the  sailing  of  boats, 
but  an  instrument  for  measuring  its  force 
can  be  hardly  said  to  have  existed  before 
1776,  when  Lind  invented  an  anemometer, 
which  has  been  long  since  superseded  by 
those  of  Whewell,  Ostler,  Robinson,  and  oth 
ers.  The  present  anemometers  are  self-re 
cording.  The  barograph,  or  registering  ba 
rometer,  used  at  the  Chief  Signal-office,  War 
Department,  Washington,  is  shown  in  the 
figure.  The  barometer  is  in  a  dark  case, 
with  the  mercury  column  exposed  at  a  slit 


through  which  the  light  of  a  lamp  passes. 
At  the  farther  end  of  the  machine,  shown  at 
the  left  in  the  cut,  is  a  cylinder  wrapped 
with  sensitized  paper  so  as  to  blacken  with 
light.  This  cylinder  and  its  paper  cover  are 
moved  by  clock-work  so  as  to  rotate  once  in 
forty-eight  hours.  The  image  of  that  part 
of  the  slit  above  the  mercurial  column  is 
thus  caused  to  form  a  continuous  dark  band 
of  irregular  width  on  the  paper,  becoming 
narrower  as  the  mercury  rises  and  wdden- 
ing  as  it  descends  in  the  tube,  the  width  of 
the  baud  indicating  not  only  the  relative 
changes,  but  also  the  absolute  height  of  the 
barometer.  A  shutter  operated  by  the  clock 
work  cuts  off  the  light  for  four  minutes  at 
the  end  of  each  second  hour,  leaving  a  ver 
tical  white  line  on  the  paper. 

By  the  expansion  of  a  zinc  rod  on  each 
side  of  the  barometer  tube,  in  connection 
with  a  glass  rod  and  lever,  the  thermometric 
changes  are  made,  and  the  true  barometric 
indications,  with  corrections  for  tempera 
ture,  are  photographically  recorded.  The 
strip  after  remaining  forty-eight  hours  is 
taken  off,  the  unaltered  nitrate  washed 
out,  and  it  is  filed  away,  an  enduring  rec 
ord  of  the  condition  of  the  barometer  for 
two  days. 

The  thermometers  are  read  three  times  a 


THE   BAEOGKA1II. 


ARTIFICIAL  LIMBS. 


115 


OONPELL'S  ARTIFICIAL  ABM. 
(Longitudinal  section  of  left  arm.) 


day,  but  may  be  made  similarly  self-record 
ing.  Maximum  and  minimum  thermometers 
are  a  usual  furnishing  of  observatories.  The 
differential  thermometer  of  Leslie  is  a  hy- 
grometrical  instrument  for  ascertaining  the 
degree  of  aqueous  saturation  of  the  atmos 
phere  by  means  of  the  dew-point. 

ANAESTHETICS. 

The  use  of  anaesthetics  has  been  brought 
to  system,  and  new  agents  of  ascertained 
strength  and  effect  have  been  devised.  For 
mer  ages  used  stupefying  drugs  and  poisons 
which  struck  directly  at  the  vital  force. 
Cannabis  indica  was  used  in  the  Orient,  man- 
dragora  by  the  Greeks  and  Romans.  The 
modern  anaesthetic  agents  are  cold,  deutox- 
ide  of  nitrogen,  chloroform,  ether,  hydrate 
of  chloral,  and  some  others  of  less  note. 
From  the  times  when  Morelli,  in  1674,  at  the 
siege  of  Besancon,  invented  the  tourniquet, 
andPere"  (1550)  introduced  the  ligature  and 
dispensed  with  actual  cautery  to  arrest  the 
bleeding  of  the  stump,  no  such  act  has  been 
accomplished  for  maimed  humanity  as  the 
introduction  of  a  safe  anaesthetic.  As 
Charles  IX.  said  when  he  hid  the  Hugue 
not  surgeon  in  his  royal  chamber  to  guard 
him  from  the  assassins  on  the  night  of  St. 
Bartholomew,  "  there  is  only  one  Per6." 
Palissy,  another  Huguenot,  was  similarly 
shielded  by  Catherine  de  Medicis,  the 
queen  -  dowager,  as  there  was  "  only  one 
potter."  Palissy  died  in  prison  eventually. 
Ether  was  known  for  many  centuries  before 
Drs.  Morton  and  Jackson,  of  Boston,  brought 
it  into  notice  as  an  anaesthetic  in  1846.  Chlo 
roform  was  discovered  in  1831 ;  first  used  as 
an  anaesthetic  by  Dr.  Simpson,  of  Edinburgh, 
in  1847. 

ARTIFICIAL  LIMBS. 

Artificial  limbs  and  other  prosthetic  appli 
ances  have  advanced  with  the  line — artificial 
hands  and  legs  whose  simulation  of  the  nat 


ural  is  so  close  that  a  casual  observer  will 
not  notice  the  difference. 

The  artificial  arm  illustrated  has  three 
motions  derived  from  the  stump,  the  arm 
being  secured  by  bands  to  the  body.  The 
forward  motion  of  the  stump  flexes  the  fore 
arm,  the  phalanges  are  closed  and  opened  by 
a  sort  of  rotative  motion  which  draws  upon 
a  cord,  and  the  backward  motion  of  the 
stump  gives  extension  to  the  fore-arm.  A 
man  with  only  four  inches  of  stump  may 
with  this  arm  take  his  handkerchief  from 
his  pocket,  wipe  his  nose,  pick  up  a  marble 
from  the  table,  and  put  it  in  his  pocket. 
It  does  not  take  as  long  to  learn  the  use  of 
it  as  it  does  to  become  accustomed  to  the 
natural  arm;  but  then  the  practice  with 
the  latter  begins  with  very  early  life,  and 
when  the  use  is  acquired  it  is  much  the 
better  of  the  two. 

Artificial  arms,  ears,  eyes,  feet,  gums, 
hands,  legs,  noses,  palates,  pupils,  and  teeth 
are  all  to  be  purchased  closely  matching  the 
remaining  parts,  or  made  to  any  shape  de 
sired  in  cases  where  no  natural  portion  re 
mains  to  protest  against  want  of  uniform- 
ity. 

Mechanical  dentistry  is  one  of  the  tri 
umphs  of  our  time  and  country.  Not  only 
is  excellence  in  the  art  a  very  recent  achieve 
ment,  but  it  is  more  thoroughly  understood 
here  than  elsewhere.  Pepys's  diary  records 
that  his  wife's  "  tooth  was  new  done  by  La 
Roche,  and  was  indeed  pretty  handsome," 
but  it  was  probably  a  piece  of  ivory  or  wal 
rus  tooth. 

AQUAIUA. 

Aquaria  have  been  constructed  on  a  scale 
sufficient  to  show  aquatic  animals  and 
plants  in  their  natural  condition,  and  with 
a  reasonable  degree  of  freedom.  The  mode 
of  aerating  the  water  by  a  jet  of  air  intro 
duced  into  and  ascending  in  bubbles  through 
the  water  has  much  simplified  that  part  of 


116 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


the  matter.  The  proper  understanding  of 
the  reciprocal  duties  and  effects  of  the  ani 
mal  and  vegetable  tenants  lies  at  the  bot 
tom  of  the  success  with  an  aquarium.  The 
office  of  the  flora  is  to  abstract  the  excess 
of  carbonic  acid  gas  due  to  the  breathing  of 
the  fauna,  and  restore  the  oxygen,  as  with 
the  terrestrial  flora.  Then  certain  animals 
which  feed  on  decaying  vegetable  matter 
are  put  in  the  miniature  pond  to  act  as  scav 
engers  to  the  community.  The  demonstra 
tion  of  these  conditions  is  due  to  R.  War- 
rington,  1850.  N.  B.  Ward  is  also  not  to  be 
forgotten.  An  aquarium  36  by  150  feet  was 
constructed  in  1860  in  the  Jardin  d' Acclima 
tion  in  Paris  by  Lloyd.  The  same  person 
erected  a  large  one  at  Hamburg.  An  aqua 
rium  at  Manchester,  England,  has  750  feet 
frontage.  The  aquarium  of  the  Paris  Ex 
position  was  a  large  and  effective  one.  That 
of  Brighton  is  on  a  grander  scale  than  any 
other.  It  occupies  ground  100  by  715  feet, 
the  general  structure  being  a  quadrangular 
series  of  tanks  with  plate-glass  sides,  and  a 
central  roofed  apartment  lighted  through 
the  tank  sides  so  as  to  give  the  idea  of  be 
ing  under  water.  The  tanks  have  fresh  or 
salt  water  to  suit  the  tenants,  and  vary  in 
size  from  11  by  20  to  30  by  55  feet. 

An  aquarium  car  lately  went  from  New 
England  to  San  Francisco  with  young  fish 
for  stocking  the  Pacific  rivers. 

MATCHES. 

The  old-fashioned  match  was  simply  a 
wooden  splint  dipped  in  brimstone,  and  kin 
dled  from  a  piece  of  tinder  set  on  fire  by  a 
spark  from  the  flint  and  steel. 

The  tinder  was  sometimes  ignited  by  an 
air-compressing  pump.  In  other  cases  the 
matches  were  tipped  with  chlorate  of  pot 
ash,  and  set  on  fire  by  plunging  in  a  vial 
containing  asbestus  saturated  with  sulphu 
ric  acid.  Dobereiner's  lamp,  in  which  a  hy 
drogen  jet  is  brought  in  contact  with  plati 
num  sponge,  and  a  coil  of  platinum  wire 
kept  red-hot  by  alcohol,  were  also  sometimes 
employed,  rather,  however,  as  curiosities 
than  devices  of  general  practical  use. 

Lucifer-matches  have  now  superseded  all 
other  appliances  for  producing  an  instanta 
neous  light,  throughout  the  civilized  world 
at  least,  and  have  become  an  article  of 
manufacture  employing  an  enormous  capi 


tal.  They  are  made  by  sawing  or  splitting 
blocks  of  soft  wood  into  splints,  which  are 
dipped  into  a  composition  containing  either 
phosphorus  or  chlorate  of  potash  as  a  basis, 
and  dried. 

Round  matches  are  made  by  forcing  the 
splints  through  plates  having  circular  aper 
tures,  which  at  once  cut  out  and  compress 
them ;  the  machinery  employed  cuts  as  many 
as  30,000  splints  per  minute.  These  are  sold 
by  the  hogshead  to  those  who  make  a  spe 
cial  business  of  applying  the  composition, 
which  is  also  effected  by  machinery. 

MUSICAL  INSTRUMENTS. 

Musical  instruments  should  not  be  over 
looked.  They  have  advanced  within  the 
century  equally  with  the  other  subjects 
stated. 

The  organ  is  as  old  as  Ctesibus  of  Alexan 
dria,  who  lived  in  the  Ptolemaic  period. 
The  pressure  of  air  was  obtained  by  a  sort 
of  water-bellows,  the  pipes  were  but  very 
few,  and  the  compass  of  course  quite  limit 
ed.  Down  through  the  ages  we  find  that  it 
had  a  precarious  existence.  Haroun-al-Ras- 
chid  and  the  excellent  Gerbert  of  Rheims 
are  two  of  the  great  names  associated  with 
its  possession  and  use.  The  missals  of  the 
Middle  Ages  show  a  variety  of  clumsy  con 
trivances  for  evoking  sounds  from  pipes  by 
machinery,  but  excellence  was  not  attained 
much  before  the  time  of  Father  Smith  (re 
ferred  to  by  Pepys),  who  crossed  the  Chan 
nel  to  repair  the  damages  occasioned  in  the 
English  churches  by  the  Parliamentary  sol 
diers.  Since  this  time  the  instrument  has 
been  much  enlarged,  its  power,  compass,  and 
capacity  increased,  perhaps  without  increas 
ing  its  sweetness.  The  great  organ  of  Haar 
lem  has  sixty  stops  and  8000  pipes ;  one  at 
Seville  5300  pipes.  The  organ  of  the  "  Al 
bert  Hall  of  Arts  and  Sciences,"  London,  has 
111  stops,  14  couplers,  32  combinations,  and 
about  9000  pipes.  The  organs  of  the  Bos 
ton  Music-Hall,  Baltimore  Cathedral,  and 
Plymouth  Church,  Brooklyn,  are  among  the 
largest  in  this  country. 

The  parlor  organ  is  an  outgrowth  of  the 
accordeon,  which  was  introduced  in  Europe 
in  1821.  The  first  metallic-reed  musical  in 
strument  was  the  Eolodlcon,  by  Escheuberg, 
of  Bohemia,  1810.  The  rocking  melodeon 
was  a  large  accordeou  on  a  stand.  Carhart, 


FEINTING. 


117 


in  this  country,  has  done  more  than  any  one 
else  in  the  improvement  of  this  instrument. 
He  introduced  the  exhaust  plan  in  1846. 
Previous  to  this  the  air  had  been  forced 
through  the  reed  slits,  and  is  still  so  in  Eu 
rope.  His  first  instrument  had  four  octaves, 
but  they  were  afterward  increased.  Mason 
and  Hamlin  in  1855  had  instruments  with 
seven  octaves,  four  sets  of  reeds,  and  two 
manuals. 

The  piano  is  the  successor  of  a  whole  se 
ries  of  stringed  instruments,  dating  from 
the  harp.  It  is  a  prostrate  harp,  whose 
strings  are  beaten  by  hammers  actuated  by 
keys.  The  citole,  clavicymbalum,  virginal, 
spinet,  and  harpsichord  occupy  the  period 
from  the  fourteenth  to  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury.  The  piano-forte  was  really  invented 
by  Christofori,  of  Florence,  1711,  but  it  was 
near  the  end  of  the  century  before  it  had 
attained  excellence  enough  to  supersede  the 
spinet  and  harpsichord,  the  strings  of  which 
were  twanged  by  plectra.  The  grand  point 
to  be  attained  in  the  piano,  or  as  it  was  ear 
ly  called,  the  hammer  harpsichord,  was  for  the 
hammer  to  fall  back  immediately  after  strik 
ing  the  string,  so  as  to  allow  the  latter  free 
vibration. 

The  improvements  in  this  instrument  are 
marvelous,  and  our  country  is  in  the  front 
rank  of  ingenuity  and  excellence.  The 
names  of  Broadwood,  Collard,  Erard,  Stein- 
way,  Chickeriug,  Knabe,  with  many  others 
we  can  not  find  space  to  name,  go  to  an  ad 
miring  posterity  in  company. 

PRINTING. 

The  art  of  taking  an  impression  from  an 
inked  stamp  is  of  great  antiquity,  being 
found  in  the  most  ancient  Egyptian  and 
Assyrian  remains.  Of  yore  the  rude  king 
who  smeared  his  hand  with  red  ochre  or  the 
soot  from  a  burning  lamp,  and  then  made 
the  impression  of  his  palm  and  digits  be 
neath  a  grant  of  land,  was  a  printer  in  his 
way  in  thus  putting  Ms  hand  to  the  docu 
ment.  Then  came  seals,  engraved  in  relief 
or  intaglio,  and  delivering  an  impression  of 
the  design  upon  bark,  leaf,  or  skin,  either 
white  marks  on  a  dark  ground  or  dark  on  a 
light  ground,  according  to  the  character  of 
the  engraving.  Seals  containing  the  pro- 
nomens  of  the  Pharaohs,  each  in  its  car- 
touch,  rewarded  the  early  explorers  in  the 


valley  of  the  Nile,  and  more  lately  the 
stamps  and  tablets  of  the  recorders  of  the 
cities  of  Mesopotamia  have  been  disinterred 
by  thousands.  The  impressions,  having  been 
made  in  plastic  clay,  and  then  baked,  have 
endured  without  injury  a  sepulture  of  twen 
ty-five  centuries.  They  exhibit  the  kindred 
arts  of  engraving  and  plastic  moulding.  It 
may  be  safely  assumed  that  they  were  also 
used  for  giving  printed  impressions,  but 
such  memorials  are,  in  the  nature  of  the 
case,  less  permanent.  Some  of  the  ancient 
stamps  in  the  British  Museum  are  of  bronze, 
and  have  reversed  raised  letters,  evidently 
intended  to  print  on  bark,  papyrus,  linen,  or 
parchment. 

To  this  stage  of  progress  various  nations 
of  the  world  had  advanced,  and  yet  it  can 
hardly  be  said  that  printing,  as  we  under 
stand  the  word,  had  been  thought  of.  This 
evidently  originated  in  China,  but  it  is  not 
certain  that  Europe  derived  it  from  thence. 
The  first  notice  that  we  find  of  printing  is 
in  the  Chinese  annals.  Du  Halde  cites  the 
following  from  the  pen  of  the  celebrated 
Emperor  Van  Vong,  who  flourished  1120 
years  before  Christ.  This  was  about  the 
time  of  Samuel  the  prophet,  and  a  little  be 
fore  Codrus,  the  last  of  the  Athenian  kings. 

"  As  the  stone  '  Me'  [ink,  in  Chinese],  which  is  used 
to  blacken  the  engraved  characters,  can  never  become 
white,  so  a  heart  blackened  by  vice  will  ever  retain  its 
blackness." 

Other  Catholic  missionaries  concur  with 
Du  Halde  in  supposing  printing  from  blocks 
to  have  been  invented  at  least  as  early  as 
930  to  950  B.C.  The  plan  adopted  was  to 
take  a  block  of  pear-tree  wood,  squared  to 
the  dimensions  of  two  pages  of  the  work. 
On  the  smooth  surface  of  the  block  the 
written  pages  are*  inverted,  and  the  paper 
rubbed  off,  leaving  the  ink  on  the  block, 
which  is  then  delivered  to  the  engraver, 
who  cuts  away  all  the  parts  not  inked.  No 
press  is  used,  but  the  surface  being  inked 
by  one  brush,  the  paper  is  laid  upon  the 
block  and  dabbed  down  by  a  dry  brush ; 
the  sheet  is  lifted,  carrying  the  ink  with  it, 
and  is  folded  with  the  blank  sides  in,  one 
side  only  being  printed ;  the  folded  edge  be 
ing  outward,  the  Chinese  or  Japanese  book 
looks  like  one  with  uncut  leaves.  The  first 
four  books  of  Kung-fu-tze  (Confucius)  were 
thus  printed  between  890  and  925  A.D.,  and 


118 


MECHANICAL  PEOGRESS. 


Sal  (woman)         Lisan  (tongue)      Umman  (army) 


JSar  JBab  -  ilu  -  ra  -  Tci 
.King  of  Babylon. 


as-ri        ka  -an-  sw. 
lord  -paramount. 


sir 

w 


N 


L 

<^^? 


R 


D  9 

O  Ilieroglyplic. 

CD,  Hieratic. 
W       ^  /          /v       /\  Phoenician. 

EGYPTIAN  AND  CTTNEIFOBM,  IDEOGKAPHIC  AND  SYLLABIC. 


Q, 


the  description  equally  applies  to  the  mode 
yet  practiced. 

The  same  system  was  used  in  Europe  in 
the  thirteenth  century  for  printing  playing- 
cards  and  ornamenting  fahrics  ;  later,  the 
works  known  as  block  books,  each  page  be 
ing  an  engraved  block  like  those  of  the  Chi 
nese.  Such  was  the-  Biblla  Pauperum,  one  of 
the  earliest  of  European  block  books,  com 
piled  by  Bonaventura,  the  chief  of  the  Fran 
ciscans,  in  1260.  In  manuscript  form,  as  a 
book  of  forty  or  fifty  pages  of  illustrated 
Bible  scenes  and  passages,  this  Poor  Man's 
Bible  was  a  favorite  for  five  centuries.  It 
was  printed  as  a  block  book  about  A.D.  1400. 
The  Speculum  Humance  Salvationis  of  Koster, 
of  Haarlem,  to  whom  the  credit  of  the  in 
vention  of  printing  has  been  hence  ascribed, 
was  also  a  block  book.  Volumes  by  the  score 
have  been  written  on  the  rival  claims  of  the 


cities  of  Mentz  and  Haarlem  to  the  inven 
tion  of  printing.  From  a  careful  examina 
tion  of  the  subject  it  would  appear  that 
Meutz  has  the  prior  right,  and  that  the  gen 
eral  verdict  in  favor  of  Gutenberg  is  cor 
rect. 

About  the  year  1041,  a  period  when  Ed 
ward  the  Confessor  was  King  of  England, 
another  forward  step  was  made  in  China. 
A  blacksmith  named  Pi-Ching  invented  a 
mode  of  printing  from  plates  formed  from 
movable  types,  each  of  which  represented  a 
word.  The  types  were  about  the  thickness 
of  a  half  dollar,  each  had  a  word  on  its 
face,  and  they  were  arranged  in  order  on  a 
backing  plate,  to  which  they  were  attached 
by  mastic. 

The  Chinese  have  never  advanced  beyond 
ideographs,  or  irord  signs,  in  which  arbitrary 
symbols  (d)  are  made  to  represent  things, 
qualities,  or  actions.  The  language  has  no 
elasticity,  and,  like  the  Egyptian  hieroglyph 
ics  (a  6),  is  incapable  of  fulfilling  modern  re 
quirements.  In  this  respect  it  is  like  the 
ancient  Scythic  cuneiform  (e) ;  but  the  gen 
ius  of  the  Mesopotamian  nations  could  not 
be  thus  cramped,  and  the  language  gradu 
ally  took  on  the  syllabic  form :  the  cunei 
form  of  the  second  period  (shown  in  /)  is  a 
transition  form.  The  Persian  cuneiform  was 
substantially  syllabic.  Other  languages  of 
Asia  early  assumed  the  phonetic  form,  in 
which  signs  stood  for  sounds,  though  it  was 
many  ages  before  the  vowels  were  written 
definitely.  The  Phoenician  (//),  which  is  the 
basis  of  all  the  principal  alphabets  of  Eu 
rope,  had  its  twenty-two  letters  700  B.C., 
when  the  black  basalt  stone  was  used  to 
celebrate  the  successes  of  the  King  of  Moab. 
i  is  a  portion  of  the  inscription  in  hiero 
glyphic  and  demotic  from  the  Rosetta  Stone. 

That  which  the  Chinese  were  incapable  of 
doing,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  was  done 
by  John  Gutenberg,  who  was  born  in  1400, 
at  Mentz.  In  company  with  Faust  and 
others  he  printed  several  works  with  wood 
en  types  and  wooden  blocks:  the  Alexandri 
Galli  Doctrinale  and  Pctri  Hispani  Tractatus 
in  1442  ;  and  subsequently  the  Tabula  Alpha- 
betica,  Catholicon  Donati  Grammatica,  and  the 
Confcssionalia.  In  1450  the  Bible  of  637 
leaves  was  printed  by  Gutenberg  and  Faust 
with  cut  metallic  types.  Faust  retired  from 
partnership  with  Gutenberg  in  1455  and  be- 


EARLY  PROGRESS  IN  PRINTING. 


119 


came  allied  with  Schoeffer,  and  they 
published  in  1457  the  Codex  I'salmorum 
with  cut  metallic  types ;  the  Durandi 
Rationale,  published  by  them  in  1459, 
was  the  first  work  printed  with  cast 
metal  types.  Gutenberg  took  other 
partners,  and  published  the  Catholicon 
Jo.  de  Janua  in  1460.  He  used  none 
but  wooden  or  cut  metal  types  till  the 
year  1462.  Gutenberg  died  in  high 
honor  in  the  year  1468. 

Peter  SchoefFer,  of  Gernsheim,  the 
partner  of  Faust  and  former  workman 
of  Gutenberg,  was  the  inventor  of  cast 
types,  the  greatest  invention  of  any  of  2 

the  series. 

It   may  be   mentioned  that,  in   the     °>  Sanskrit. 
early   stages    of  the    art,  sheets   were 
printed  but  on  one  side,  and  the  backs 
of  the   pages   pasted   together.      The 
pages  were  without  running  title,  run 
ning    folio,    or    direction    word.      The 
forms   were    usually   folios,   sometimes 
quartos.     The    character  was   a   rude 
Gothic  mixed  with  an  engrossing  char 
acter,  and  designed  to   imitate   hand 
writing.      Scarcely   any    division    was 
made    between   words ;    the    orthogra 
phy  was   arbitrary  and  irregular;   ab 
breviations,    in    imitation    of    cursive 
writing,  were  numerous ;   punctuation 
was  confined  to  a  double  dot  (:)  or  a 
single  one  (.),  afterward  a  stroke  (/), 
known    as    a    virgule,  was   used   for    a 
slighter  pause,  and  grew  into  a  com 
ma   (,).      Capitals    were    so    sparingly 
employed  that  the   beginning   of  sen 
tences  and  proper  names  of  men  and  places 
were  not  thus  distinguished.     This  honor 
was  reserved  for  paragraphs,  and  hero  the 
space  was  left  vacant  by  the  printer  that 
the  illuminated  capitals  might  be  put  in  by 
hand. 

This  was  soon  changed.  The  era  of  Leo 
nardo  da  Vinci,  Albert  Diirer,  Raphael, 
Michael  Angelo,  and  Vandyck,  of  Benven- 
uto  Cellini,  Galileo,  Kepler,  Shakspeare, 
and  Bacon,  could  not  long  endure  medi 
ocrity.  The  type-founders  and  printers 
were  worthy  of  the  occasion,  and  their  work 
leaves  little  to  be  desired  on  the  score  of 
sharpness  and  color.  •  The  letters  of  their 
books  have  a  vivid  blackness  that  makes 
one  who  takes  an  occasional  excursion  into 


DTP 


PHONETIO   LANGUAGES  OP   ASIA. 

b,  Hebrew,    c,  Samaritan,    ri,  Syriac.    e,  Syrio- 
Chaldaic.   /,  Arabic. 


a  column  \  On 


PIKKNIOIAN    AND   EGYPTIAN  WRITING. 

h,  Moabite  Stone,     i,  Rosetta  Stone. 

black-letter  wonder  where  they  obtained  their 
ink.  The  color  of  our  pages  is  gray  and  rusty 
in  comparison. 

In  celebrating  the  achievements  of  the 
century  we  will  not  claim  that  we  print 
better,  but  we  do  it  more  easily  and  much 
faster ;  while  we  handle  with  great  appre 
ciation  and  respect  the  works  of  our  worthy, 
patient,  and  persevering  predecessors,  they 
would  view  with  admiration  mixed  with 
awe  the  towering  structure  of  Hoe,  or  the 
compact  perfecting  presses  which  print  from 
a  web  of  paper  from  one  to  three  miles  long, 
and  deliver  in  piles  at  the  rate  of  12,000  per 
hour.  They  might  think,  as  the  doctors  of 
Paris  did  of  Faust,  when  they  considered, 
from  the  cheapness  of  his  books  and  the  ex- 


120 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


act  correspondence  of  their  pages,  that  he 
was  in  league  with  the  Evil  One. 

The  art  of  printing  was  scattered  over 
Europe  when  the  city  of  Mentz  was  taken 
and  plundered  by  Archbishop  Adolphus,  of 
Nassau,  in  1462.  Within  the  next  decade 
the  Caxton  press  was  set  up  at  Westminster, 
and  that  of  Theobaldus  Manutius  at  Venice. 
^Esop's  Fables,  by  Caxton,  is  supposed  to 
have  been  the  first  book  with  its  leaves 
numbered. 

Italic,  Greek,  Roman,  and  Hebrew  fonts 
were  cast,  letters  were  pruned  of  their  irreg 
ularities  and  excrescences,  and  order  was 
gradually  introduced  and  concurred  in. 

The  Aldine  classics  are  celebrated  in  prose 
and  verse ;  in  the  latter  by  Alexander  Pope 
among  others.  The  Aldine  "  Livy"  was  per 
haps  the  first  perfect  book,  as  a  modern 
printer  might  say.  This  press  was  in  the 
hands  of  the  descendants  of  Aldus  for  nearly 
a  century. 

Catch-icords  at  the  foot  of  the  page  were 
first  used  in  Venice  by  Vindeline  di  Spori. 
They  have  but  lately  been  abolished.  Sig 
natures  to  sheets  were  used  by  Zorat  at  Mi 
lan  in  1470. 

A  new  light  dawned  upon  the  nations  of 
Europe.  The  avidity  with  which  the  pages 
of  the  printer  were  seized  and  read  shows 
that  an  unsuspected  yearning  for  knowledge 
possessed  the  minds  of  the  people.  From 
this  time  the  current  was  uncontrollable, 
and  the  refuges  of  lies  being  undermined, 
commenced  to  totter  and  fall,  and  some  oth 
ers  are  yet  toppling  and  falling  from  time  to 
time. 

Germany  had  taken  the  lead  in  the  inven 
tion  of  printing,  as  it  did  seventy -seven 
years  afterward,  when  the  deputies  of  thir 
teen  imperial  towns  protested  against  the  de 
cree  of  the  Diet  of  Spires.  The  previous  at 
tempts  at  reform  in  England  and  Bohemia 
were  before  the  invention  of  printing,  and, 
though  not  fruitless,  were  apparently  quell 
ed.  Italy  during  the  Renaissance,  at  the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  was  the 
home  of  arts  and  letters.  Of  the  various 
editions  of  books  published  in  the  sixteenth 
century  one-half  were  Italian,  and  one-half 
of  these  Venetian.  One-seventeenth  were 
English. 

At  Venice  was  printed  the  first  newspaper, 
the  Gazette  de  Venise,  about  1563,  during  the 


war  with  the  Turks ;  the  Gazette  de  France 
appeared  in  April,  1631 ;  the  London  Gazette 
in  1642 ;  the  Dublin  News-Letter,  1685 ;  the 
Boston  News-Letter,  1704 ;  the  first  German 
newspaper,  1715;  the  first  in  Philadelphia, 
1719 ;  in  Holland,  1732.  The  growth,  mis 
sion,  and  power  of  the  press  are  to  be  consid 
ered  elsewhere. 

The  first  press  in  America  was  in  Mexico. 
The  Manual  for  Adults  was  printed  on  it 
about  1550,  by  Juan  Cromberger,  who  was 
probably  the  first  printer  in  America.  The 
second  press  was  at  Lima,  in  1586.  The 
press  at  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  was  es 
tablished  in  January,  1639,  by  Stephen  Daye. 
The  college  was  censor  till  1662,  when  licens 
ers  were  appointed.  In  1755  the  press  was 
free.  A  psalter  in  the  English  and  Indian 
languages  was  printed  upon  this,  1709.  The 
press  still  prospers  as  the  "University  Press." 

Printing-presses  were  established  at  New 
London,  Connecticut,  in  1709 ;  Annapolis, 
Maryland,  1726 ;  Williamsburg,  Virginia, 
1729;  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  1730; 
Newport,  Rhode  Island,  1732 ;  Halifax,  Nova 
Scotia,  1751 ;  Woodbridge,  New  Jersey,  1752 ; 
Newbern,  North  Carolina,  1755 ;  Portsmouth, 
New  Hampshire,  1756;  Savannah,  Georgia, 
1763 ;  Quebec,  Canada,  1764.  The  first  press 
west  of  the  Alleghanies  was  at  Cincinnati, 
1793 ;  west  of  the  Mississippi,  at  St.  Louis, 
1808. 

TYPE. 

The  fonts  of  the  earlier  printers,  as  we 
have  said,  had  a  quaint  old  Gothic  charac 
ter,  with  various  curious  tails  and  inflec 
tions,  in  imitation  of  the  secretary  hand  of 
the  period.  Schoeffer  took  the  best  hand 
writing  of  his  time  for  his  model.  The  let 
ters  gradually  became  more  formal  and  com 
pact,  with  fewer  exuberances  of  flourish  and 
abbreviations.  It  was  some  time  before  Ital 
ian  taste  triumphed  over  German  quaint- 
ness  ;  but  the  change  was  made  with  more 
speed  than  one  might  suppose  would  have 
been  the  case,  considering  what  a  close  cor 
poration  it  Avas  that  owned  the  art  of  print 
ing  in  the  tight  little  city,  with  its  tall 
houses,  dark,  narrow  streets,  and  its  strong 
ly  built  bastioned  walls  frowning  upon  the 
River  Rhine  and  the  adjacent  hill.  When 
the  archbishop  with  weapons  of  this  world 
scattered  the  coterie  of  printers  it  was  like 
the  sending  forth  of  the  foxes  and  fire- 


TYPE. 


121 


brands  of  Samson,  which  carried  conflagra 
tion  into  the  fields  of  the  Philistines. 

In  1465  Schweynheym  and  Pannartz,  who 
printed  first  at  Subiaco,  and  afterward  at 
Home,  introduced  a  new  type,  very  closely 
resembling  Roman.  It  was  professedly  de 
rived  from  the  best  handwriting  of  the  age 
of  Augustus;  and  in  their  Commentary  of  Be 
Lyra  on  the  £iMe,  1471,  are  to  be  found  the 
first  Greek  types  worthy  of  the  name.  Su 
biaco  was  the  first  place  in  Italy  where  print 
ing  was  practiced.  In  1468  Ginther  Zainer 
printed  at  Augsburg  the  first  book  in  Ger 
many  with  Roman  type. 

Roman  letters  were  first  used  in  England 
byWynkyn  de  Worde,  Caxton's  foreman  and 
successor.  He  employed  them  for  distin 
guishing  remarkable  words  or  passages,  as 
is  now  done  with  Italic. 

Theobaldus  Manutius  (Aldus)  introduced 
the  Italic  about  1476 :  this  is  believed  to 
have  been  imitated  from  the  handwriting 
of  Petrarch.  This  type  was  first  known  as 
Venetian;  by  the  Germans  as  Cursive.  The 
first  book  printed  in  Italic  was  in  1501,  Avith 
the  title,  Virgilius  ;  Venet ;  apud  Aldum. 

In  1476  Aldus  cast  a  Greek  alphabet,  and 
printed  a  Greek  book.  The  Pentateuch 
was  printed  in  Hebrew  at  Soncino,  in  the 
Duchy  of  Milan,  1482.  Irish  characters  were 
introduced  by  Nicholas  Walsh,  chancellor 
of  St.  Patrick's,  in  1571. 

Aldus's  Greek  type  and  books  were  made 
by  the  assistance  of  Greek  fugitives  from 
Constantinople,  which  had  been  captured 
by  Mohammed  II.  in  1453,  since  which  the 
area  of  Turkish  domination  had  been  con 
tinually  extending.  Aldus  finished  the  pub 
lication  of  his  Latin  classics  in  1494.  Some 
of  his  Greek  works  were  interleaved  with 
Latin  translations. 

In  1500  he  printed  the  first  part  of  his 
polyglot  Bible,  the  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Lat 
in  being  on  the  same  page. 

The  first  book  printed  in  the  English  lan 
guage  was  a  translation  of  the  Recueil  des 
Histoires  de  Troyes  of  Le  Fevre,  by  Margaret, 
sister  of  Edward  IV.  of  England.  When 
the  princess  married  Charles  the  Bold,  Will 
iam  Caxton  was  one  of  her  household,  and 
is  understood  to  have  assisted  in  the  trans 
lation,  as  also  in  the  setting  up  and  print 
ing,  which  were  done  at  Cologne,  1471.  Cax 
ton  moved  a  few  years  afterward  to  England, 


where,  in  1474,  he  printed  the  Game  of  Chesac, 
the  first  book  printed  in  England. 

For  some  centuries  each  printer  was  a 
law  unto  himself  as  to  forms  and  face  sizes 
of  letters,  height  of  type,  relation  of  face 
to  body,  and  composition  of  type-metal.  In 
course  of  time  the  most  tasteful  superseded 
those  which  had  less  excellence,  and  some 
thing  like  order  was  initiated.  Without 
citing  the  successive  changes  and  attempts 
at  uniformity,  it  may  be  stated  that  the 
American  and  English  practices  approxi 
mate  in  the  names  of  the  various  fonts  and 
the  sizes  of  body,  from  the  small  diamond, 
which  has  205  ems  to  a  foot,  to  canon,  which 
has  18^  ems  in  that  length.  The  agreement 
is  not  absolute,  nor  do  even  the  American 
type-foundries  have  precisely  the  same 
standard.  The  French  standard  was  es 
tablished  in  1730.  The  height  to  paper  of 
the  Bruce  type  is  -j^j  of  an  inch ;  other 
foundries  make  the  height  about  the  same. 

The  number  of  punches  in  the  Imperial 
Printing-office  at  Paris  was  361,000  in  1860. 
It  has  fonts  of  fifty-six  Eastern  languages, 
and  sixteen  European  languages  which  do 
not  use  the  Roman  character. 

The  "  Specimen  Album"  of  Monsieur  C. 
Derriey,  of  Paris  (1862),  affords  the  most 
beautiful  and  graceful  examples  of  the  art 
of  the  type  cutter,  founder,  and  printer.  It 
may  fairly  be  said  that  the  forms,  disposi 
tion  of  parts,  accuracy  of  apposition  and 
register — the  latter  especially  noticeable  in 
the  chromo  printing — have  never  been  ex 
celled. 

The  scheme  of  a  font  is  the  proportion  of 
the  respective  sorts;  an  approximate  esti 
mate  may  be  given,  but  different  kinds  of 
work  require  different  proportions;  for  in 
stance,  indexes,  dictionaries,  and  directories 
are  hard  on  sorts,  as  they  require  so  unusual 
ly  large  a  proportion  of  capitals  and  points. 

In  a  font  of  500  pounds : 

Lower-case  letters 264  pounds. 

Points  and  references 20 

Figures 14 

Capitals 3T 

Small  capitals IT 

Braces,  dashes,  and  fractions  —  13 

Spaces  and  quadrats 98 

Italic 37 

For  French  or  Italian  the  above  would  be 
deficient  in  accented  letters.  Fonts  for  spe 
cial  work  also  contain  numerous  sorts  not  in 


122 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


the  above,  such  as  superior  and  inferior 
letters  in  capitals  and  lower-case,  superior 
figures  in  Arabic  or  Roman,  prime  letters, 
arbitrary  signs  used  in  arithmetical,  astro 
nomical,  botanical,  chemical,  classic,  com 
mercial,  mathematical,  musical,  and  other 
works. 

Almost  every  science  has  symbols  of  its 
own.  Algebra  has  one  set,  chemistry  anoth 
er.  For  a  dictionary  which  attempts  to 
represent  the  minute  shades  of  pronuncia 
tion  a  great  number  are  required.  Thus  in 
Webster  or  Worcester,  what  with  letters 
with  dots  above  and  dots  below,  lines  above, 
below,  and  across,  there  are  probably  100 
additional  characters.  Some  foreign  lan 
guages  have  very  complicated  alphabets. 
The  Greek,  with  its  "  accents"  and  "  breath 
ings,"  requires  about  200.  Formerly  there 
were  so  many  logotypes  and  abbreviations 
as  to  require  750  sorts.  The  Oriental  alpha 
bets  are  complex.  The  Hebrew,  with  the 
Masoretic  points,  requires  about  300  sorts, 
many  differing  only  by  a  point,  stroke,  or 
angle.  The  Arabic  has  quite  as  many.  In 
Robinson's  Hebrew  lexicon  eight  or  ten  Ori 
ental  languages  appear,  and  required  3000 
sorts,  distributed  through  at  least  forty 
cases. 

The  Chinese  dictionary  shows  43,496 
words ;  of  these  13,000  are  irrelevant,  and 
consist  of  signs  which  are  ill  formed  and  ob 
solete.  For  ordinary  use  4000  signs  suffice. 
Kung-fu-tze  can  be  read  with  a  knowledge 
of  2500.  There  are  214  root-signs,  so  to 
speak,  which  indicate  the  pronunciation 
and  form  keys  or  radicals,  called  by  the  Chi 
nese  tribunals.  Each  character  is  a  word, 
and  the  actual  number  is  vastly  increased 
by  tones  which  give  quite  a  different  value 
and  meaning. 

The  number  of  letters  in  the  following 
alphabets  is  thus  given  in  Ballhorn's  Gram- 
matograplnj  (Trubner  and  Co.,  1861) : 


Hebrew 22  !  Ethiopic 

Chaklaic 22  |  Chinese 

Syriac 22 

Samaritan 22 


202 

214 

Japanese 73 

Dutch 26 


Phoenician 22 

Armenian 38 

Arabic 28 

Persian 32 

Turkish 33 

Georgian 38 

Coptic 32 

Greek 24 

Latin 25 

Sanskrit 328 


Spanish 27 

Irish 18 

Anglo-Saxon 25 

Danish 28 

Gothic 25 

French 28 

German 26 

Welsh 40 

Russian 35 


TYPE-FOUNDING. 

Type -founding  is  the  invention  of  Peter 
Schoeffer,  and  no  important  improvement 
on  his  mode  seems  to  have  occurred  to  the 
printers  for  several  centuries.  In  early 
times  all  the  operations,  from  the  engraving 
of  the  punches,  striking  the  matrices,  and 
casting  the  type,  down  to  the  binding  of  the 
book,  were  carried  on  within  the  same  estab 
lishment.  Caxton  seems  to  have  regarded 
himself  as  well  supplied,  having  five  fonts. 
Type-founding  was  a  separate  business  in 
England  in  1637. 

The  "Caslon"  type-foundry,  established 
in  London  in  1716,  is  still  known  by  that 
name. 

The  first  type-founder  in  America  was 
Christopher  Saur,  of  Germautown,  Pennsyl 
vania,  and  the  first  font  cast  was  of  German 
type,  about  1735.  In  1768  a  foundry  was 
established  in  Boston,  but  did  not  succeed. 
Abel  Buell,  of  Killiugworth,  Connecticut, 
succeeded  so  far  as  good  work  was  con 
cerned,  but  was  prevented  by  a  turbulent 
disposition  and  by  the  war  of  Independ 
ence,  which  supervened,  and  in  which  he 
took  an  active  part,  from  pursuing  the  busi 
ness  to  a  successful  issue.  Just  before  the 
war  of  the  Revolution  he  was  one  of  the 
party  who  destroyed  the  leaden  statue  of 
George  III.  in  the  Bowling  Green,  New  York, 
and  was  discovered  at  his  house  melting  up 
the  lead  into  type-metal,  so  as  to  put  his 
Majesty  to  work  disseminating  information. 
A  piece  of  the  head  of  this  statue,  with 
some  punches  and  matrices,  was  found  many 
years  afterward  in  the  ammunition  chest 
of  an  old  field-piece  to  which  Buell  had  been 
attached  during  the  war. 

The  American  provinces  had  a  hard  and 
generally  unsuccessful  struggle  for  inde 
pendence  in  business  before  the  idea  of  po 
litical  independence  seems  to  have  occurred 
to  them.  No  venture  in  type-founding  was 
successful  till  about  1798,  when  Binney  and 
Ronaldson  established  themselves  by  State 
aid  in  Philadelphia.  The  type  -  founding 
tools  and  materials  imported  by  Dr.  Benja 
min  Franklin  from  France  for  his  own  use 
fell  into  the  hands  of  Mr.  Binney  and  part 
ner. 

The  old  hand-mould  and  spoon  reigned 
supreme  till  1838,  when  the  first  successful 
type-casting  machine  was  invented  by  Da- 


TYPE-SETTING  MACHINES. 


123 


vid  Bruce,  Jun.,  of  New  York.  Machines  for 
casting  a  number  of  types  simultaneously, 
projecting  from  a  common  sprue  like  the 
teeth  of  a  comb,  had  been  invented  in  Amer 
ica  and  in  Europe,  but  no  success  attended 
them. 

David  Brace's  machine  is  the  model  of  all 
American  and  many  European  type-casting 
machines.  The  great  difficulty  experienced 
in  the  development  of  the  machine  was  in 
the  fact  that  the  resulting  type  was  porous 
and  about  fifteen  per  cent,  lighter  than  the 
hand-made,  each  of  which  was  formed  by  a 
peculiar  spasmodic  jerk  given  by  the  ftmnd- 
er  to  the  mould  as  he  poured  in  the  metal. 
The  effect  of  this  was  to  condense  the  metal 
and  expel  air.  In  the  Bruce  machine  the 


BRUOE'S   TYPE-CASTING   MACHINE. 

metal  is  kept  fluid  by  a  gas  jet  beneath, 
and  is  projected  into  the  mould  by  a  pump, 
the  spout  of  which  is  in  front  of  the  metal 
pot.  Each  revolution  of  the  crank  brings 
the  mould  up  to  the  spout,  where  it  receives 
a  charge  of  metal ;  it  flies  back  with  it ;  tho 
top  of  tho  mould  opens,  and  the  type  falls 
out.  The  matrix  containing  the  letter  is  held 
by  a  spring  against  the  mould  opposite  to 
the  opening  at  which  the  metal  is  injected, 
and  the  rate  of  making  is  about  100  per  min 
ute  for  average-sized  type. 

After  casting,  the  jet  or  surplus  metal  at 
the  foot  of  the  type,  and  which  formed  the 


ingate  of  the  mould,  is  broken  off,  the  sides 
of  the  type  are  rubbed  on  a  grit-stone,  they 
are  set  up  regularly  in  sticks,  corrected  for 
inequalities,  a  groove  planed  in  the  middle 
of  the  base,  forming  what  are  known  as  feet. 
The  proportion  of  each  letter  for  a  font  of 
given  weight  is  arranged  in  a  galley  six  by 
four  and  a  half  inches,  and  forms  what  is 
known  as  a  type-founder's  page.  This  is 
papered  and  marked  with  the  kind  of  let 
ter  contained. 

Printing  types  were  first  electrotyped 
with  copper  in  1850,  and  have  lately  been 
nickel-plated. 

TYPE  SETTING  AND  DISTRIBUTING  MACHINES. 

It  is  now  just  about  fifty  years  since  the 
first  type-setting  apparatus  was  invented, 
and  a  thoroughly  successful  machine  has 
not  yet  been  introduced.  Great  hopes  have 
been  formed  from  time  to  time  as  one  ma 
chine  after  another  has  been  announced, 
and  several  of  these  have  done  very  fair 
work.  As  mechanical  contrivances  they 
have  been  quite  ingenious,  and  have  worked 
with  a  degree  of  precision  which  made  us 
think  again  and  again  that  the  goal  had 
been  reached  at  last.  And  yet  to-day  but 
few  such  machines  are  in  use,  and  they  only 
on  a  class  of  plain  work  where  the  number 
of  sorts  is  limited.  A  machine  must  of 
course  include  capitals,  lower-case,  points, 
and  figures ;  it  can  not  be  very  efficient  with 
out  small  capitals  and  italics,  but  each  ad 
dition  to  its  capability  for  variety  of  work 
adds  greatly  to  its  complexity.  After  all,  it 
is  a  race  between  fingers  traveling  from 
the  stick  to  the  boxes  of  the  case  and  back 
again,  and  fingers  beating  upon  the  keys  of 
the  machine.  The  latter  would  of  course 
carry  the  day,  as  the  average  travel  of  the 
hand  after  a  letter  is  twelve  inches  from  the 
stick,  and  the  travel  on  the  key-board  of 
the  machine  is  considerably  less  than  one- 
half  this,  but  there  are  so  many  little  nice 
ties  to  be  observed  in  spacing  the  words 
and  justifying  the  lines,  work  which  is  done 
by  the  skillful  printer  as  he  sets  up  the  line, 
but  which,  with  machine-set  type,  must  be 
done  afterward,  when  the  line  of  type  is 
broken  into  lengths  for  the  measure  of  the 
work,  and  then  justified  by  spaces.  Type 
setting  machines  have  separate  pockets  or 
galleys  for  each  sort,  and  the  mechanical  ar- 


124 


MECHANICAL  PKOGEESS. 


rangement  is  such  that  on  touching  the  key, 
arranged  with  others  like  the  key-board  of 
a  piano  or  concertina,  the  end  type  of  the 
row  is  displaced,  and  is  conducted  in  a  chan 
nel  or  by  a  tape  to  a  composing-stick,  where 
the  types  are  arranged  in  regular  order  in  a 
line  of  indefinite  length,  and  from  whence 
they  are  removed  in  successive  portions  to 
a  justifying-stick,  in  which  they  are  spaced 
out  to  the  proper  length  of  line  required. 

Three  machines  of  this  character  were  ex 
hibited  at  the  Paris  Exposition  in  1855. 

Of  the  American  machines  that  of  Alden 
has  perhaps  excited  most  attention.  The 
persistence  of  the  inventor  for  seventeen 
years  in  the  endeavor  to  perfect  his  inven 
tion,  and  his  death,  in  1859,  when  success 
appeared  to  be  crowning  his  efforts,  afford 
one  more  interesting  item  to  the  history  of 
invention  when  it  shall  come  to  be  written. 
His  machine  has  types  arranged  around  the 
circumference  of  a  horizontal  wheel,  which 
rotates  slowly,  carrying  with  it  fingers  which 
pick  up  the  proper  types  from  their  respect 
ive  cells.  The  ordinary  types  are  used,  with 
the  exception  that  each  has  its  peculiar  nick 
on  one  side,  which  will  enable  the  fellow- 
machine  to  discriminate  when  distributing 
the  type. 

In  the  distributing  process  the  dead  mat 
ter  is  placed  on  a  bed  to  the  right  of  the  key 
cylinder,  and  is  taken  up  line  by  line  as  each 
is  exhausted.  The  types  are  taken  up  by 
distributing  transits  in  the  revolving  wheel, 
selected  by  means  of  the  nicks,  and  then 
transferred  by  way  of  the  channels  to  the 
respective  type  pockets.  Extra  spaces,  etc., 
are  tipped  out  at  the  end  of  the  channel. 
Uunicked  type  are  thrown  into  a  separate 
box,  italics  into  another. 

Another  instance  may  be  given :  the  Kas- 
tenbein  composing  machine,  in  which  com 
mon  types  are  used,  each  sort  being  arranged 
vertically  in  a  series  of  tubes,  like  the  pipes 
of  an  organ.  As  a  letter  key  of  the  key 
board  is  struck,  the  lever  connecting  with 
the  particular  letter  tube  opens  the  lower 
end  of  the  tube,  and  allows  the  lowest  type 
in  the  rank  to  fall  into  a  groove  which  con 
ducts  it  to  the  slide  where  the  letters  are 
assembled  in  a  long  line,  and  whence  they 
are  taken  by  the  compositor's  rule  and  jus 
tified. 

The  distributing  machine  reverses  this 


method.  The  dead  matter  is  placed  on  a  bed, 
each  line  is  cut  off  and  the  types  raised  seri 
atim  so  that  they  can  be  read  by  the  observ 
er.  The  corresponding  key  on  the  key-board 
being  depressed,  the  type  is  pushed  into  its 
appropriate  tube,  ready  for  supplying  the 
composing  machine. 

Printers  have  been  wont  to  boast  that  a 
practical  type  composing  and.  justifying  ma 
chine  presented  a  problem  which  even  Yan 
kee  ingenuity  and  persistence  could  not 
solve ;  but  in  view  of  the  progress  made  in 
this  direction  during  the  last  decade,  it  can 
hardly  be  doubted  that  complete  success 
will  be  achieved  in  the  near  future. 

Still  later  machines  for  composing  and 
distributing,  the  invention  of  Mr.  Paige, 
were  recently  exhibited  in  New  York,  and 
worked  well.  It  remains,  however,  to  be 
determined  whether  or  not  the  capital  in 
vested  in  them  and  the  casualties  incident 
to  complicated  and  delicate  machinery  will 
discourage  their  use  in  place  of  composi 
tors,  who  own  themselves,  are  always  ready, 
and  for  whom  substitutes  can  be  found  if 
one  or  another  prove  ailing  or  erratic. 

STEREOTYPING. 

The  art  of  casting  solid  metallic  plates 
from  type  was  invented  by  William  Ged, 
a  goldsmith  of  Edinburgh,  in  1731.  The 
plates  ordered  by  the  University  of  Oxford 
for  an  edition  of  the  Bible  were  mutilated 
by  jealous  printers  and  thrown  aside — the 
old  tale  of  narrow-minded  prejudice  and  ig 
norance.  Ged's  plan  was  the  plaster  process, 
but  after  its  abandonment  several  other 
means  were  tried  before  the  plaster  was  re 
sumed. 

Carez  (France,  1793)  had  a  plan  of  dash 
ing  down  the  inverted  form  upon  a  surface 
of  hot  lead  just  in  the  act  of  solidifying. 
The  cast  thus  obtained  was  used  in  the 
same  way  to  obtain  a  cameo  impression  for 
a  printing  surface.  Didot's  plan  consisted 
in  casting  types  of  a  hard  alloy,  and  press 
ing  them  into  a  surface  of  pure  lead.  This 
was  brought  down  upon  a  paper  tray  of 
molten  type-metal  just  in  the  act  of  solid 
ifying.  The  English  Monthly  Magazine  of 
January,  1799,  comments  on  this  plan.  Her- 
ham  set  up  the  form  in  copper  matrices,  and 
took  a  cast  therefrom  in  type-metal.  These 
three  plans  were  French. 


STEREOTYPING. 


125 


Stereotyping  was  introduced  into  the 
United  States  by  David  Bruce,  of  New  York, 
in  1813.  The  first  work  cast  in  America 
was  the  New  Testament,  in  bourgeois,  in 
1814. 

In  the  plaster  process  of  stereotyping  the 
type  is  set  up  with  spaces,  quadrats,  and 
leads  which  come  up  to  the  shoulders  of  the 
type.  Guard-lines  and  bearers  are  placed 
at  the  top  of  the  page  and  at  intervals  of 
the  type  lines  to  support  the  plate  during 
finishing.  The  typo  is  then  oiled,  and  in 
closed  by  a  flask  to  hold  within  bounds  the 
fluid  plaster,  which  is  poured  upon  the  face 
of  the  form,  and  worked  in  between  the  let 
ters  by  a  roller  covered  with  flannel  and 
leather.  The  plaster  soon  sets,  and  the 
mould  is  carefully  raised  by  screws  which 
lift  it  vertically  from  the  form.  The  stereo- 
type  plate  is  then  cast  from  the  plaster 
mould,  which  is  done  by  inclosing  the 
mould  in  a  box  and  plunging  it  into  the 
bath  of  molten  metal.  The  casting  pan  is 


CASTING   PAN. 

of  iron,  consisting  of  a  tray  and  a  lid,  the 
latter  having  at  its  corners  gaps  for  the 
metal  to  flow  in.  Each  pan  has  an  iron 
plate  or  floater  three -eighths  of  an  inch 
thick,  which  fits  within  it.  Upon  this  plate 
the  mould  is  laid  face  downward.  The 
cover  is  chalked  and  secured  by  a  yoke  and 
screw.  The  pan  is  swung  over  the  pot,  and 
lowered  on  to  the  metal  so  as  to  become 
heated,  then  depressed  so  that  the  metal 
flows  in  at  the  corners  and  forces  itself  be 
tween  the  floater  and  mould.  When  the  pan 
is  filled  it  is  submerged,  and  left  till  the 
bubbling  has  ceased.  It  is  now  swung  over 
the  water-trough  and  cooled.  The  cast  is 
knocked  out  of  the  pan,  the  surrounding 
metal  broken  off,  and  the  stereotype  freed 
from  the  plaster. 

The  plate  is  then  finished  by  trimming 
the  edges,  laying  it  on  its  face,  and  shaving 
off  the  back  to  bring  it  to  an  even  thick 
ness.  The  bearers  are  cut  away  with  a 
chisel  and  mallet,  the  heads  trimmed,  and 
the  sides  beveled  with  a  plane  upon  the 


STEREOTYPE   CASTING   APPARATUS — PLASTER   PROCESS. 

shooting-board.    The  plate  is  then  carefully 
examined  and  faults  repaired. 

lu  the  day  process  a  plastic  composition 
of  fine  clay  and  plaster  of  Paris,  with  a 
small  quantity  of  gum  -  arabic  water,  is 
spread  with  a  trowel  to  the  thickness  of  a 
quarter  of  an  inch  upon  a  plate  which  is 
secured  to  a  frame  shown  in  the  drawing  as 
hinged  like  a  tympan  to  the  press  bed.  The 
form  is  laid  face  upward  on  the  bed,  the 
face  of  the  type  is  brushed  over  with  ben 
zine,  covered  with  a  cloth  and  paper,  the 
tympan  is  turned  down  upon  the  form,  the 
bed  run  under  the  platen,  and  an  impression 
taken  sufficiently  deep  to  cause  the  clay  to 
flow  into  the  blank  spaces  and  give  the  gen 
eral  outlines  of  the  type.  The  press  is  then 
opened,  the  cloth  and  paper  removed,  and 
also  any  superfluous  material  which  has  been 
thrown  up  by  the  first  pressure,  and  would 
be  likely  to  bind.  The  press  is  again  closed, 
and  a  complete  impression  taken,  imbedding 
the  type  in  the  plastic  material  to  the  de 
sired  extent.  This  process  is  usually  re 
peated  one  or  more  times  in  order  to  give 
a  sufficient  depth  to  the  cups  of  the  letters. 
The  metallic  plate  carrying  this  mould  is  re 
moved  from  the  press,  and  the  mould  hard 
ened  by  drying.  When  dry  it  is  set  afloat 


MOULDING    PRESS— OI.AY    PROOK.SB. 


126 


MECHANICAL  PKOGRESS. 


face  upward  in  a  vat  of  melted  type-metal 
in  order  to  bring  it  to  the  same  temperature 
as  the  metal.  A  wire  somewhat  thicker  than 
a  finished  stereotype  plate,  and  bent  so  as  to 
surround  three  sides  of  the  mould,  is  placed 
on  the  plate,  and  a  second  plate  is  clamped 
over  the  wire,  as  in  a  moulder's  flask.  The 
whole  is  then  put  in  a  trough,  the  open  edge 
of  the  mould  upward,  and  the  metal  poured 
in.  The  casting  is  cooled  by  pouring  water 
on  the  plate  containing  the  mould.  When 
the  flask  is  opened  the  metal  adheres  to  the 
mould,  which  is  removed  by  wetting  and 
brushing.  The  plate  is  then  planed,  trimmed, 
and  dressed  up  for  use. 

Curved  plates  for  cylinders  are  made  from 
a  flat  form  by  using  a  sheet  of  spring  steel 
of  the  desired  curvature  for  a  mould  plate, 
which  is  spread  flat  on  the  tympan,  and  the 
plastic  material  is  applied  upon  what  is  to 
be  the  concave  side.  After  the  impression  is 
taken  the  sheet  is  released,  and  resumes  its 
normal  curvature,  bending  the  plastic  mould 
with  it.  The  face  of  the  plate  is,  of  course, 
somewhat  distorted,  the  stereotype  appear 
ing  as  if  taken  from  type  a  little  more  con 
densed  one  way  than  that  actually  employ 
ed  in  the  form. 

The  papier -macM  process  is  very  expedi 
tious,  and  is  generally  used  on  daily  papers 
of  large  circulation.  A  paper  matrix  is 
formed  by  spreading  paste  over  a  sheet  of 
moderately  thick  unsized  paper  and  cover 
ing  it  with  successive  sheets  of  tissue-pa 
per,  each  carefully  patted  down  smooth ; 
the  pack  is  then  dampened.  The  face  of 
the  type  is  oiled,  the  smooth  surface  of  the 
paper  treated  with  powdered  French  chalk, 
and  laid  upon  the  type.  A  linen  rag  is 
wetted,  wrung  out,  and  laid  over  the  pa 
per,  and  dabbed 
on  the  back  with 
a  beating  brush 
so  as  to  drive  the 
soft  paper  into 
all  the  inter 
stices  between 
the  letters  of  the 
form.  Remove 
the  cloth,  lay  a 
reinforce  sheet 
of  damp  matrix 
paper  upon  the 

BEATING-TABLE — PAPIER-MAOUfe 

PROCESS,  back  of  the  ma 


trix,  and  beat  again  to  perfect  the  impres 
sion  and  unite  the  surfaces  of  the  two. 
For  large  establishments  a  matrix  rolling 
machine  is  used.  A  double  thickness  of 
blanket  is  placed  upon  the  matrix,  the  form 
and  matrix  laid  in  a  press,  and  screwed  down 
tight.  The  lighted  gas  heats  the  press  and 
the  form,  and  dries  the  paper  matrix.  The 
press  is  unscrewed,  the  matrix  removed,  and 
it  is  warmed  on  the  moulding  press.  The 


STEREOTYI'E  MOULD-DRYING   PRESS— PAPER  PROOE88. 

matrix  is  then  placed  in  the  previously  heat 
ed  iron  casting  mould,  and  a  casting  gauge 
to  determine  the  thickness  of  the  stereo 
type  plate  is  placed  upon  it.  This  extends 
around  three  sides  of  the  matrix,  the  other 
being  left  open  to  serve  as  a  gate  at  which 
the  molten  metal  is  poured  in.  The  cover 
is  screwed  tight,  the  mould  tipped  to  bring 
the  mouth  up,  and  the  metal  poured.  When 
the  metal  is  set  the  mould  is  opened  and 
the  matrix  removed.  The  plate  is  then 
trimmed  and  otherwise  prepared  in  the 
usual  manner. 

ELECTROTYPING. 

Electrotyping  is  an  application  of  the  art 
of  electroplating,  which  originated  with 
Volta,  Cruikshank,  and  Wollaston  about 
1800-01.  In  1838  Spencer,  of  London,  made 
casts  of  coins  and  impressions  in  intaglio 
from  the  matrices  thus  formed.  In  the  same 
year  Jacobi,  of  Dorpat,  in  Russia,  made  casts 
by  electro-deposition,  which  caused  him  to 
be  put  in  charge  of  the  work  of  gilding  the 
dome  of  St.  Isaac's  at  St.  Petersburg.  Elec- 
trotyping  originated  with  Mr.  Joseph  A. 
Adams,  a  wood-engraver  of  New  York,  who 
made  casts  in  1839-41  from  wood-cuts,  some 
engravings  being  printed  from  electrotype 
plates  in  the  latter  year.  Many  improve- 


ELECTROTYPING. 


127 


raeuts  in  detail  have  been  added  since  to 
the  process  as  well  as  the  appliances.  Mur 
ray  introduced  graphite  as  a  coating  for  the 
forms  and  moulds. 

The  process  of  electrotyping  is  as  follows : 
The  form  is  locked  up  very  tight,  and  is 
then  coated  with  a  surface  of  graphite,  com 
monly  known  as  black-lead;  but  this  is  a  mis 
nomer.  This  is  usually  put  on  with  a  brush, 
and  may  be  done  very  evenly  and  speedily  by 
a  machine  in  which  the  brush  is  reciprocated 


over  the  type  by  a  band  wheel,  crank,  and 
pitman.  A  soft  brush  and  very  finely  pow 
dered  graphite  are  used,  the  superfluous 
powder  being  removed,  and  the  face  of  the 
type  then  cleaned  by  the  palm  of  the  hand. 
Knight's  wet  process  of  black-leading,  as 
practiced  at  Harper  and  Brothers'  establish 
ment,  is,  however,  much  to  be  "preferred,  and 
will  be  described  presently. 

A  shallow  pan,  known  as  a  moulding  pan, 
is  then  filled  with  melted  yellow  wax,  mak 
ing  a  smooth,  even  surface,  which  is  black- 
leaded.  The  pan  is  then  secured  to  the 
bed  of  the  press,  and  the  form  placed  on  the 
bed,  which  is  raised  to  deliver  an  impres 
sion  of  the  type  upon  the  wax. 


ELECTKOTYTING    PKE86. 


The  pan  is  removed  from  the  head  of  the 
press,  placed  on  a  table,  and  built  up,  as  it  is 
termed.  This  consists  in  running  wax  upon 
the  portions  where  large  spaces  occur  be 
tween  type,  in  order  that  the  corresponding 
portions  in  the  electrotype  may  not  be 
touched  by  the  inking-roller,  or  by  the  pa 
per  sagging  down  in  printing. 

The  wax  mould  being  built,  is  ready  for 
black-leading,  to  give  it  a  conducting  sur 
face  upon  which  the  metal  may  be  deposit 
ed  in  the  bath.  The  wax  mould  is  laid  face 
upward  on  the  floor  of  an  inclosed  box,  and 
a  torrent  of  finely  pulverized  graphite  sus 
pended  in  water  is  poured  upon  it  by  means 
of  a  rotary  pump,  a  hose,  and  a  distributing 
nozzle,  which  dashes  the  liquid  equally  over 
the  whole  surface  of  the  mould.  Superflu 
ous  graphite  is  then  removed  by  copious 
washing,  an  extremely  fine  film  of  graph 
ite  adhering  to  the  wax.  This  is  Silas  P. 
Knight's  process,  and  answers  a  triple  pur 
pose.  It  coats  the  mould  with  graphite, 
wets  it  ready  for  the  bath,  and  expels  air 
bubbles  from  the  letters.  This  process  pre 
vents  entirely  the  circulation  of  black-lead 
in  the  air,  which  has  heretofore  been  so  ob 
jectionable  in  the  process  of  electrotyping. 
Black-lead  being  nearly  pure  carbon,  is  a 
poor  conductor,  and  in  the  usual  process  a 
part  of  the  metal  of  the  pan  is  scraped  clean 
to  form  a  place  for  the  commencement  of  the 
deposit,  and  the  back  of  the  moulding  pan  is 
waxed  to  prevent  deposit  of  copper  thereon. 
When  the  dry  black-leading  is  used  the  face 
of  the  matrix  is  wetted  to  drive  away  all 
films  or  bubbles  of  air  which  may  otherwise 
be  attached  to  the  black-leaded  surface  of 
the  type. 

The  mould  is  then  placed  in  the  bath  con- 


ELEOTBOTYPINQ   BATII   AND   BATTERY. 

taining  a  solution  of  sulphate  of  copper,  and 
is  made  part  of  an  electric  circuit,  in  which 
is  also  included  the  zinc  element  in  the  sul 
phuric  acid  solution  in  the  other  bath.  A 
film  of  copper  is  deposited  on  the  black-lead 


128 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


surface  of  the  mould,  and  when  this  shell 
is  sufficiently  thick,  it  is  taken  from  the 
bath,  the  wax  removed,  the  shell  trimmed, 
the  back  tinned,  straightened,  backed  with 
an  alloy  of  type-metal,  then  shaved  to  a 
proper  thickness,  and  mounted  on  a  block 
to  make  it  type-high. 

Knight's  expeditious  process  consists 
in  dusting  fine  iron  filings  upon  the  wet 
graphite  surface  of  the  wax  mould,  and 
then  pouring  upon  it  a  solution  of  sul 
phate  of  copper.  Stirring  with  a  brush 
expedites  the  contact,  and  a  decomposition 
takes  place ;  the  acid  leaves  the  copper, 
and  forms  with  the  iron  a  sulphate  solu 
tion,  which  floats  off,  while  the  copper  is 
freed  and  deposited  in  a  pure  metallic  form 
upon  the  graphite.  The  black  surface  takes 
on  a  ruddy  tinge  with  marvelous  rapidity. 
The  film  is  afterward  increased  in  the  usual 
manner  in  the  electro  bath,  but  the  deposit 
takes  place  immediately  and  regularly  over 
the  whole  surface.  The  saving  in  time,  acid, 
copper,  and  zinc  is  very  great. 

THE  PRINTING-PRESS. 

The  printing-press  in  its  earlier  forms  was 
but  an  adaptation  of  the  ordinary  screw- 
press.  The  form  was  locked  up  in  a  tray 
and  placed  on  a  platform,  upon  which  the 
platen  was  brought  down  by  a  screw  trav 
eling  in  a  cross-bar  above.  The  screw  was 
moved  by  a  lever,  which  was  shifted  into 
holes  in  the  boss  of  the  screw. 


BENJAMIN  FKANKLIN'S  PKESB. 


LOKD  STANHOPE'S  PRESS. 

The  Blaew  was  the  first  patent  press, 
1620.  The  carriage  was  rounced  in  beneath 
the  platen  ;  the  pressure  was  given  by  a 
handle  attached  to  a  screw  hanging  from 
the  beam,  and  having  a  spring  which  caused 
the  screw  to  fly  back  as  soon  as  the  impres 
sion  was  given.  Blaew  was  a  very  ingen 
ious  and  versatile  man,  and  was  for  some 
time,  in  the  earlier  portion  of  his  career,  as 
sociated  with  Tycho  Brahe,  at  the  observa 
tory  of  the  latter  in  Denmark,  in  contriv- 


"  OOLTTMHIAN"  PKESS. 

ing  instruments  and  reducing  observations. 
Subsequently  he  was  in  Amsterdam,  where 
he  made  globes  and  maps,  and  invented  his 
improvements  in  printing-presses.  He  died 
there  in  1638. 

The  Franklin  press,  one  hundred  years 
afterward  in  London,  was  a  Blaew  press 
with  some  minor  improvements. 

To  this  succeeded  the  Stanhope  press, 
about  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century. 
The  oscillating  handle  operates  a  toggle  to 
force  down  the  platen  upon  the  paper  on 
the  form.  The  bed  travels  on  ways,  and 


PRINTING-PRESSES. 


129 


the  tympan  and  frisket  are  hinged  to  lay 
back  in  eleArated  position. 

The  "  Columbian"  press,  by  George  Cly- 
mer,  of  Philadelphia,  was  invented  about 
1817,  and  was  perhaps  the  first  important 
American  contribution  to  the  art  of  press- 
making.  The  power  is  applied  to  the  plat 
en  by  a  compound  lever  consisting  of  three 
simple  levers  of  the  second  order.  Peter 
Smith's  hand-press  soon  succeeded  the  "  Co 
lumbian,"  and  in  1829  the  "Washington" 


"WASHINGTON"  PRESS. 

was  patented  by  Samuel  Rust.  The  press 
ure  iu  this  is  obtained  by  a  compound  lever 
applied  to  a  toggle-joint,  and  the  platen  is 
lifted  by  springs  on  each  side.  The  frame 
is  made  in  sections,  and  the  bed  is  run  in 
and  out  by  turning  a  crank  which  has  a  belt 
attached  to  its  pulley  or  rounce.  The  tym 
pan  and  frisket  are  held  up  by  the  nature 
of  their  hinges,  which  allow  only  a  certain 
amount  of  swing. 

Power-presses  or  printing-machines,  as  they 
are  indifferently  called,  belong  exclusively 
to  our  century.  Nicholson  obtained  a  pat 
ent  for  a  cylinder  printing-machine  (1)  in 
1790.  It  is  not  known  that  it  was  ever 
brought  into  use,  but  several  of  its  features 
have  survived  in  later  and  successful  ma 
chines.  The  ink  was  applied  by  a  roller ; 
the  types  were  made  narrower  toward  the 
foot,  so  as  to  fit  against  each  other  snugly 
when  attached  to  the  exterior  surface  of  a 
cylinder.  The  type  cylinder  revolved  in 
gear  with  a  leather-covered  impression  cyl 
inder,  and  at  another  part  of  its  rotation 
with  au  inking  cylinder,  to  which  inking 


PRINCIPLES   OP   ACTION  OP   POWER-PRESSES. 

apparatus  was  applied.     The  arrangement 
was  modified  (2)  for  a  flat  bed. 

Konig,  a  German,  constructed  a  printing- 
machine  (3)  for  Mr.  Walter,  of  the  London 
Times,  in  1814.  The  issue  of  the  28th  of  No 
vember  of  that  year  was  the  first  newspaper 
printed  by  machinery  driven  by  steam-pow 
er.  It  gave  1100  impressions  per  hour,  and 
subsequently  was  worked  up  to  1800.  The 
paper  was  held  to  its  cylinder  by  tapes  ;  the 
form  was  reciprocated  beneath  the  inking 
apparatus  and  the  paper  cylinder  alternate- 


130 


MECHANICAL  PKOGBES8. 


ly.  To  double  the  rate,  a  paper  cylinder 
was  to  be  placed  on  each  side  of  the  inking 
apparatus.  The  ink  was  placed  in  a  trough, 
and  ejected  upon  the  upper  of  a  series  of 
rollers,  passing  downward  in  the  series ;  and 
here  first  occurred  the  distributing  roller 
with  end  motion. 

Konig's  press  (4),  which  consisted  of  two 
single  machines  acting  in  concert  and  con 
secutively  upon  the  two  sides  of  the  sheet, 
was  perhaps  the  first  attempt  at  a  perfect 
ing  press.  It  was  erected  in  1818,  but  did 
not  prove  successful. 

Doukin  and  Bacon's  machine  (5),  1813, 
was  built  for  the  University  of  Cambridge, 
England.  Several  forms  were  attached  on 
the  sides  of  a  prism,  and  were  presented  con 
secutively  to  the  inking  cylinder  and  paper 
cylinder.  In  this  machine  were  first  used 
the  composition  inking-rollers,  of  glue  and 
molasses. 

In  1815  Cowper  obtained  a  patent  for 
curved  stereotype  plates,  to  be  affixed  to  a 
cylinder  (6).  By  duplication  of  parts  the 
machine  (7)  was  designed  to  become  a  per 
fecting  press.  The  greater  portion  of  the 
cylinder  forms  a  distributing  surface  for  the 
ink,  the  remainder  is  occupied  by  the  stere 
otype  plate. 

Applegath  and  Cowper's  single  machine 
(8)  went  back  again  to  the  flat  reciprocating 
bed,  the  double  machine  (9)  being  a  perfect 
ing  press.  This  machine  was  the  first  to 
have  diagonal  distributing  rollers  to  spread 
the  ink  smoothly  by  sliding  on  the  recipro 
cating  inking-table. 

Applegath  and  Cowper's  four-cylinder 
machine  (10),  1827,  superseded  Konig's  in 
the  Times  office,  and  printed  at  the  rate  of 
5000  per  hour  on  one  side.  It  had  four 
printing  cylinders,  one  form  of  type  on  a 
flat  bed,  and  the  paper  cylinders  were  alter 
nately  raised  and  depressed,  so  that  two 
were  printed  during  the  passage  one  way, 
and  the  other  two  on  the  return  passage. 
A  pair  of  inking-rollers  between  the  paper 
cylinders  obtained  their  ink  from  the  table. 

Applegath's  machine,  1848,  was  long  used 
upon  the  Times.  It  introduced  one  novelty 
— placing  the  whole  series  of  cylinders  on 
end.  On  the  vertical  type  cylinder  the  type 
-were  arranged  in  upright  columns,  forming 
flat  polygonal  sides  to  the  drum.  Arranged 
around  it  were  eight  sets  of  inking  appara 


tus  alternating  with  eight  impression  cyl 
inders,  and  the  paper,  fed  from  eight  banks, 
was  delivered  upon  as  many  tables.  The 
paper  fed  from  each  feed-board  was  carried 
by  tapes  and  rollers,  and  passed  on  edge  to 
the  type  and  impression  cylinders,  was  car 
ried  off,  thrown  over  flatwise,  caught  by  a 
boy,  and  placed  upon  the  table.  The  num 
ber  of  sheets  per  hour  worked  upon  this  ma 
chine  rose  from  8000  in  1848  to  as  high  as 
12,000,  printed  on  one  side. 

The  Hoe  type-revolving  printing-machine 
(11)  is  made  with  two  to  ten  printing  cyl 
inders  arranged  in  planetary  form  around 
the  periphery  of  the  larger  type-carrying 
cylinder.  The  type  is  secured  in  turtles,  or 
the  stereotype  is  bent  to  the  curve  of  the 
cylinder.  The  circumference  of  the  central 
cylinder  has  a  series  of  binary  systems,  the 
elements  of  which  are  an  inking  apparatus 
and  an  impression  apparatus,  the  paper  be 
ing  fed  to  the  latter  and  carried  away  there 
from  by  tapes  to  a  flyer,  which  delivers  it  on 
to  a  table.  It  has  as  many  banks  as  feeder 
or  impression  cylinders. 

There  are  numerous  modifications  of  the 
flat-bed  and  type-revolving  machines  for 
more  or  less  rapid  work,  perfecting  or  for 
one  side  only ;  for  fine  wood-cut  work,  book- 
work,  or  job-work;  with  continuously  re 
volving  cylinders  or  stop-cylinders,  which 
pause  while  the  bed  returns ;  Avith  inking- 
rollers  varying  in  number  with  the  kind  of 
work  required ;  and  with  many  variations 
in  size  for  posters,  handbills,  and  cards. 

The  first  flat -surface  printing-machine 
was  made  by  Daniel  Treadwell,  of  Boston, 
in  1822.  His  machines,  first  used  in  Boston, 
were  afterward  used  by  Daniel  Fanshaw  in 
New  York  in  printing  the  Bibles  and  tracts 
for  the  "American  Bible  Society"  and  the 
"American  Tract  Society."  The  machines 
for  the  former  society  were  driven  by  a 
steam-engine,  and  those  for  the  latter  by 
two  mules  in  the  upper  story  of  the  Tract- 
house  building,  using  an  endless-track  pow 
er.  In  this  press  the  platen  comes  down  on 
the  type.  These  were  the  first  printing- 
machines  in  America  driven  by  other  than 
hand-power,  and  were  long  used  by  Gales 
and  Seaton  in  Washington  in  printing  the 
Congressional  reports,  etc. 

Next  was  the  Adams  press,  which  wan 
introduced  in  1830,  has  been  since  much  im- 


CYLINDER  PRESSES. 


131 


ADAMS   PEES9. 


proved,  and  still  has  a  high  reputation.  Its 
movement  is  based  on  that  of  the  hand- 
press,  and  gives  a  perfectly  flat  impression 
by  lifting  the  bed  of  the  press  and  its  form 
against  a  stationary  platen.  Sheets  are  fed 
to  the  press  by  hand,  and  taken  away  by 
tapes  and  a  fly.  One  thousand  sheets  an 
hour  is  a  full  speed  for  a  large  Adams  press 
on  book  forms.  It  is  shown  in  the  figure  by 
a  longitudinal  vertical  section :  a  is  the  bed, 
which  is  raised  by  straightening  the  tog 
gles,  b  &;  c  is  the  platen,  d  the  ink  fountain 
and  ink-distributing  apparatus.  The  ink- 
iug-rollers,  e  e,  pass  twice  over  the  form,  and 
are  attached  to  the  frame  of  the  tympan, 
/.  The  segment  g  serves  to  straighten  the 


toggles,  and  cause  the  impression ;  h  is  the 
feed-board,  i  the  drive-pulley,  and  k  a  gear 
wheel,  Avith  a  pitman  rod  to  g  ;  I  is  the  fly. 

Single-cylinder  presses,  such  as  Hoe's,  Pot 
ter's,  Campbell's,  etc.,  have  a  flat  bed,  which 
is  geared  to  reciprocate  at  an  even  speed 
with  a  revolving  cylinder.  Sheets  of  paper 
are  fed  to  the  cylinder,  which  carries  a  pre 
pared  tympan.  The  inked  form  runs  along 
with  the  sheet  until  it  is  printed,  when  the 
form  is  retracted  and  inked  again.  In  some 
machines  the  cylinder  stops  after  the  im 
pression  is  delivered. 

The  Campbell  press  is  remarkable  for  sev 
eral  fine  points  of  adjustment.  The  opera 
tion  is  controlled  by  the  sheet,  which,  when 


CAMPBELL'S  SINGLE-CYLINDER  PKKSS. 


132 


MECHANICAL  PEOGKESS. 


GORDON   JOB  PRESS. 

badly  fed,  is  thrown  out.  The  registering 
is  operated  by  a  small  valve  through  the 
agency  of  points,  making  an  electric  circuit 
through  point-holes  in  the  sheet.  When  the 
press  fails  to  point,  the  exhaust  apparatus  is 
brought  into  action,  operating  a  bolt  at 
tached  to  a  diaphragm,  which  locks  up  the 
impression.  It  has  other  peculiar  features 
Avell  worth  mentioning  if  space  permitted. 

America  produces  a  remarkable  variety 
of  handy  job  presses,  known  by  the  name 
of  the  makers,  as  the  "Gordon,"  or  by 
names  Avhich  constitute  trade-marks,  as  the 
"Globe,"  "Liberty,"  "Universal," etc. — a  fa 
vorite  device  both  with  books  in  the  early 
days  of  the  art  and  with  presses  for  a  hun 
dred  years  past;  witness  the  "Columbian" 


and  "Washington"  hand-presses.  One  in 
stance  may  be  given. 

The  form  in  the  "Gordon"  press  is  secured 
in  a  chase,  which  is  clamped  to  the  bed,  &,  of 
the  press.  This  bed  rocks  on  a  pivot  at  c, 
and  comes  into  parallelism  with  the  platen, 
2),  when  the  impression  is  about  to  be  given. 
The  platen  rocks  on  the  main  shaft,  d,  which 
is  propelled  by  pitman  and  intermediate 
gearing  from  the  treadle,  i.  The  arm,  m  s, 
is  the  roller  -  carrier,  which  swings  on  a 
pivot,  r,  and  carries  the  rollers,  n  n,  alter 
nately  over  the  form  and  the  revolving 
disk,  t,  which  distributes  the  ink :  g  is  a 
counter  -  weight  to  balance  the  swinging 
bed  and  attachments,  and  operate  the  mova 
ble  fingers  by  a  spring  bar,  a :  v  is  the  feed- 
board. 

The  web  press  is  a  later  thought,  and  bids 
fair  to  supersede  all  others  for  large  editions 
and  long  numbers,  where  great  nicety  is  not 
required.  It  is  not  yet  expected  that  for 
fine  work  and  cuts  it  wrill  supersede  the  flat- 
surface  and  reciprocating-bed  presses. 

The  "Walter"  press  prints  the  London 
Times  and  the  New  York  Times.  A  roll  of 
paper,  a,  three  miles  long,  reels  off  over  the 
pulley,  fc,  which  serves  to  keep  it  taut.  It 
then  passes  by  the  wetting  rollers,  c  c,  and 
over  the  cylinder  d  to  the  first  type  cylin 
der,  e,  between  which  and  the  blanket  cyl 
inder,  /,  it  receives  its  first  impression. 
Following  the  direction  of  the  type  cylin 
der,  it  passes  between  two  blotting  cylin 
ders,  and  is  then  delivered  to  the  second 
printing  cylinder,  g,  receiving  the  impres 
sion  at  h.  It  is  then  cut  by  a  knife  on  the 


WALTER'S  PERFECTING  PRESS. 


WALTER  AND  BULLOCK  PRESSES. 


133 


"BITLLOOK"  PERFECTING  TRESS. 


cylinder  t.  The  sheets  are  finally  piled,  by 
two  persons  on  the  paper-boards,  k  Tc.  The 
speed  of  the  Walter  press  is  11,000  printed 
sheets  per  hour. 

The  "  Bullock"  press,  so  named  from  the 
inventor,  the  late  William  Bullock,  of  Phil 
adelphia,  carries  the  forms  upon  two  cylin 
ders,  requires  no  attendants  to  feed  it,  and 
delivers  the  sheets  printed  on  both  sides. 
The  paper,  in  the  form  of  an  endless  roll,  is 
moistened  by  passing  through  a  shower  of 
spray.  A  single  roll  will  contain  enough 
for  several  thousand  sheets,  and  the  print 


ing  operation,  including  the  cutting  of  the 
paper  into  proper  lengths,  proceeds  uninter 
ruptedly  nntil  the  roll  is  exhausted.  Tho 
roll  of  paper  having  been  mounted  in  its 
place,  the  machinery  is  started,  unwinds  the 
paper,  cuts  off  the  required  size,  prints  it  on 
both  sides  at  one  operation,  counts  the  num 
ber  of  sheets,  and  deposits  them  on  the  de 
livery  board  at  the  rate  of  6000  to  8000  per 
hour.  The  roll  of  paper,  a,  is  cut  into  sheets 
by  a  knife  on  roller  6  acting  against  the  cyl 
inder  c.  The  sheets  are  seized  by  grippers, 
carried  between  the  impression  cylinder,  g, 


"  VICTORY"  PERFECTING  PEKBB  AND  FOLDING  MAOUINE. 


134 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


11OE"   WED  PERFECTING   PRE68. 


and  the  form,  e,  receiving  the  first  impres 
sion.  The  printed  sheet  then  follows  the 
large  cylinder,  g,  to  the  second  form,  receiv 
ing  its  second  impression  from  this  form 
acting  against  the  large  drum,  g.  From  the 
large  cylinder  the  sheets  are  automatical 
ly  delivered  to  the  receiving  board :  i  is  a 
counting  device  or  arithmometer.  The  ink- 
ing-rollers  are  shown  above  the  inking  cyl 
inders,  beneath  which  are  the  ink-troughs. 
The  starting  lever  is  shown  on  the  right. 

The  "  Victory,"  like  those  just  described, 
receives  its  paper  from  a  roll.  The  names 
on  the  parts  will  obviate  the  necessity  of 
specific  description.  The  paper  is  led  over 
two  wetting  boxes,  and  then  over  two  hot 
copper  cylinders,  and  entered  between  the 
first  type  and  impression  cylinders.  Here 
one  side  is  printed,  and  it  thence  goes  to  the 
second  type  and  impression  cylinder,  where 
it  is  backed.  It  then  travels  to  the  cutting 
and  folding  cylinders,  where  it  receives  a 
transverse  fold,  and  meantime  the  doubled 
paper  is  passed  to  a  serrated  knife,  which 
cuts  the  first  printed  sheet  from  the  web. 
A  second  blunt  knife  again  folds  the  double 
sheet,  which  is  carried  by  grippers  to  a  vi 
bratory  frame,  entering  each  alternate  sheet 
to  the  respective  pairs  of  cross-folding  roll 
ers,  which  deliver  the  sheets  to  tapes,  which 
carry  them  to  a  swinging  delivery  frame,  by 
which  they  are  deposited  in  a  pile  on  the 
table. 

This  machine  will  damp,  print,  cut,  fold, 
and  deliver  about  15,000  per  hour  of  an 
eight-page  newspaper  of  fifty  inches  square ; 
or  it  will  damp,  print,  cut,  fold,  and  paste  a 
cover  of  four  pages  on  a  twenty-four  page 
paper  at  the  speed  of  7000  per  hour. 


The  "  Hoe"  web  perfecting  press  is  one  of 
the  lately  established  and  successful  candi 
dates  for  public  favor.  The  paper  is  print 
ed  from  a  roll  containing  a  length  of  over 
four  miles  and  a  half,  equal  to  10,000  papers. 
The  machine  has  three  pairs  of  cylinders 
geared  together.  A  roll,  having  been  pre 
viously  damped,  is  lifted  into  place  by  a 
small  crane,  and  the  paper  from  it  passes 
between  the  first  pair  of  cylinders,  the  cir 
cumferences  of  each  of  which  are  just  equal 
to  the  required  length  of  the  sheet.  One  of 
these  cylinders  has  its  periphery  covered 
with  stereotype  plates  of  the  matter  to  be 
printed,  and  is  supplied  in  the  usual  manner 
with  an  ink  fountain  and  distributing  roll 
ers,  which,  as  the  cylinder  revolves,  apply 
the  iuk  to  the  stereotype  forms.  The  other 
cylinder  is  covered  with  a  blanket,  and  as 
they  revolve  together,  with  the  paper  be 
tween  them,  they  print  its  first  side.  The 
paper  then  passes  on  between  the  second 
pair  of  cylinders,  and  presents  its  blank  side 
to  the  stereotype  plates  of  the  second  type 
cylinder.  It  next  passes  to  the  cutting  cyl 
inders,  the  periphery  of  one  of  which  has  a 
vibrating  and  projecting  knife  that  at  each 
revolution  enters  a  groove  in  the  opposite 
cylinder  and  severs  a  sheet  from  the  roll. 
The  sheets  are  successively  conveyed  by  two 
series  of  endless  tapes  to  a  revolving  cylin 
der,  which  retains  them  until  six  (or  any 
desired  number)  are  collected  upon  it,  when 
they  are  delivered  in  a  body  to  the  sheet 
flyer.  A  circular  cutter  cuts  the  double 
sheets  into  single  copies. 

A  counter  is  attached  which  shows  the 
number  of  sheets  printed.  The  machine  oc 
cupies  a  space  of  about  twenty  feet  long,  six 


FOLDING  MACHINES. 


135 


feet  wide,  and  seven  feet 
high,  and  delivers  12,000  to 
15,000  perfected  sheets  per 
hour. 

These  machines  have  a 
reputation  on  both  sides  of 
the  Atlantic,  being  used  by 
the  London  Lloyds1  News, 
Standard,  and  Telegraph, 
while  five  of  them  are  now 
building  for  offices  in  the 
United  States  and  two  for 
Australia. 

FOLDING  MACHINES. 

As  an  improvement  oc 
curs  in  one  of  the  machines 
of  a  series,  every  other  one 
has  to  mend  its  pace  to 
keep  up.  So  we  found  it 
with  the  ginning,  carding,  spinning,  and 
weaving  of  fibre  ;  so  it  was  with  the  smelt 
ing,  puddling,  rolling,  forging,  turning,  and 
planing  of  iron :  one  improvement  begets 
another,  and  a  halting  member  of  a  series 
which  retards  the  speed  becomes  the  object 
of  so  much  solicitude  that  it  shall  go  hard 
but  he  ere  long  outstrip  his  brethren  in  the 
race. 

Machines  for  folding  newspapers  and 
sheets  for  books  follow  naturally  in  the 
wake  of  the  presses.  They  are  made  of 
various  kinds  for  octavo,  16mo,  and  32mo ; 
also  for  folding  12mo,  cutting  off,  pasting, 
and  inserting  the  inset ;  in  some  cases  pla 
cing  it  in  a  cover,  and  doubling  it  up  into 
compact  shape  for  the  mail  wrapper. 

The  book-folding  machine  illustrated  is 
for  octavo  work,  sixteen  pages  on  a  sheet, 
eight  pages  on  a  side. 

The  sheet  is  placed  on  the  table  so  that 
two  register  points  pass  through  two  holes 
in  the  sheet  previously  made  on  the  print 
ing-press.  The  folder  comes  down  upon  the 
folding  edge,  the  pins  give  way,  and  the 
sheet  passes,  doubled  edge  first,  between  a 
pair  of  rollers,  which  compress  it ;  tapes  de 
liver  it  to  a  second  table  beneath,  where  a 
second  and  a  third  folder  act  upon  it  in  turn, 
and  it  is  delivered  into  a  trough  at  the  rate 
of  1500  per  hour. 

With  12mo  work  imposed  in  two  parts  of 
sixteen  and  eight  pages  respectively,  the  ma 
chine  cuts  them  apart,  and  folds  the  larger 


OUAMBERS'S  FOLDING  MACHINE. 

part  like  an  octavo ;  the  smaller  folds  but 
once,  and  is  then  "  inset"  into  the  octavo 
portion,  which  forms  the  "  outset." 

The  two-sheet  folder  and  paster,  for  large 
twenty-four-page  periodicals,  folds  one  sheet 
of  sixteen  pages,  30£  by  45£  inches,  insetting 
the  eight  pages  within  the  sixteen,  and  past 
ing  and  trimming  all,  delivering  a  complete 
copy  of  twenty-four  pages  ready  to  read  at 
the  rate  of  1200  per  hour.  It  will  fold  eight 
pages  alone,  sixteen  pages  alone,  with  or 
without  pasting  or  trimming,  or  will  fold, 
paste,  and  trim  the  eight  pages,  insetting 
without  pasting  them  in. 

Machines  of  this  general  character  are 
also  made  for  folding,  pasting,  and  trim 
ming,  or  for  folding,  pasting,  trimming  all 
around,  and  putting  on  a  cover  of  different- 
colored  paper.  The  Christian  Union  is  fold 
ed,  inset,  and  covered  in  this  manner,  four 
of  these  machines  being  attached  to  a  four- 
cylinder  "  Hoe"  press. 

ADDRESSING  MACHINES. 

Addressing  machines  are  of  two  general 
kinds ;  one  cuts  the  addresses  from  printed 
and  gummed  strips  and  attaches  them  to 
the  paper.  The  Dick  machine  works  in  this 
way. 

The  other  mode  is  to  set  up  the  addresses 
in  a  galley,  and  bring  them  successively  to 
a  spot  at  which  the  enveloped  papers  are 
consecutively  presented. 

The  machine  illustrated  is  one  of  many  of 


136 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


ADDRESSING   MACHINE. 

the  latter  class.  It  prints  with  ink  on  the 
papers  or  wrappers  at  the  rate  of  3000  per 
hour.  The  names  are  set  up  in  long  narrow 
galleys  holding  fifty  or  seventy-five  each, 
and  after  inking  with  a  hand-roller,  these 
are  placed  successively  in  the  channel  of  the 
table,  and  are  pushed  along  by  the  apparatus 
till  each  name  in  turn  has  come  under  the 
impression  lever,  which  is  worked  by  the 
treadle.  The  motion  of  the  galley  is  auto 
matic,  and  the  machine  indicates  a  change 
of  post-office  by  the  stroke  of  a  bell,  so  that 
the  papers  may  be  thrown  into  separate 
piles  to  be  bundled  for  mailing. 

The  "Forsaith"  addressing  machine  also 
operates  in  a  very  satisfactory  manner. 

PRINTING  FOR  THE  BLIND. 

The  art  of  printing  in  raised  letters  which 
may  be  distinguished  by  the  touch  origi 
nated  and  has  been  developed  within  the 
century.  The  first  successful  eiforts  in  this 
direction  were  made  at  Paris  in  1784  by  the 
Abb6  Valentin  Haiiy,  who  in  the  same  year 
founded  "  L'Institution  Royale  des  Jeunes 
Aveugles,"  the  first  institution  ever  estab 
lished  for  the  instruction  of  the  blind. 

Various  systems  of  forming  the  embossed 
characters  have  since  been  introduced,  which 
may  be  divided  into  two  classes — the  arbi 
trary,  arranged  exclusively  with  reference  to 
the  supposed  greater  facility  with  which 
their  forms  may  be  distinguished  by  the 
touch,  no  attempt  being  made  to  imitate  or 
dinary  printing;  and  the  alphabetical,  in 
which  the  letters  resemble  those  ordinarily 
employed. 

Prominent  among  the  first  are  those  of 
Lucas,  Frere,  Moon,  Braille,  and  Carton. 
Lucas's  system  is  composed  of  a  series  of 


dots,  curves,  and  straight  lines,  each  of 
which  represents  a  letter,  distinguishable 
by  its  form  or  the  position  in  which  it  is  set. 
Many  contractions  and  abbreviations  are 
employed,  and  though  it  is  claimed  to  be 
easily  read  by  the  touch,  its  bulk  and  the 
frequent  ambiguities  arising  from  the  pecul 
iar  system  of  abbreviations  are  objection 
able.  Thirty-six  volumes  are  required  to 
contain  the  Scriptures,  which  in  the  Amer 
ican  lower-case  alphabet  are  comprised  in 
eight. 

Frere's  system  is  phonetic,  thirty-six  char 
acters  being  employed,  each  representing  a 
simple  sound. 

Moon,  himself  a  blind  man,  represents  the 
letters  of  the  ordinary  alphabet  by  charac 
ters,  each  composed  of  but  one  or  two  lines. 
The  printing  is  read  alternately  from  left  to 
right  and  from  right  to  left. 

Braille's  system  is  that  generally  employed 
in  France :  the  letters  are  formed  by  combi 
nations  of  dots  varying  in  number  from  one 
to  six. 

Carton's  system  also  employs  dots,  but 
arranged  to  more  nearly  resemble  the  letters 
of  the  Roman  alphabet. 

Among  those  known  as  alphabetical  are — 

The  French,  a  combination  of  lower-case 
and  capitals. 

Alston's,  English,  has  modified  Roman  cap 
itals. 

Friedlander's,  American,  Roman  capitals 
of  the  kind  known  as  block  letters. 

That  of  Dr.  S.  G.  Howe,  principal  of  the 
Institution  for  the  Blind  at  Boston,  Massa 
chusetts,  employs  an  angular  form  of  lower 
case  for  all  the  letters  except  G  and  J,  which 
are  capitals.  This  character  is  used  at  most 
of  the  institutions  in  the  United  States,  and 
many  valuable  works  have  been  printed  in  it. 

Mr.  N.  B.  Kneass,  of  Philadelphia,  himself 
a  blind  man  and  a  publisher  of  works  for 
the  blind,  employs  lower-case  like  that  of 
Dr.  Howe  and  block  capitals,  under  the  title 
of  "  Kneass's  improved  combined  letter." 

ENGRAVING. 

The  early  history  of  engraving  concerns 
the  inscriptions  on  stones ;  the  "  iron  pen," 
and  inlaid  "  leaden  letters"  in  the  rock,  re 
ferred  to  by  Job,  if  that  be  a  fair  under 
standing  of  the  passage.  Contemporary 
with  this  are  the  carved  and  lettered  obe- 


ENGRAVING. 


137 


lisks  of  Egypt,  the  tablets  of  Assyria  and 
Etruria,  the  engraved  gems  in  the  breast 
plate  of  Aaron,  perhaps  the  leaden  plates 
inscribed  with  Hesiod's  "  works  and  days," 
which  were  so  long  preserved  at  the  fount 
ain  of  Helicon,  in  Bceotia,  as  recorded  by 
Pausanias. 

From  inscriptions  the  Greeks  proceeded 
to  engraving  maps  on  metallic  plates ;  and 
the  brass  plates  containing  the  Roman  laws 
were  complete  enough  for  printing,  but  it 
does  not  seem  to  have  been  thought  of.  The 
history  of  engraving  is  the  history  of  print 
ing  ;  but  we  must  not  repeat  it  here. 

The  art  of  engraving  is  naturally  divis 
ible  into  three  orders — metal,  wood,  stone ; 
the  latter  better  known  as  lithography,  and 
considered  separately. 

Engraving  on  metallic  plates  originated 
with  chasers  and  inlayers.  It  can  not  but 
be  that  such  artists  took  proof  in  dirty  oil 
on  rag  or  leather,  but  no  impression  of  in 
trinsic  value  was  had  until  the  time  of  Fini- 
guerra,  a  Florentine  artist,  in  1440.  Euclid 
was  printedwith  diagrams  on  copper  in  1482. 
The  copper-plate  press  was  invented  in  1545. 
Etching  on  copper  by  means  of  aquafortis 
was  invented  by  F.  Mazzuoli,  or  Palmegiani, 
in  1532 ;  mezzotint  engraving  by  Von  Siegen 
in  1643 ;  improved  by  Prince  Rupert,  1648, 
and  by  Sir  Christopher  Wren  in  1662. 

Stipple  engraving — also  called  "  chalk  en 
graving,"  from  the  resemblance  of  the  work 
to  crayon  drawing — was  invented  by  Jacob 
Baylaert  in  London  in  1769;  engraving  on 
steel  as  a  substitute  for  copper,  by  Jacob 
Perkins,  of  Philadelphia,  in  1819. 

The  present  century  has  not  devised  much 
that  is  new  except  the  ruling  machine  by 
Wilson  Lowry. 

Plate  engraving  flourished  in  England 
from  1800  to  1850,  but  photography  and  li 
thography  have  gradually  pushed  it  aside, 
since  which  the  skill  has  decayed  and  the 
demand  fallen  off.  Until  this  decadence 
persons  of  average  taste  would  claim  that 
though  our  predecessors  excelled  in  rude 
vigor,  our  execution  was  as  good  as  that 
of  the  earlier  masters,  and  our  effects  bet 
ter,  the  connoisseurs  in  the  antique  to  the 
contrary  notwithstanding.  Nor  will  it  avail 
for  such  to  quote  Gifford's  sarcasm, 

"  We  want  their  strength  :  agreed ;  but  we  atone 
For  that  and  more  by  sweetness  all  our  own." 


Wood-engraving  originated  in  China,  as 
we  have  had  occasion  to  observe  before  ;  its 
first  uses  in  Europe  were  in  ornamenting 
paper  and  fabrics,  afterward  for  making 
playing-cards. 

The  earliest  known  wood-cut  with  a  date 
—the  St.  Christopher  of  1423— is  in  the  Al- 
thorpe  Library,  England,  which,  it  may  be 
stated  in  passing,  contains  the  most  valu 
able  single  volume  in  the  world,  an  edition 
of  Boccaccio  printed  at  Venice  by  Valdarfer 
in  1474,  of  which  no  other  perfect  copy 
is  known.  It  sold  at  the  Duke  of  Rox 
burgh's  sale  in  1812  for  £1260.  The  art 
of  wood-en'graving  was  much  improved  by 
Diirer,  1471-1528 ;  by  Bewick,  1789.  It  has 
gone  on  improving  ever  since,  by  fits  and 
starts,  but  always  onward.  The  great  use 
made  of  it  by  the  Illustrated  London  News  is 
an  era ;  its  advance  over  the  Penny  Encyclo 
pedia  affords  a  good  means  of  judging  the 
rate  of  progress.  Our  best  illustrated  peri 
odicals  and  books  are  triumphs  of  the  art. 

LITHOGRAPHY. 

The  art  of  engraving  or  drawing  on  stone, 
so  that  printed  copies  may  be  obtained  there 
from  in  the  press,  originated  with  Alois  Sene- 
felder,  of  Munich,  1796-1800.  The  invention 
was  not  a  mere  accident,  as  recounted  in  the 
common  myth  of  an  absent-minded  man, 
a  piece  of  limestone,  and  a  waiting  washer 
woman,  but  was  the  result  of  earnest,  per 
sistent,  and  intelligent  work  directed  to  an 
object  kept  steadily  in  view. 

The  stone  used  for  lithographic  work  is  a 
compact  sedimentary  limestone  of  a  yellow 
ish  or  bluish-gray  color,  which  comes  from 


LITHOGRAPHIC   IIAND-I'KESS. 


138 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


the  Solenhofen  quarries  in  Bavaria.  It  is 
ground  by  moving  one  stone  upon  another 
with  sand  between  them,  and  then  polished 
with  pumice-stone. 

Upon  the  stone  thus  prepared  the  design 
may  be  produced  in  four  ways : 

1.  It  may  be  done  with  a  fluid,  watery 
ink. 

2.  With  a  solid  crayon. 

3.  By  a  transfer  from  an  inky  design  on 
paper. 

4.  By  engraving  with  an  etching  point. 

1.  The  ink  is  essentially  a  soluble  soap  col 
ored  with  lamp-black,  applied  with  a  pen  or 
hair-pencil.     The  stone  is  then  etched  with 
a  weak  acidulous  solution,  decomposing  the 
soap,  combining  with  its  alkali,  and  setting 
free  the  fatty  acid  in  contact  with  the  par 
ticles  of  carbonate  of  lime  of  which  the 
stone  consists,  forming  an  insoluble  lime 
soap  which  no  washing  or  rubbing  can  re 
move  and  no  fatty  matter  can  penetrate. 
The  stone  is  then  flooded  with  gum-arabic 
water  to  incapacitate  the  clear  parts  from 
receiving  ink  when  wetted.     The  stone  is 
now  placed  in  the  press  and  made  ready. 
With  a  sponge  and  abundance  of  water  ex 
cess  of  gum  is  washed  off,  and,  while  still 
wet,  the  drawing  is  washed  out  with  turpen 
tine  applied  with  a  rag.    This  appears  to  ob 
literate  every  thing,  but  a  close  inspection 
shows  the  work  as  a  pale  white  design  on  the 
face  of  the  stone.     The  stone  is  now  rolled 
up  by  passing  a  roller  charged  with  printing- 
ink  over  its  face,  which  is  still  damp ;  the 
greasy  ink  adheres  to  the  white  design,  while 
the  clear  gummed  damp  face  takes  no  ink. 
A  sheet  of  paper  is  laid  upon  it,  the  tympan 
closed,  and  the  stone  pulled  through.     The 
operations  of  damping,  inking,  and  printing 
are  then  repeated  in  succession. 

2.  The  work  by  lithographic  crayon  is  upon 
a  grained  stone,  the  surface  of  which  is  even 
ly  roughened  by  grinding  with  very  sharp 
and  even  sand  of  a  grade  according  to  the 
fineness  of  grain  required.  The  crayon  is  of 
soap,  wax,  and  tallow,  and  it  is  used  on  the 
stone  as  a  drawing  chalk  is  upon  rough 
Whatman  paper.    The  subsequent  processes 
in  preparing  the  stone  are  the  same  as  those 
before  described.     The  process  gives  oppor 
tunity  for  much  artistic  taste  and  display, 
the  broken  surface  of  the  stone  preventing 
the  continuity  of  the  lines,  whose  depth  of 


color  will  depend  upon  the  pressure  of  the 
crayon  upon  the  rasping  surface. 

3.  The  transfer  method  consists  in  placing 
the  design  on  paper  and  then  transferring  it 
to  the  stone.     The  writing,  for  instance,  is 
done  on  ordinary  sized  paper,  but  preferably 
on  paper  prepared  with  a  coating  of  gela 
tine,  which  may  be  colored  with  gamboge. 
The  written  sheet  is  damped,  laid  face  down 
on  the  stone,  and  pulled  through.     The  ink 
adheres  to  the  stone,  which  is  treated  as  be 
fore. 

4.  The  engraving  method  differs  from  the 
preceding.   The  surface  of  the  stone  is  treat 
ed  with  gum-arabic  water,  which,  when  dry, 
is  colored  to  allow  the  succeeding  work  to 
show.   The  design  is  then  scratched  in  with 
needles  or  diamond  points,  and  the  face  of 
the  stone  flooded  with  oil,  which  is  absorbed 
by  the  stone  where  the  etching  points  have 
laid  it  bare.     The  coloring  matter  and  ex 
cess  of  gum  are  washed  off,  and  the  lines 
are  filled  with  ink,  the  gum  protecting  the 
clean  surface.  The  paper  is  laid  on,  and  the 
stone  pulled  through  the  press,  the  sheet 
lifting  the  ink  out  of  the  lines.     It  is  not 
usual  to  print  from  the  engraved  stone,  but 
to  transfer  an  impression  therefrom  to  an 
other  one  and  print  in  the  usual  way. 

There  are  many  modifications  of  the  art : 
a  tint  is  rubbed  on  dry,  and  distributed  or 
rubbed  off  according  to  the  lights  and  shades 
of  the  design;  by  another  mode  the  surface 
is  covered  with  a  solution  of  asphalt  and 
crayon,  and  scraped  off  for  the  lights.  The 
list  might  be  much  extended. 

Until  a  comparatively  recent  period  all 
lithographic  printing  has  been  Tipon  hand- 
presses,  but  lately  a  successful  lithographic 
printing-machine  has  been  made.  Hoe's 
machine  is  a  stop-cylinder  press,  that  is,  one 
in  which  the  cylinder  comes  to  a  stop  pend 
ing  the  adjustment  of  the  sheet.  The  pa 
per  is  fed  to  grippers  on  the  cylinder  from 
the  inclined  table  above.  The  traveling 
bed  on  which  the  stone  rests  is  drawn  un 
der  the  cylinder  by  a  crank  and  connecting 
rod  from  the  end  of  the  frame  below,  and 
the  cylinder,  after  being  thrown  into  gear, 
is  rotated  at  the  same  time  (carrying  the 
sheet  with  it)  by  a  rack  attached  to  the 
side  of  the  bed.  At  the  end  of  the  stroke 
the  cylinder  goes  out  of  gear,  and  remains 
stationary  and  locked  during  the  return  of 


LITHOGRAPHY. 


139 


HOE'S  LITHOGRAPHIC  PKINTrNG-MAOHINE. 


the  bed  and  stone,  the  latter  passing  under 
a  cut-away  part  of  the  cylinder,  so  as  not  to 
come  in  contact  with  it.  In  place  of  a  tym- 
pan  the  cylinder  is  covered  with  a  thin 
rubber  blanket.  The  inking  of  the  stone  is 
effected  by  parallel  rollers  (from  three  to 
six)  in  front  of  the  cylinder,  upon  which 
are  heavy  riding  rollers  of  iron,  the  latter 
being  made  to  vibrate  laterally  to  aid  the 
distribution  of  the  ink.  These  inking-roll- 
ors  are  covered  with  leather,  like  the  ordi 
nary  hand-rollers  for  lithographic  printing ; 
they  receive  their  ink  from  a  table  which 
travels  with  the  bed,  and  are  driven  by  a 
rack  or  friction  pieces  on  the  sides  of  the 
bed.  The  ink  is  fed  to  the  table  from  a 
fountain  at  the  end  of  the  press,  and  dis 
tributed  by  a  number  of  oblique-lying  roll 
ers,  also  covered  with  leather.  The  auto 
matic  damping  arrangement  is  at  the  back 
of  the  cylinder.  It  consists  of  a  shallow 
trough  containing  water,  partially  immersed 
in  which  a  cylinder  of  wood  is  made  slowly 
to  revolve.  An  absorbent  roller  is  held  in 
contact  with  the  surface  of  this  roller  for 
a  longer  or  shorter  time,  according  to  the 
amount  of  water  required  upon  the  stone, 
after  which  it  carries  its  increase  of  moist 
ure  over  to  a  heavy  riding  roller,  which 
again  gives  it  up  to  two  damping  rollers 
covered  with  linen,  which  traverse  the  stone 
as  it  passes  beneath  them,  just  before  it 
meets  the  inking-rollers  near  the  cylinder; 
the  feed  of  water  admits  of  adjustment  as 
to  quantity  while  the  press  is  in  motion. 


The  pressure  in  this  press  is  adjusted  by 
means  of  butting  screws,  which  lift  or  lower 
the  bed  in  the  traveling  carriage ;  these 
screws  are  turned  by  a  key  from  above. 
When  the  sheet  is  printed  it  is  conveyed  by 
an  intermediate  cylinder  provided  with  grip- 
pers  to  the  fly  at  the  end  of  the  press,  and 
there  deposited,  face  up,  on  the  pile  of  print 
ed  work. 

This  press,  though  by  no  means  identical 
with  European  machines  of  the  same  class, 
may  be  regarded  as  furnishing  an  illustra 
tion  of  the  essential  features  of  them  all. 

The  introduction  of  the  lithographic  pow 
er-press  has  totally  remodeled  the  litho 
graphic  trade  throughout  the  world  within 
the  short  period  of  six  years  (1868-74),  in 
creasing  the  possible  production  about  ten 
fold.  It  has  lowered  the  cost  of,  and  in 
fact  rendered  possible,  large  editions  from 
stone  which  in  former  tunes  found  their 
way  to  the  type  press,  with  very  inferior  re 
sults.  By  this  change  the  general  public- 
have  profited  largely. 

Chromo-lithography,  the  highest  develop 
ment  of  the  lithographic  art,  differs  only 
from  the  ordinary  processes  in  the  imposi 
tion  of  a  number  of  impressions  in  different 
colors  from  as  many  different  stones  upon  a 
sheet  of  paper,  the  combination  of  colors 
making  a  finished  picture.  An  outline  draw 
ing  is  transferred  to  each  stone  required  to 
complete  the  picture,  so  aa  to  secure  exact 
ness  in  the  co-relation  of  all  parts  on  each 
stone.  Upon  these  stones  the  artist  draws 


140 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


the  different  tints  and  colors,  the  number 
varying  with  the  character  of  the  picture. 
Mr.  Prang's  famous  chromo,  "  Family  Scene 
in  Pompeii,"  occupied  forty -three  stones. 
An  artist  must  have  a  high  degree  of  skill 
in  drawing,  a  fine  feeling  for  and  thorough 
knowledge  of  color,  and  must  be  able  to  tell 
what  number  of  stones  will  be  required, 
what  the  order  of  the  tints  and  colors,  what 
effect  one  tint  will  have  upon  the  succeed 
ing  ones.  Careful  register  is  required,  so 
that  each  color  may  fall  in  its  proper  place 
in  the  picture. 

Senefekler  died  in  1834.  Every  phase  of 
the  lithographic  art  described  in  the  fore 
going  was  indicated,  originated,  or  practiced 
by  him.  The  development  and  perfection  of 
the  present  day,  in  every  branch  of  his  great 
invention,  would  gratify  and  astonish  him 
infinitely.  He  would  gaze  in  amazement  at 
the  lithographic  power-press  printing  thou 
sands  of  sheets  daily,  and  would  be  lost  in 
admiration  at  the  sight  of  a  chromo  which 
he  would  confound  with  the  original  paint 
ing,  and  which  his  art  has  placed  within 
the  reach  of  every  one.  All  this  he  would 
readily  comprehend ;  jj/iotolithography  alone 
would  be  to  him  a  mystery  and  a  revelation. 

PHOTOGRAPHY. 

The  art  of  photography  is  entirely  em 
braced  within  the  century.  The  solitary 
fact  bearing  upon  the  subject,  and  known  to 
the  world  previous  to  1776,  was  that  horn- 
silver  (fused  chloride  of  silver)  is  blackened 
by  exposure  to  the  sun's  rays.  It  is  now 
known  that  many  bodies  are  photo-chemic- 
ally  sensitive  in  a  greater  or  less  degree, 
but  some  of  the  salts  of  silver  and  chromic 
acid  in  conjunction  with  organic  matter  are 
pre-eminently  so,  and  are  used  practically 
to  the  exclusion  of  all  others. 

Scheele  in  1777  drew  attention  to  the  ac 
tivity  of  the  violet  and  blue  rays  as  compared 
with  the  rest  of  the  spectrum ;  and  Ritter  in 
1801  proved  the  existence  of  dark  rays  be 
yond  the  violet  end  of  the  visible  spectrum 
by  the  power  they  possessed  of  blackening 
chloride  of  silver.  Wollaston  experimented 
upon  gum-guaiacum.  Wedgwood,  previous 
to  1802,  was  the  first  to  produce  a  photo 
graph,  in  the  technical  sense  of  the  word ; 
this  was  a  negative  of  an  engraving  which 
was  laid  over  a  sheet  of  paper  moistened 


with  a  solution  of  nitrate  of  silver.  Such  a 
picture  had  to  be  carefully  preserved  from 
daylight,  or  the  whole  surface  would  black 
en.  Neither  Wedgwood,  nor  Davy,  who  ac 
companied  with  observations  the  memoran 
dum  of  Wedgwood  to  the  Royal  Society, 
devised  any  mode  of  fixing  the  image. 

From  1814  to  1827  Joseph  Nice"phore 
Niepce,  of  Chalons  on  the  Sa6ne,  experi 
mented  on  the  subject.  In  the  latter  year 
he  communicated  his  process.  He  coated  a 
plate  of  metal  or  glass  with  a  varnish  of  as- 
phaltum  dissolved  in  oil  of  lavender,  and  ex 
posed  it  under  an  engraving  or  in  a  camera ; 
the  sunlight  so  affected  the  bitumen  that 
the  parts  corresponding  to  the  white  por 
tions  of  the  picture  or  image  remained  upon 
the  plate  when  those  not  exposed  to  light 
were  subsequently  dissolved  by  oil  of  bitu 
men  and  washed  away.  This  was  a  perma 
nent  negative  picture.  In  1829  Niepce  as 
sociated  himself  with  Daguerre. 

In  1834  Fox  Talbot  commenced  his  inves 
tigations,  and  in  January,  1839,  announced 
his  calotype  process.  He  prepared  a  sheet 
of  paper  with  iodide  of  silver,  dried  it,  and 
just  before  use  covered  the  surface  with  a 
solution  of  nitrate  of  silver  and  gallic  acid,  and 
dried  it  again.  Exposure  in  the  camera 
produced  no  visible  effect,  but  the  latent 
image  was  developed  by  a  re-application  of 
the  gallo-nitrate,  and  finally  fixed  by  bromide 
°f  .potassium,  washed  and  dried.  A  negative 
so  obtained  was  laid  over  a  sensitized  paper, 
and  thus  a  positive  print  was  obtained.  This 
was  a  wonderful  advance. 

In  the  same  month,  January,  1839,  Da- 
guerre's  invention  was  announced,  but  was 
not  described  till  July  of  that  year.  In  the 
daguerreotype,  which  has  made  the  name  of 
the  inventor  a  household  word,  and  furnish 
ed  a  test  of  skill  in  all  the  spelling  schools 
of  the  United  States,  polished  silver-surfaced 
plates  are  coated  with  iodide  of  silver  by 
exposure  to  the  fumes  of  dry  iodine,  then 
exposed  in  the  camera,  and  the  latent  image 
developed  by  mercurial  fumes,  which  attach 
themselves  to  the  iodide  of  silver  in  quanti 
ties  proportional  to  the  actinic  action.  The 
picture  is  fixed  by  hyposulphite  of  soda,  which 
prevents  farther  change  by  light. 

Goddard  in  1839  introduced  the  use  of 
bromine  vapor  conjointly  with  that  of  iodine 
in  sensitizing  the  silver  surface. 


PHOTOGRAPHY. 


141 


BELLOWS  OAMEBA. 

The  addition  of  chlorine  was  by  Claudet 
in  1840.  M.  Fizeau  applied  the  solution  of 
gold,  which  combined  with  the  finely  divided 
mercury,  and  in  part  replaced  it. 

In  1848  M.  Niepce  de  St.  Victor  coated 
glass  with  albumen,  and  treated  it  with  ni 
trate  of  silver  to  sensitize  and  coagulate  it. 
The  film  hardened  in  drying  and  furnished 
a  negative  from  which  pictures  might  be 
printed  by  light. 

The  collodion  process,  by  Scott  Archer,  of 
London,  was  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
inventions  of  the  series,  and  has  made  pho 
tography  the  most  important  art  industry 
of  the  world.  A  plate  of  glass  is  cleaned, 
floated  with  collodion,  sensitized  with  io 
dides  and  bromides,  usually  of  potassium. 
It  ia  then  plunged  in  a  solution  of  nitrate 
of  silver.  Metallic  silver  takes  the  place 
of  the  potassium,  and  forms  insoluble  io 
dide  and  bromide  of  silver  in  the  film, 
which  assumes  a  milky  appearance.  The 
plate  is  exposed  in  the  camera,  and  the 
latent  image  developed  by  an  aqueous  solu 
tion  of  protosulphate  of  iron,  the  picture 
gradually  emerging  by  a  dark  deposit 
forming  upon  those  places  where  the 
light  has  acted,  the  density  of  this  de 
posit  being  directly  proportional  to  the  | 
energy  of  the  chemical  rays.  When  suf 
ficiently  developed,  the  plate  is  washed 
with  water,  and  fixed  by  washing  away 
the  free  silver  salt  by  a  solvent,  such  as 
the  cyanide  of  potassium  or  hyposul 
phite  of  soda.  This  removes  the  milky 
character  of  the  film,  and  leaves  the  pic 
ture  apparently  resting  on  bare  glass. 

To  produce  positive  photographic  prints 
from  such  a  negative  a  sensitized  sheet 
of  paper  is  placed  beneath  the  negative, 
and  exposed  to  the  sun's  rays.  The  light 
passes  through  the  negative  in  quantity 
depending  upon  the  transparency  of  its 
several  parts,  and  produces  a  proportion 
ate  darkening  of  the  silver  salts  in  the 


albuminous  surface  of  the  paper.  The  paper 
is  now  washed  to  remove  the  unaltered  ni 
trate,  toned  by  a  salt  of  gold,  fixed  by  hypo 
sulphite  of  soda,  washed,  dried,  mounted, 
and  glazed. 

The  solar  camera  is  used  for  making  en 
larged  prints  from  a  negative,  a  is  an  ad 
justable  portion,  having  a  central  aperture 
at  which  the  negative  is  exposed  to  the  rays 
entering  at  the  window,  6  ;  c  is  the  lens ;  d 
the  board  for  the  paper  enlargement. 

Space  can  not  be  spared  for  even  the  reci 
tation  of  the  names  of  the  various  processes 
which  have  from  time  to  time  been  promi 
nently  before  the  public.  Some  of  these 
were  invented  in  the  infancy  of  the  art,  and 
have  been  long  superseded  by  more  perfect 
methods ;  others  yet  survive  for  certain 
purposes. 

The  ambrotype  is  a  thin  collodion  negative 
on  glass  made  by  a  short  exposure,  and  de 
veloped  so  as  to  produce  as  white  a  deposit 
as  possible  on  the  lights.  Such  a  picture  is 
not  looked  at  by  transmitted  light,  nor  is  it 
valuable  as  a  negative ;  it  is  to  be  backed 
up  with  a  black  surface,  generally  a  black 
varnish,  and  regarded  by  reflected  light  only. 
Under  these  circumstances  it  appears  as  a 
positive,  the  deposit  reflecting  and  the  black 
backing  absorbing  the  light.  Pictures  of 
this  kind  are  rapidly  made,  and  finished  di 
rect  from  the  camera,  as  is  the  case  Avith  the 
daguerreotype,  while  the  cost  is  very  much 
less.  They  are,  however,  very  inferior  to 


EXLAKOIXU    60LAR   CAMEBA. 


142 


MECHANICAL  PROGRESS. 


good  positives  on  paper,  and  had  to  make 
way  for  the  latter  as  the  negative  process 
improved. 

Anibrotypes  are  rarely  to  be  met  -with 
now,  but  ferrotypes,  or  tintypes,  as  they  are 
sometimes  called,  are  produced  by  a  per 
fectly  analogous  process,  the  substantial 
difference  being  that  the  collodion  picture 
is  made  directly  upon  a  thin  iron  plate  cov 
ered  with  a  black  enamel  or  lacquer,  which 
protects  both  its  surfaces  from  the  action 
of  the  negative  bath,  and  acts  the  part  of 
the  black  backing  used  in  the  ambrotype. 

Ferrotypes  are  still  in  vogue,  the  quickness 
with  which  they  can  be  produced  and  their 
exceedingly  small  cost  making  them  popu 
lar  with  the  public.  Cameras  provided  with 
a  large  number  of  lenses  are  employed  in 
their  production. 

The  trouble  and  difficulty  in  the  efficient 
working  of  collodion  negatives  out-of-doors 
created  a  desire  for  a  means  of  preserving  a 
collodion  plate  in  a  sensitive  condition,  so  as 
to  render  it  unnecessary  to  coat,  sensitize, 
and  develop  the  plate  where  the  landscape 
is  taken.  Accordingly  a  number  of  preserv 
ative  and  dry-plate  processes  have  been  in 
vented.  No  dry  process,  however,  gives  re 
sults  fully  equal  in  quality  to  the  work  from 
wet  plates,  but  they  offer  other  advantages 
which  can  not  be  ignored. 

The  stereoscopic  camera  used  for  field 
work  has  an  arrangement  for  instantaneous 
exposure  of  the  two  lenses,  which  admit 
pencils  of  beams  to  the  plates  in  the  binary 
chamber.  Shutters  are  placed  in  front  of 
each  tube,  so  arranged  that  by  touching  a 
spring  they  are  simultaneously  rotated, 
bringing  for  an  instant  of  time  a  hole  in 


STEUEOSOOl'IO   CAMERA. 


each  shutter  in  correspondence  with  the 
tube,  admitting  rays  of  light  from  the  object 
to  the  sensitized  surfaces  in  the  interior. 

The  first  daguerreotype  portrait  from  life 
was  taken  by  Professor  John  W.  Draper,  of 
New  York,  in  1839.  An  announcement  of  it 
wras  made  in  the  London  and  Edinburgh  Phil 
osophical  Magazine  in  March,  1840.  A  full 
account  of  the  operation  was  subsequently 
published  in  the  same  journal.  He  also 
took  the  first  daguerreotype  view  in  Ameri 
ca,  a  view  of  the  Church  of  the  Messiah, 
from  a  window  of  the  New  York  University. 
In  his  laboratory  Professor  Morse  learned 
the  art. 

Daguerre  made  an  unsuccessful  attempt 
to  photograph  the  moon.  Dr.  J.  W.  Draper 
succeeded  in  1840  in  obtaining  a  photo 
graph  of  the  moon  on  a  silver  plate  with  a 
telescope  of  five  inches  aperture.  He  pre 
sented  specimens  to  the  New  York  Lyceum 
of  Natural  History  in  1840.  Professor  G.  P. 
Bond,  of  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  made 
photographs  of  the  moon  in  1850  with  the 
Cambridge  refractor  of  fifteen  inches  aper 
ture.  Many  others  followed.  Mr.  Ruther 
ford's  photographs  of  the  moon  are  most 
excellent.  Mr.  Delarue,  in  England,  must 
also  be  mentioned. 

PHOTOLITHOGRAPHY. 

Photolithography  is  a  mode  of  producing 
by  photographic  means  designs  on  stone 
from  which  impressions  may  be  obtained  in 
the  ordinary  lithographic  press. 

The  first  attempts  in  this  line  were  by 
Dixon,  of  Jersey  City,  and  Lewis,  of  Dublin, 
in  1841 ;  they  were  followed  by  several  in 
ventors  in  Paris,  Vienna,  and  Rome. 

Their  experiments  were  with  resins  di 
rectly  upon  stone.  Joseph  Dixon,  1854,  was 
the  first  to  use  organic  matter  and  bichro 
mate  of  potash  upon  stone  to  produce  a  pho- 
tolithograph.  Poitevin  was  the  first  to  rec 
ognize  the  fact  that  bichromated  organic 
matter  altered  by  light  took  the  greasy  ink 
from  the  roller.  No  great  measure  of  suc 
cess  was  attained  by  operations  with  resins 
and  directly  upon  stone.  The  various  gela 
tine  processes  have  been  more  successful. 
Without  ignoring  the  value  of  some  of  these, 
not  particularly  described  here,  it  will  be 
well  for  brevity's  sake  to  describe  the  best 
process,  and  but  one. 


OSBOKNE'S  PROCESS. 


143 


OSBORNE'S  COPYING  OAMEBA  AND  TABLE. 


J.  W.  Osborne  patented  in  Australia  Sep 
tember  1, 1859,  and  in  the  United  States  June 
25, 1861,  a  transfer  process,  in  which  he  pre 
pares  a  sheet  of  paper  by  coating  one  side 
with  a  mixture  of  albumen,  gelatine,  and 
bichromate  of  potash,  and  dries  it  in  the 
dark.  This  is  exposed  under  a  negative, 
whereby  a  visible  change  is  produced,  the 
brilliant  yellow  of  the  sheet,  due  to  the  salt 
of  chromium,  being  changed  to  a  chestnut- 
brown.  In  addition  to  this  visible  change, 
the  organic  matter  becomes  insoluble.  A 
coating  of  transfer-ink  is  now  applied  to  the 
whole  exposed  surface  by  passing  the  sheet 
through  the  press,  face  down,  upon  an  inked 
stone.  When  the  sheet  is  removed  the  pho 
tographic  picture  is  almost  invisible.  The 
sheet  is  then  floated,  ink  side  upward,  upon 
hot  water,  the  action  of  which  is  to  coagu 
late  the  albumen,  rendering  it  insoluble,  and 
to  swell  and  soften  the  gelatine,  causing  the 
part  affected  by  light  to  appear  depressed 
by  contrast.  The  sheet  of  paper  so  floated 
is  next  placed  upon  a  slab,  and  the  superflu 
ous  ink  rubbed  off  by  a  wet  sponge.  This 
operation  develops  the  picture.  The  sheet 
is  then  washed,  dried,  and  transferred  to  the 
stone  in  the  usual  way.  The  coagulated  al 
bumen  forms  over  the  whole  surface  of  the 
paper  a  continuous  film,  which  adheres 
strongly  to  the  stone  during  the  transfer 


process,  preventing  any  shifting  and  conse 
quent  doubling  of  the  lines.  This  is,  for  all 
practical  purposes,  the  first  successful  photo 
lithographic  process,  and  has  been  used  in 
the  Crown  Lands  Survey  Office  of  Victoria 
since  September,  1859,  in  the  publication  of 
maps.  Substantially  the  same  process  is 
used  in  the  Ordnance  Survey  Office  of  En 
gland.  The  duplication  and  copying  of 
drawings  for  the  United  States  Patent-of 
fice  has  been  for  some  years  performed  by 
this  process,  which,  in  accuracy  and  speed, 
leaves  nothing  to  be  desired. 

The  copying  camera  employed  in  making 
negatives  from  drawings  is  shown  in  the 
figure.  The  camera  (containing  the  nega 
tive  plate)  and  the  plan-board,  on  which  is 
tacked  the  drawing  to  be  copied,  are  adjust 
able  on  a  table,  which  is  tilted  on  its  truck 
to  give  the  drawing  a  good  presentation  to 
the  light.  The  focusing  is  done  by  a  thin 
metallic  belt,  giving  a  rapid  and  positive 
movement  on  either  side  of  the  problemat 
ical  focus.  The  table  is  always  brought  into 
a  horizontal  position  in  focusing,  the  end  of 
the  camera  box  being  covered  by  a  hood, 
under  which  the  operator  stands.  So  placed, 
he  controls  the  positions  both  of  the  plan- 
board  and  the  lens,  and  has  the  ground  glass 
always  at  a  convenient  distance  from  him. 
In  copying  at  or  near  full  scale  the  position 


144 


MECHANICAL  PROGKESS. 


of  the  lens  affects  the  size  of  the  picture, 
making  little  change  in  the  sharpness  of 
the  focus,  which  latter  operation  is  then 
done  with  the  plan-board.  When  a  large  re 
duction  is  required,  the  position  of  the  plan- 
board  affects  the  size,  and  the  focusing  is 
done  with  the  lens. 

MISCELLANEOUS  PHOTO  PROCESSES. 

Besides  the  processes  which  have  been 
described  under  the  titles  Photography  and 
Photolithography,  there  are  a  number  of  oth 
ers  which  should  not  be  entirely  overlooked. 
The  processes  yet  remaining  to  be  stated 
depend  upon  the  use  of  gelatine. 

Mungo  Ponton  in  1839  first  discovered  the 
sensitiveness  to  light  of  a  sheet  of  paper 
treated  with  bichromate  of  potash.  Bec- 
querel  in  1840  determined  that  the  sizing 
of  the  paper  played  an  important  part  in 
the  change.  Fox  Talbot  in  1853  discover 
ed  and  utilized  the  insolubility  of  gelatine 
exposed  to  light  in  the  presence  of  a  bi 
chromate.  Dissolve  gelatine  in  hot  water, 
add  to  the  solution  some  bichromate  of  pot 
ash  and  dry  it;  the  compound  is  sensitive  to 
light  in  a  way  different  from  ordinary  pho 
tographic  paper.  If  a  photographic  nega 
tive  on  glass  be  laid  over  a  sheet  of  this  pre 
pared  gelatine,  the  portions  shielded  from 
light  by  the  dark  parts  of  the  picture  will 
dissolve  as  readily  as  before,  while  the  parts 
acted  on  by  light  will  form  a  tough  tawny 
substance  unaffected  by  hot  water. 

From  this  point  the  gelatine  processes 
naturally  divide  into  two  groups. 

1.  The  first  group  includes  carbon  printing. 
Poitevin,  in  1855,  was  the  first  to  use  carbon 
combined  with  gelatine  as  a  vehicle,  avail 
ing  himself  of  its  insoluble  character  after 
exposure.  This  process  is  as  follows :  Paper 
is  coated  with  a  compound  of  bichromate  of 
potash,  gelatine,  and  lamp-black  dissolved 
in  cold  water.  This  paper  is  dried  in  a  dark 
room,  exposed  beneath  a  negative,  and  the 
parts  not  affected  by  the  actinic  action  of 
the  light  dissolved  off  by  hot  water.  The 
resulting  picture  is  a  positive  print  in  black 
and  white,  of  which  the  shades  are  produced 
by  the  carbon  of  the  lamp-black,  blackest 
where  the  light  acted  most  freely,  and  with 
all  the  various  shades  according  to  the  rela 
tive  translucency  of  the  different  portions 
of  the  negative.  Poiteviu  subsequently  in 


troduced  a  process  for  carbon  printing  un 
der  a  positive.  The  process  was  materially 
improved  by  Swann  about  1861.  He  trans 
ferred  the  film,  after  exposure,  to  another 
surface  with  the  face  downward,  so  that  the 
dissolving  was  effected  from  its  back,  after 
which  it  was  retransferred  to  the  paper,  on 
which  it  remained. 

2.  The  picture  is  produced  by  the  action 
of  light  on  bichromated  gelatine,  and  is  made 
(a)  to  produce  a  print  capable  of  being  trans 
ferred;  or  (6)  to  serve  as  a  printing  matrix, 
from  which  impressions  may  be  taken  by 
the  ordinary  lithographic  means;  or  (o)  to 
obtain  an  impression  in  relief  which  may 
be  printed  from  in  the  ordinary  printing- 
press. 

(a)  The  first  success  in  this  line  resulted 
in  the  process  of  photolithography,  which 
has  been  considered. 

(&)  Paul  Pretsch  in  1854  discovered  and 
utilized  the  quality  which  a  sheet  of  bi 
chromated  gelatine  possessed  of  not  swell 
ing  in  water  after  exposure  to  light.  Poite 
vin,  1855,  was  the  first  to  recognize  the  fact 
that  bichromated  organic  matter  altered 
by  light  took  greasy  ink  from  the  roller. 
Tessie"  du  Motay  and  Mare'chal,  in  1864,  were 
the  first  to  print  from  a  photographic  image 
on  bichromated  gelatine  as  from  a  litho 
graphic  stone. 

The  Albert-type,  named  from  Albert,  of  Mu 
nich,  the  autotype,  the  lieliotype,  by  Edwards, 
now  worked  by  J.  R.  Osgood,  of  Boston,  and 
many  others  might  be  cited,  differing  in 
minor  respects.  Edwards,  in  the  heliotype, 
produced  a  movable  film;  by  the  addition 
of  chrome-alum  to  the  gelatine  a  tough, 
tawny,  insoluble  sheet  is  formed,  capable 
of  standing  rough  usage,  and  yet  retaining 
its  property  of  being  acted  on  by  light  in 
the  presence  of  a  bichromate,  and  of  re 
ceiving  and  refusing  greasy  ink.  The  sheet 
is  exposed  under  a  negative,  mounted  on 
a  metallic  plate,  the  superfluous  chemicals 
washed  out,  and  then  printed  from  with  li th- 
ographic  ink  on  an  ordinary  platen  printing- 
press,  being  damped  between  each  impres 
sion,  as  in  ordinary  lithographic  printing. 

(c)  Kelief-ivork  is  produced  in  several  dif 
ferent  ways,  but  can  not  here  be  described. 
Niepce  de  St.  Victor  in  1827  led  the  way  by 
an  asphaltum  and  etching  process. 

The  photoglyptlc  process  of  Fox  Talbot, 


PHOTO-MICROGRAPHY. 


145 


1852,  was  another  etching  process.  The  pho- 
togalvanograph  of  Pretsch,  1854,  depended 
upon  the  swelling  of  the  gelatine  after  ex 
posure  ;  a  matrix  was  taken  in  gutta-percha, 
and  from  this  a  cameo  plate  was  obtained 
by  electro-deposit.  The  phototype  belongs 
to  this  sub-class.  Poitevin  in  1855  had  a 
process  somewhat  resembling  this,  in  which 
he  obtained  a  cast  by  the  use  of  plaster 
hardened  with  protosulphate  of  iron.  Os- 
borne  in  1860  transferred  the  inked  gelatine 
sheet  to  zinc,  and  etched  to  make  a  relief. 

In  the  Woodbury  process,  from  which  such 
excellent  results  have  been  obtained  for  il 
lustrating  the  Medical  and  Surgical  History 
of  the  War,  the  gelatine  picture  in  relief,  ob 
tained  by  light,  is  placed  in  contact  with  a 
sheet  of  soft  metal,  and  subjected  to  heavy 
hydraulic  pressure.  This  gives  a  picture 
in  reversed  relief  and  depression.  Such  a 
mould  is  deeper  in  the  places  answering  to 
the  shades  in  the  original  picture,  and  con 
versely,  shallower  in  the  lights.  It  is  filled 
with  a  solution  of  colored  gelatine  in  hot 
water;  a  piece  of  paper  is  placed  on  top 
and  pressed  down  with  a  level  lid,  so  as  to 
squeeze  out  the  superfluous  gelatine.  The 
paper  is  then  lifted,  bringing  with  it  the 
colored  gelatine,  which  forms  the  picture. 

PHOTO-MICROGRAPHY. 

The  co-application  of  the  microscope  and 
photographic  process  has  led  to  wonderful 
results,  which  we  may  briefly  illustrate  by 
an  example.  Merely  referring  to  the  early 
attempts  of  Donne',  and  the  experiments  of 
Gerlach,  Albert,  and  Maddox  in  Europe,  and 
of  Rood  and  Rutherford  in  America,  we  may 
describe  the  plan  adopted  by  Colonel  J.  J. 
Woodward,  M.  D.,  of  the  United  States 
Army  Medical  Museum  in  Washington. 
He  dispenses  with  a  camera  and  ground 
glass.  The  operating-room  has  two  win 
dows,  through  one  of  which  sufficient  yel 
low  light  is  admitted  to  enable  the  oper 
ator  to  work ;  the  lower  part  of  the  other 
window  is  provided  with  a  shutter  four 
teen  inches  high,  the  upper  part  being 
blackened.  In  the  shutter  is  a  hole  in 
which  is  inserted  a  tube,  a,  through 
which  the  solar  light  reflected  from  a 
plane  mirror,  b,  or,  preferably,  a  heliostat, 
is  thrown  upon  the  achromatic  condenser 
of  the  microscope,  c,  which  is  placed  on  a 
10 


shelf  at  the  window  of  the  dark  room.  The 
light  reflected  through  the  tube,  which  is 
provided  with  an  achromatic  lens  of  about 
ten  inches  focal  length,  is  thrown  upon  the 
achromatic  condenser,  d  is  the  focusing 
device ;  g  f,  the  negative  holder  and  its 
stand. 

For  powers  from  200  to  500,  a  £-inch  ob 
jective  without  an  eye-piece  is  used,  the 
power  being  varied  by  increasing  or  dimin 
ishing  the  distance  of  the  sensitized  plate 
from  the  instrument.  A  cell  filled  with  am- 
monio-sulphate  of  copper,  which  absorbs  the 
non-actinic  rays,  is  interposed  between  the 
large  lens  and  the  condenser,  and  a  hood  is 
drawn  around  the  instrument  to  prevent 
any  loss  of  light. 

For  objects  magnified  less  than  500  diam 
eters  the  time  of  exposure,  being  less  than 
a  second,  is  regulated  by  a  sliding  shutter 
placed  before  a  slit  in  front  of  the  micro 
scope,  the  width  of  the  slit  being  adjusted 
to  correspond  with  the  required  length  of 
exposure.  For  powers  between  500  and 
1500  a  ^§-inch.  objective  is  employed,  dis 
pensing  in  general  with  an  eye-piece  or  am 
plifier,  and  placing  the  sensitized  plate  at 
a  distance  not  exceeding  three  to  four  feet 
from  the  microscope.  In  the  case  of  objects 
having  very  minute  details,  however,  it  is 
frequently  advantageous  to  employ  an  eye 
piece  or  amplifier  rather  than  enlarge  a  neg 
ative  taken  Avith  a  smaller  power. 

Though  natural  sunlight  is  to  be  pre 
ferred,  it  may  be  sometimes  necessary,  when 
this  is  wanting,  to  employ  artificial  illumi 
nation.  For  this  purpose  the  electric,  the 
magnesium,  and  the  oxy- calcium  lights 
have  been  used  with  success.  Of  these  the 


WOODWARD'S  MIORO-PHOTOORAPHIO  APPABATUB 
(WITH  SOLAR  LIGHT). 


146 


MECHANICAL  PKOGRESS. 


electric  light  is  the  best,  and  for  its  pro 
duction  Dr.  Woodward  employs  a  Duboscq 
lamp,  operated  by  a  battery  of  fifty  small 
Grove  elements,  ten  in  a  cell. 

Olt/l  3ctM0i 
AaucnfrteL 


lit  tiwt 


lead  (i 


THE  LOKD'8  PBAYKE. 

The  accompanying  figure  is  a  fac-simile 
of  a  photograph  obtained  by  the  instrument 
just  described.  It  is  an  enlargement  on  a 
scale  of  617  diameters  from  a  writing  on 
glass  by  Webb,  of  London,  for  the  United 
States  Army  Medical  Museum.  The  writ 


ing  was  executed  with  a  diamond  point  by 
an  instrument  of  Mr.  Webb's  invention,  and 
known  as  a  micro-pantograph. 

The  glass  slip  also  contains  the  following 
inscription  in  a  larger  writing:  "Webb's 
Test.  The  Lord's  Prayer.  227  letters  in 
the  5J5  X  5^3;  of  an  inch,  or  the  larreK*  of  a 
square  inch,  and  at  the  rate  of  29,431,458  let 
ters  to  an  inch,  which  is  more  than  8  Bibles, 
the  Bible  containing  3,566,480  letters." 

The  area  within  which  the  prayer  was 
written  was  micrometrically  verified  by  Dr. 
Woodward,  who  found  that  it  and  the 
above  inscription  were  contained  within  a 
space  Tf-g  of  an  inch  square. 

According  to  a  statement  made  in  1862 
by  Mr.  Farrants,  president  of  the  Micro 
scopical  Society  of  London,  Mr.  Peters  has 
succeeded  in  writing  the  Lord's  Prayer  so 
as  to  be  distinctly  legible,  with  sufficient 
magnifying  power,  within  the  space  of 
of  a  square  inch. 


III. 


PROGRESS  IN  MANUFACTURE. 


WHAT  ARE  MANUFACTURES? 

IN  a  general  but  correct  sense  all  prod 
ucts  suitable  for  use,  resulting  from  the 
applications,  through  human  hand  or  brain, 
of  the  forces  of  nature  to  matter  are  man 
ufactures,  and  each  person  who  takes  part  in 
effecting  or  directing  such  applications  is 
a  manufacturer.  Thus  the  laborer  in  the 
field  who  prepares  the  soil,  scatters  the  seed, 
and  harvests  the  grain,  the  wagoner,  the 
railroad  employe",  or  the  sailor  who  trans 
ports  it  to  the  mill,  are,  in  truth,  as  much 
the  makers  (factnrers)  of  the  flour  as  the 
men  who,  standing  at  the  door  of  the  mill, 
receive  the  grain,  pass  it  through  machin 
ery,  and  when  changed  in  form  pack  and 
deliver  it  to  the  consumers.  No  one  of  all 
these  intermediaries  between  the  first  step 
in  the  so-called  process  of  production — i.  e., 
the  leading  or  drawing  forth  (pro  and  duce) 
— and  the  final  use  of  the  product,  which 
we  call  consumption,  at  any  time  makes  any 
thing  in  the  sense  of  creating,  but  is  only 
the  agent,  more  or  less  skilled,  for  directing 
one  or  more  of  a  series  of  movements,  each 
of  which  diifers  from  the  other  in  degree, 
but  not  in  kind.  For  convenience,  how 
ever,  all  these  movements  are  economically 
divided  into  groups  or  classes,  under  such 
general  names  as  agriculture,  mining,  com 
merce,  the  fisheries,  and  manufactures — the 
last  name  being  more  especially  applied  to 
designate  those  movements  which  have 
reference  to  the  changing  or  elaborating, 
through  the  aid  of  machinery,  of  those  forms 
of  product  which  have  been  the  result  of 
previous  movements  effected  under  the  de 
partments  of  agriculture  and  mining,  and 
to  some  extent  also  of  the  fisheries. 

SOURCES  OF  INFORMATION. 
In  the  sense  of  the  definition,  as  thus  giv 
en,  there  are  no  available  data  for  making 
any  thing  like  a  complete  exhibit  of  the 
gradual  development  of  the  manufacturing 
industry  of  the  American  people,  not  only, 
as  might  be  expected,  for  so  much  of  the 
period  of  their  history  as  is  antecedent  to 


the  adoption  of  the  Federal  Constitution 
and  the  full  organization  and  adjustment 
of  the  affairs  of  the  new  nation,  but  what 
is  more  remarkable,  and  at  the  same  time 
not  generally  known,  for  so  much  of  the 
present  century  also  as  is  antecedent  to 
the  year  1850,  at  which  date  the  govern 
ment  of  the  United  States  for  the  first  time, 
through  the  census,  attempted  to  ascertain, 
with  even  approximative  accuracy,  the  ex 
act  industrial  statistics  of  the  country.  The 
requirement  of  the  Federal  Constitution 
(adopted  in  convention  in  1787)  that  an 
"enumeration"  (of  the  people)  "shall  be 
made  within  three  years  after  the  first 
meeting  of  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States,  and  within  every  subsequent  term 
of  ten  years" — being  the  first  provision  of 
the  kind  instituted  in  connection  with  the 
constitution  of  any  government1 — only  con 
templated  the  obtaining  of  information  re 
specting  population  for  the  ulterior  purpose 
of  apportioning  representation  and  direct 
taxation.  The  returns,  accordingly,  of  the 
first  census,  taken  in  1790,  and  of  the  sec 
ond  census,  taken  in  1800,  afforded  no  infor 
mation  whatever  concerning  either  the  ag 
gregate  wealth  of  the  country,  the  occupa 
tions  of  the  people,  or  the  nature  and  value 
of  their  annual  product.  It  is  to  be  noted, 
however,  that  previous  to  the  enactment  of 
the  census  law  of  1800  some  public  citizens, 
engaged  in  scientific  and  philosophical  pur- 

1  Moreau  de  Jonnos,  a  distinguished  French  econo 
mist,  refers  to  this  provision  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  in  the  following  language:  "The 
United  States  presents  in  its  history  a  phenomenon 
which  has  no  parallel.  It  is  that  of  a  people  who  in 
stituted  the  statistics  of  their  country  on  the  very  day 
when  they  formed  their  government,  and  who  regu 
lated  in  the  same  instrument  the  census  of  their  citi 
zens,  their  civil  and  political  rights,  and  the  destinies 
of  the  country."  This  eulogium  was,  however,  hard 
ly  warranted ;  for  there  is  no  evidence  that  the  f ramers 
of  the  Constitution  in  creating  a  census  ever  contem 
plated  any  other  object  than  an  enumeration  of  the 
people,  as  furnishing  a  basis  for  the  apportionment 
of  representation  and  direct  taxes.  But  "  they  build- 
ed  wiser  than  they  knew,"  inasmuch  as  they  provided 
an  instrumentality  by  which  in  the  future  the  most 
vital  questions  pertaining  to  the  political  and  social 
interests  of  the  state  could  aloue  be  answered. 


148 


PROGRESS  IN  MANUFACTURE. 


suits,  sought  tc  prevail  on  Congress  to  make 
the  census  of  that  year  something  more 
than  a  mere  enumeration  of  the  popula 
tion  ;  and  two  learned  societies,  namely,  the 
American  Philosophical  Society,  of  which 
Thomas  Jefferson  was  then  president,  and 
the  Connecticut  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sci 
ences,  Timothy  D  wight,  president,  sent  in 
memorials  on  the  subject;  but  beyond  re 
ferring  the  memorials  to  a  committee  there 
is  no  record  on  the  part  of  Congress  of  any 
further  action. 

In  ordering  for  the  third  census,  that  of 
1810,  Congress, however,  for  the  first  time  en 
acted  that,  in  addition  to  enumerating  the 
people,  it  should  be  the  duty  of  the  mar 
shals  to  take  also,  under  the  direction  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  an  account  of  the 
"  several  manufacturing  establishments  and 
manufactures  within  their  several  districts," 
and  set  aside  for  this  service  the  sum  of 
$30,000,  out  of  an  aggregate  of  $150,000  pre 
viously  appropriated  for  the  general  pur 
poses  of  taking  the  census.  This  latter  sum, 
although  seemingly  small,  was  nevertheless 
considered  to  be  amply  sufficient  to  cover 
all  the  expenses  of  the  third  census ;  and  in 
comparison  with  an  expenditure  of  nearly 
three  and  a  half  millions  authorized  by  Con 
gress  in  connection  with  the  taking  in  1870 
of  the  ninth  census,  strikingly  illustrates 
the  change  in  all  the  elements  of  national 
development  effected  between  the  two  peri 
ods.  As  further  illustrating  the  same  point, 
it  may  be  also  interesting  to  note  that  the 
report  of  the  first  census  was  comprised  in 
an  octavo  pamphlet  of  fifty-two  pages,  and 
that  of  the  second  census  in  a  folio  of  sev 
enty-eight  pages,  while  the  report  of  the 
ninth  census  required  three  large  quarto 
volumes  of  679,  851,  and  806  pages  respect 
ively,  besides  a  statistical  atlas. 

As  the  first  attempt  to  set  forth  the  con 
dition  of  American  manufacturing  industry 
in  detail,  the  results  of  the  third  census  were 
looked  for  by  Congress  and  the  country  with 
no  little  of  interest ;  but  when  the  industrial 
returns  were  sent  in  they  proved  so  imper 
fect  and  discordant  that  the  Committee  of 
Commerce  and  Manufactures  on  the  part  of 
the  House  of  Representatives,  to  whom  they 
•were  referred,  reported,  through  one  of  its 
members,  that  it  was  impossible  to  arrange 
them  in  any  form  which  would  be  "alike 


useful  and  compendious."  In  accordance 
with  a  joint  resolution  they  were  therefore 
referred  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury — 
then  Mr.  Gallatin  —  with  instructions  to 
place  the  entire  returns  in  the  hands  of 
some  person  competent  to  make  a  digest  of 
them;  and  for  this  purpose  the  Secretary 
subsequently  selected  Mr.  Tench  Coxe,  of 
Philadelphia,  who  in  1813  submitted  a  re 
port,  which,  although  from  necessity  most 
imperfect,  was  nevertheless  of  great  interest 
and  value.  How  imperfect  the  material 
placed  at  the  disposal  of  Mr.  Coxe  really 
was  may  be  inferred  from  the  circumstance 
that  not  even  an  attempt  was  made  under 
the  census  of  1810  to  take  an  account,  under 
the  head  of  manufactures,  of  the  capital  em 
ployed,  raw  material,  number  of  hands,  or 
cost  of  labor ;  but  only  the  number  of  man 
ufacturing  establishments,  the  character  of 
the  machinery  used,  and  the  quantity  and 
value  of  certain  staple  products,  and  of  oven 
these  last  the  statistics  collected  were  so  ir 
regular  as  to  be  nearly  worthless. 

In  1820,  on  the  occasion  of  the  taking  of 
the  fourth  census,  an  effort  was  again  made 
to  obtain  statistics  of  industry ;  but  when 
the  returns  came  in  they  were  again  found 
so  discreditable  that  the  Secretary  of  State 
was  only  constrained  by  the  mandatory 
character  of  the  law  to  permit  their  publi 
cation;  and  the  House  of  Representatives, 
after  debating  thfc  propriety  of  suppressing 
the  entire  document,  refused  to  pass  a  reso 
lution  providing  for  its  public  distribution. 

The  result  of  these  two  unsuccessful  ef 
forts  was  that  in  providing  for  the  taking 
of  the  ffth  census  the  attempt  to  collect 
any  industrial  statistics  whatever  was  whol 
ly  abandoned;  and  although  in  1840  sched 
ules  for  obtaining  statistics  of  industry  were 
issued  to  the  marshals  engaged  in  taking 
the  sixth  census,  the  results  obtained  were 
regarded  as  of  little  or  no  importance. 

The  act  of  1850,  however,  under  which 
the  seventh,  eighth,  and  ninth  censuses  of  the 
United  States  were  taken,  in  the  years  1850, 
1860,  and  1870  respectively,  marks  an  era  in 
the  history  of  American  statistics,  inasmuch 
as  it  not  only  incorporated  provisions  of  law 
looking  to  the  obtaining  of  results  of  sub 
stantial  value  relative  to  domestic  industry, 
but  also  for  the  first  time  so  insured  the  of 
ficial  observance  of  the  law  that  it  became 


SOURCES  OF  INFORMATION. 


149 


possible  to  recognize  the  returns  to  a  cer 
tain  extent  as  standards  for  making  com 
parisons  and  deductions  in  the  future.  And 
for  such  a  result  a  debt  of  national  gratitude 
is  due,  more  than  to  all  others,  to  the  Hon. 
Joseph  G.  Kennedy,  under  whose  superin 
tendence  the  work  of  the  censuses  of  1850 
and  of  1860  was  chiefly  performed. 

But  commendable  as  were  the  returns  of 
the  census  of  1850,  those  of  1860  were  much 
more  comprehensive  and  accurate ;  while 
the  ninth  census,  taken  in  1870,  under  the  su 
perintendence  of  Hon.  F.  A.  Walker,  was  not 
only  very  far  superior  in  every  respect  to 
any  previous  census  of  the  United  States, 
but  .also  compares  favorably  with  any  work 
of  the  kind  previously  executed  in  any  coun 
try.  At  the  same  time  it  ought  to  be  known 
that  the  returns  of  the  ninth  census  were 
very  far  from  being  as  complete  and  useful 
as  they  could  and  would  have  been  had  not 
personal  and  partisan  spirit,  overruling  all 
considerations  of  national  good,  mainly  on 
the  part  of  one  man,  prevented  Congress 
from  adopting  a  new  law,  carefully  prepared 
by  a  committee  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  (with  the  assistance  of  the  best  statis 
ticians  of  every  department  in  the  country), 
and  subsequently  passed  by  the  House  al 
most  unanimously,  and  so  compelled  the 
performance  of  the  work  under  the  old  law, 
one  of  whose  provisions  required  the  enu 
meration  and  valuation  of  slaves,  when  the 
institution  of  slavery  had  for  years  been 
abolished. 

But  in  addition  to  the  reports  of  the  cen 
sus,  the  materials  available  for  the  prepara 
tion  of  a  history  of  American  manufacturing 
industry  are  exceedingly  varied,  and  if  not 
complete,  exact,  and  accordant,  are  at  least 
invested  with  a  high  degree  of  interest. 
For  the  earlier  periods,  or  for  the  first  one 
hundred  and  fifty  years  of  our  national  his 
tory,  the  few  particulars  which  can  now  be 
gathered  are  to  be  sought  for  mainly  in  co 
lonial  statutes  and  records,  private  corre 
spondence,  minutes  of  councils  and  assem 
blies,  local  histories,  and  individual  biogra 
phies.  In  1791  Alexander  Hamilton,  then 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  in  obedience  to  a 
resolution  of  Congress,  submitted  his  famous 
report  on  domestic  manufactures  and  their 
relations  to  the  new  Federal  government, 
in  which,  without  entering  into  details,  he 


gave  an  enumeration  of  such  branches  of  in 
dustry  under  this  head  as  seemed  to  him  at 
that  time  to  be  permanently  established  in 
the  country.  Hamilton's  report  was  follow 
ed  in  1813  by  the  work  of  Tench  Coxe,  of 
Philadelphia,  above  referred  to ;  while  in 
1816  Timothy  Pitkin,  a  Representative  in 
Congress  from  the  State  of  Connecticut  from 
1808  to  1819,  published,  under  the  title  of  A 
Statistical  View  of  the  Commerce  of  the  United 
States,  including  also  an  Account  of  Banks, 
Manufactures,  and  Internal  Trade,  what  at  the 
time  of  the  appearance  of  the  first  edition, 
and  long  subsequent  also  to  the  second  edi 
tion  in  1835,  held  rank  as  the  most  compre 
hensive  and  authoritative  commercial  and 
statistical  work  of  American  origin.  At 
present  the  most  complete  repertory  of  facts 
concerning  the  rise  and  progress  of  Ameri 
can  manufactures  is  to  be  found  in  the  work 
of  the  late  Dr.  J.  L.  Bishop,  of  Philadelphia, 
entitled  A  History  of  American  Manufacturer 
from  1608  to  1860 — three  volumes ;  in  addi 
tion  to  which  there  have  also  been  from  time 
to  time  important  publications  by  various  au 
thors  on  specialties  of  manufactures  and  the 
mechanic  arts,  as  Thomas's  History  of  Print 
ing,  White's  Memoirs  of  Slater,  Batchelder  on 
the  Cotton  Manufacture  of  the  United  States, 
Munsell's  Chronology  of  Paper  and  Paper-mak 
ing,  as  well  as  numerous  statistical  reports 
from  special  industrial  associations,  as  the 
American  Iron  and  Steel  Association,  Nation 
al  Association  of  American  Cotton  and  Wool 
en  Manufacturers,  etc.,  etc.  Within  a  com 
paratively  recent  period,  also,  many  of  the 
States  have  prepared  and  published,  every 
five  years  subsequent  to  the  national  cen 
sus,  very  full  details  of  their  local  domestic 
industries ;  and  as  the  principle  that  healthy 
legislation  can  only  flow  from  an  exact 
knowledge  of  the  condition  and  wants  of 
the  people  has  gradually  obtained  public 
recognition,  the  establishment  of  distinct 
bureaus  of  statistics,  reporting  every  year 
with  great  minuteness  of  detail  the  particu 
lars  of  all  important  industrial  occupations, 
is  beginning  to  be  regarded  as  an  indispen 
sable  adjunct  of  all  State  governments. 

With  this  brief  review  of  the  sources  of 
information  available  for  studying  the  his 
tory  of  our  national  industrial  progress,  at 
tention  is  next  asked  to  the  subject  of  the 
origin  and  development  of  American  manu- 


150 


PROGKESS  IN  MANUFACTURE. 


factures  from  the  period  of  the  first  settle 
ment  in  Virginia,  in  1607-8,  to  the  dissolu 
tion  of  the  colonial  system  by  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence  and  of  nationality,  in 
1776. 

PROGRESS  FROM  1607  TO  1776. 

And  in  reviewing  the  pertinent  facts  of 
this  period  the  circumstance  that  in  the 
first  instance  most  forcibly  arrests  atten 
tion  is  the  strong  natural  tendency  exhibit 
ed  from  the  very  outset  by  the  people  who 
colonized  and  built  up  the  American  States 
to  multiply  and  diversify  their  industries — 
a  fact  in  striking  contrast  with  and  in  oppo 
sition  to  the  opinion  so  assiduously  main 
tained  by  a  school  of  American  economists 
that  such  a  result,  among  an  intelligent 
people,  inhabiting  a  country  of  varied  re 
sources,  does  not  tend  to  occur  naturally, 
but  is  rather  the  direct  offspring  of  legis 
lative  direction  and  interference. 

Thus,  for  example,  the  second  vessel  dis 
patched  by  the  London  Company,  in  1608, 
to  the  settlement  at  Jamestown,  Virginia 
(founded  the  previous  year),  brought  num 
bers  of  persons  skilled  in  manufactures,  of 
whom  says  the  historian  (Stith),  "No  soon 
er  were  they  landed,  but  the  President  dis 
patched  as  many  as  were  able,  some  to  make 
glass,  and  others  for  pitch,  tar,  and  soap- 
ashes;"  and  the  very  first  manufactory 
established  within  the  territory  now  con 
trolled  by  the  United  States  was  a  "glass 
house"  (furnace)  in  the  woods  of  Virginia, 
about  a  mile  from  the  settlement  of  James 
town.  And  it  is  further  interesting  to  note 
that,  with  the  exception  of  a  cargo  of  "  sas 
safras"  gathered  in  the  vicinity  of  Cape 
Cod  in  1608,  the  first  export  from  the  Brit 
ish  North  American  colonies  consisted  in 
great  part  of  what  in  the  most  technical 
sense  are  termed  "manufactures;"  or,  to  use 
the  quaint  language  of  Captain  John  Smith 
in  his  letter  which  accompanied  the  invoice, 
"  of  trials  of  pitch,  tar,  glass,  frankincense, 
and  soap-ashes,  with  what  wainscot  and 
clapboard  as  could  be  forwarded."  Bever- 
ley  in  his  History  of  Virginia,  writing  of  the 
condition  of  affairs  twelve  years  later,  or  in 
1620,  also  says :  "  Many  of  the  people  became 
very  industrious,  and  began  to  vie  with  one 
another  in  planting,  building,  and  other  im 
provements.  A  salt-work  was  set  up  on  the 
eastern  shore  and  an  iron-work  at  Falling 


Creek,  on  Jamestown  River,  where  they 
made  proof  of  good  iron  ore,  and  brought 
the  whole  work  so  near  a  perfection  that 
they  sent  word  to  the  company  in  London 
that  they  did  not  doubt  but  to  push  the 
work,  and  have  plentiful  provision  of  iron 
for  them  by  next  Easter." 

From  the  very  first,  under  the  popular  im 
pression  probably  that  the  country  was  par 
ticularly  adapted  to  the  production  of  silk, 
special  efforts  were  made  in  nearly  all  the 
colonies  to  direct  and  divert  the  attention  of 
the  people  to  this  particular  industry ;  and 
it  is  recorded  that  the  first  Assembly  that 
convened  in  Virginia  under  a  written  con 
stitution,  in  1621,  especially  occupied  itself 
with  considering  "how  best  to  encourage 
the  silk  culture."  In  1662  also  the  Virginia 
Assembly,  with  a  view  of  encouraging  man 
ufactures,  offered  prizes  for  the  best  speci 
mens  of  linen  and  woolen  cloth,  and  a  spe 
cial  prize  of  fifty  pounds  of  tobacco  for  each 
pound  of  wound  silk  produced  in  the  colo 
ny  ;  and  it  was  also  enjoined  that  for  every 
hundred  acres  of  land  held  in  fee,  the  pro 
prietor  should  be  required  to  plant  and 
fence  twelve  mulberry-trees.  Silk  culture 
in  Georgia  also  so  largely  occupied  the  atten 
tion  of  the  first  colonists  that  a  public  seal 
was  adopted  bearing  as  a  device  silk-worms 
engaged  in  their  labors ;  while  bounties  for 
the  encouragement  of  the  same  industry 
were  repeatedly  offered  by  the  colonies  of 
Connecticut,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  North 
and  South  Carolina.  The  extraordinary  ef 
forts  thus  made  resulted  in  some  degree  of 
success.  Small  lots  of  Virginia  silk  were 
sent  to  England  as  early  as  1660,  and,  ac 
cording  to  tradition,  formed  part  of  the 
coronation  robes  of  Charles  II.  Raw  silk 
for  a  considerable  number  of  years  became 
also  one  of  the  regular  exports  from  Georgia, 
and  for  the  eighteen  years  next  subsequent 
to  1750  the  amount  so  exported  averaged 
about  550  pounds  per  annum.  In  Con 
necticut  the  production  and  manufacture 
of  silk  was  made  a  matter  of  special  legis 
lation  as  early  as  1732 ;  and  in  1747  it  is  re 
corded  that  the  Governor,  Mr.  Law,  had  a 
silk  coat  and  stockings  entirely  of  domestic 
manufacture.  It  is,  however,  a  most  inter 
esting  and  suggestive  circumstance  that 
this  specialty  of  employment,  which  from 
the  first  settlement  of  the  country  was  par- 


COLONIAL  PROGRESS. 


151 


ticularly  selected  as  worthy  of  attention, 
and  as  such  did  receive  for  nearly  two 
hundred  years  from  the  various  colonial 
and  State  authorities  an  amount  of  encour 
agement,  through  special  legislation,  great 
er  than  was  bestowed  on  any  other  interest, 
is  the  only  one  of  the  great  industries  which 
has  never  been  able  to  attain  to  a  healthy 
condition  of  existence  on  the  North  Ameri 
can  continent,  and  to-day  only  exists  in  the 
United  States  in  virtue  of  a  degree  of  legis 
lative  encouragement  far  in  excess  of  that 
demanded  and  received  by  any  other  indus 
trial  interest. 

But  zealously  as  did  the  first  settlers  of 
Virginia  engage  at  the  outset  in  manufac 
tures,  the  characteristics  of  the  territory 
upon  which  they  located,  in  respect  to  fer 
tility  of  soil  and  mildness  of  climate,  proved 
antagonistic ;  and  obeying  the  promptings 
of  self-interest,  which  are  always  a  far  bet 
ter  and  surer  guide  than  legislation  for  de 
termining  what  occupations  individuals  as 
well  as  communities  can  best  follow,  they  in 
common  with  the  population  of  all  the  oth 
er  Southern  colonies  early  became  planters 
rather  than  artisans.  And  from  that  day  to 
this  American  manufacturing  industry  has 
found  its  greatest  development  in  other 
and  less  fertile  localities.  It  has  also  been 
noted  as  somewhat  prophetic  of  the  tastes 
and  tendencies  of  the  different  sections  of 
the  future  nation  into  which  all  the  colo 
nies  were  subsequently  blended,  that  the 
first  book  written  and  the  first  book  print 
ed  in  what  is  now  the  United  States  were 
in  verse — the  one  a  translation  of  Ovid's 
Metamorphoses,  by  Mr.  George  Sandys, 
Treasurer  of  Virginia,  and  the  other  the 
Bay  Psalm-Hook,  in  New  England. 

Strenuous  efforts  were  indeed  made  by 
the  authorities  to  arrest  the  tendency  of  the 
people  of  Virginia  to  engage  in  agriculture 
rather  than  in  manufactures  or  commerce, 
and  in  1689  it  was  even  ordered  that  all  the 
tobacco  grown  in  the  colony  in  excess  of  a 
certain  quantity  should  be  destroyed.  But 
this  and  other  efforts,  like  the  offering  of 
prizes  for  the  encouragement  of  the  produc 
tion  of  textile  fabrics,  proved  of  no  avail. 
Tobacco  grew  most  luxuriously,  and  in  1617 
readily  commanded  three  shillings  per  pound, 
and  the  Virginians  soon  found  that  it  was, 
at  least  for  the  time,  more  advantageous  to 


buy  manufactured  articles  with  the  pro 
ceeds  of  their  crops  than  to  manufacture 
for  themselves. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  New  England  the 
circumstances  of  a  sterile  soil  and  a  harsh 
climate  were  antagonistic  to  agriculture  and 
in  favor  of  commerce  and  manufactures,  and 
from  a  very  early  day  powerfully  contrib 
uted  to  give  to  this  section  of  country  a 
supremacy  in  respect  to  the  two  last-named 
branches  of  industry  which  no  subsequent 
influences  have  ever  seriously  impaired  or 
threatened.  The  branch  of  manufacturing 
industry  to  which  the  attention  of  the  New 
England  colonists  was  first,  and  as  it  were 
naturally,  directed,  by  reason  of  the  inex 
haustible  wealth  of  their  forests,  was  the 
manufacture  of  lumber,  for  which  there  was 
a  constant  and  remunerative  demand  in 
England  and  throughout  the  West  Indies. 
Ship-building  commenced  in  the  Plymouth 
Colony  within  three  years  after  the  lauding, 
and  the  business  subsequently  received  a 
great  impulse  by  the  overthrow  of  the  mon 
archy  under  Charles  I.  and  the  establish 
ment  of  the  Commonwealth,  which  led  the 
colonists  to  apprehend  that  the  incentive  to 
emigration,  and  the  consequent  sailing  of 
ships  from  England,  being  diminished,  they 
would  be  thereby  left  dependent  on  their 
own  resources  for  interoceauic  communica 
tions.  "The  general  fear,"  says  Governor 
Winthrop,  in  his  journal,  "  of  a  want  of  for 
eign  commodities,  now  our  money  was  gone, 
and  that  things  were  like  to  go  well  in  En 
gland,  set  us  on  work  to  provide  shipping  of 
our  own ;"  and  the  business  was  prosecuted 
with  such  vigor  that  within  ten  years  after 
the  launching  of  the  first  vessel  ever  built  in 
Massachusetts,  namely,  on  the  4th  of  July, 
1631,  the  General  Court  passed  the  follow 
ing  resolution :  "  Whereas,  the  country  is 
now  in  hand  with  the  building  of  ships,  and 
therefore  suitable  care  is  been  taken  that  it 
be  well  performed,  it  is  therefore  ordered 
that  surveyors  be  appointed  to  examine  any 
ship  built,  to  see  that  it  be  performed  and 
carried  on  according  to  the  rules  of  the 
art."  In  the  year  1676,  just  a  century  be 
fore  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  550 
vessels  are  reported  to  have  been  built  iu 
Boston  and  the  vicinity,  of  which  230  ranged 
from  50  to  250  tons  burden ;  and  in  1731  the 
trade  of  Massachusetts  alone  employed  600 


152 


PROGRESS  IN  MANUFACTURE. 


sail  of  ships  and  sloops,  having  an  aggre 
gate  of  38,000  tonnage — one-half  of  which 
traded  to  Europe — in  addition  to  over  1000 
sail  and  from  5000  to  6000  men  employed  at 
the  same  time  in  the  fisheries. 

In  1640  the  General  Court  of  Connecticut 
enacted  as  follows :  ".  It  is  thought  neces 
sary  for  the  comfortable  support  of  these 
plantations  that  a  trade  in  cotten  wooll  he 
sett  upon  and  attempted,  and  for  the  fur 
thering  thereof  it  has  pleaced  the  Governor 
that  now  is  (Edward  Hopkins,  Esq.)  to  un 
dertake  the  finishing  and  setting  forth  a 
vessell  with  convenient  speed  to  those  ports 
where  the  said  commodity  is  to  be  had,  if  it 
be  pheasable,"  etc. ;  and  in  1642  the  Court 
further  apportioned  the  amount  of  cotten 
wooll  that  each  town  should  take  from  Mr. 
Hopkins,  the  share  of  Hartford  being  £200 
worth.  In  1666  also  the  Assembly  of  Con 
necticut,  with  an  exceptional  degree  of  wis 
dom,  which  Great  Britain  long  afterward 
imitated,  as  did  the  State  of  Pennsylvania 
in  a  degree  in  1772,  exempted  ship-building 
from  all  local  taxation.  The  business  of 
constructing  ships  for  home  use  and  for 
sale  in  foreign  countries  was  also  exten 
sively  followed  in  nearly  all  the  other  col 
onies,  and  in  Maine  and  New  Hampshire 
especially  the  manufacture  of  spars,  masts, 
and  ship  timber  for  export  early  became  a 
leading  and  profitable  industry. 

The  first  saw-mill  in  New  England  is  be 
lieved  to  have  been  erected  as  early  as  1634 
or  1635  on  the  Salmon  Falls  River,  New 
Hampshire,  near  to  the  site  of  the  present 
city  of  Portsmouth.  The  first  water-mill  in 
New  England  is  supposed  to  have  been  put 
up  at  Dorchester,  Massachusetts,  as  early 
as  1628 ;  and  in  1633  another  was  erected  in 
the  Plymouth  Colony  by  one  Stephen  Dean, 
which  he  engaged  should  be  sufficient  to 
"  beat"  corn  for  the  whole  colony.  The 
number  of  mills  of  various  kinds  that  exist 
ed  in  that  part  of  Massachusetts  which  is 
now  Maine  as  early  as  1682  may  be  inferred 
from  the  circumstance  that  a  tax  was  im 
posed  that  year  on  mills  for  the  defense  of 
Fort  Loyal  against  the  French  and  Indians. 
The  first  Van  Rensselaer  sent  from  Holland 
to  Albany  as  early  as  1631  a  master  mill 
wright  and  two  small  millstones  for  a  small 
grist-mill.  The  first  grist-mill  in  Pennsyl 
vania  was  erected  by  Colonel  John  Priutz, 


Governor  of  what  was  then  called  New  Swe 
den,  in  1643.  Virginia  as  early  as  1649  had 
four  windmills  and  five  water-mills,  besides 
many  "  horse-mills,"  and  for  a  considerable 
number  of  years  exported  large  quantities 
of  breadstuff's  to  her  sister  colonies  and  to 
the  West  Indies. 

The  first  printing-press  in  what  is  now 
the  United  States  was  set  up  at  Cambridge, 
Massachusetts,  in  1638,  only  eighteen  years 
subsequent  to  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims 
in  the  wilderness.  The  first  thing  printed 
was  The  Freeman1  a  Oath,  a  broadside ;  the 
second,  an  almanac,  in  1639 ;  and  in  1640  the 
first  book,  "the  Psalms  newly  turned  into 
metre,"  or  The  Bay  Psalm-Boole,  as  it  was 
called — a  work  which  is  said  to  have  gone 
through  seventy  editions.  William  Penn 
landed  in  his  new  territory  of  Pennsylvania 
in  1682,  and  four  years  later  a  printing-press 
— the  third  in  the  colonies — was  at  work  in 
Philadelphia.  The  first  press  established  in 
the  Province  of  New  York  was  in  1693,  none 
having  been  allowed  there  during  the  rule 
of  the  Dutch.  In  Virginia  the  art  of  print 
ing  was  not  encouraged,  and  in  1683  is  said 
to  have  been  actually  prohibited,  while  in 
1671  Sir  William  Berkeley,  of  Virginia,  re 
turned  thanks  to  God  that  there  were  nei 
ther  free  schools  nor  printing  in  the  colony. 
"For  learning  has  brought  disobedience  and 
heresy  and  sects,  and  printing  has  divulged 
them,  and  libels  against  the  best  govern 
ment."  The  same  year  Governor  Dongan, 
of  New  York,  on  the  renewal  of  his  commis 
sion,  was  instructed  "  to  allow  no  printing- 
press."  The  first  printing-press  in  Con 
necticut  was  established  at  New  London 
in  1709;  in  Rhode  Island,  at  Newport,  in 
1713-14 ;  in  Delaware,  at  Annapolis,  in  1726 ; 
in  South  Carolina,  at  Charleston,  in  1730 ;  in 
New  Hampshire,  at  Portsmouth,  in  1756 ;  in 
North  Carolina,  at  Newbern,  in  1757;  in 
Georgia,  at  Savannah,  in  1762 ;  and  in  what 
is  now  the  State  of  Maine  in  1780.  The  first 
printing-press  in  the  territory  west  of  the 
Alleghanies  was  set  up  in  Kentucky  in  1786 ; 
the  second,  at  Knoxville,  Tennessee,  in  1793; 
and  the  third,  probably,  at  Marietta,  Ohio, 
in  1795. 

The  number  of  printing-presses  in  the 
colonies  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  is 
believed  to  have  been  about  forty.  The 
number  of  separate  works  printed  in  the 


PAPER    MANUFACTURE. 


153 


provinces  up  to  this  period  can  not  now  be 
ascertained ;  but  the  Philadelphia  Library 
contains  as  many  as  459  works  printed  in 
that  city  alone  prior  to  the  Revolution. 

The  first  book-binding  in  this  country  ap 
pears  to  have  been  an  edition  of  1000  copies 
of  the  Bible,  published  at  Cambridge  in  1663, 
which  was  followed  by  a  second  edition  of 
2000  copies  in  1685.  The  work  was  perform 
ed  by  one  John  Ratliffe,  who  came  from  En 
gland  expressly  for  this  purpose.  His  price 
was  about  3s.  4d.  per  volume,  and  one  Bible 
was  as  much  as  he  could  bind  in  one  day. 

The  manufacture  of  paper  of  any  descrip 
tion  was  not  established  in  any  of  the  colo 
nies  until  full  fifty  years  after  the  introduc 
tion  of  printing,  the  first  paper  mill  having 
been  erected  in  the  vicinity  of  Philadelphia 
by  one  William  Ritteuhousen,  a  native  of 
Germany,  about  the  year  1690.  The  first  pa 
per  mill  in  New  England  was  established  in 
the  town  of  Milton,  near  Boston,  in  1730,  by 
Daniel  Henchman,  Peter  Faneuil,  and  oth 
ers,  with  a  privilege  in  the  nature  of  a  pat 
ent  for  ten  years  from  the  General  Court 
of  Massachusetts,  on  condition  that  they 
should  make  in  the  first  fifteen  months  115 
reams  of  brown  paper  and  sixty  reams  of 
printing-paper,  and  the  third  year  writing- 
paper  of  a  superior  quality.  In  1732  the 
following  advertisement  appeared  in  the 
weekly  Rehearsal,  of  Boston  : 

"Richard  Fry,  Stationer,  Bookseller,  Paper-maker, 
and  Rag  merchant,  from  the  city  of  London,  keeps  at 
Mr.  Thomas  Fleet's,  printer,  at  the  Heart  and  Crown, 
in  Cornhill,  Boston,  where  said  Fry  is  ready  to  accom 
modate  all  Gentlemen,  Merchants,  and  Tradesmen  with 
setts  of  Accompt  books  after  the  most  acute  manner 
for  twenty  per  cent  cheaper  than  they  can  have  them 
from  London.  I  return  the  Public  Thanks  for  follow 
ing  the  Directions  of  my  former  Advertisement  for 
gathering  rags,  and  hope  they  will  continue  the  like 
Method,  having  received  upward  of  Seven  thousand 
weight  already." 

The  early  scarcity  of  paper  in  the  colo 
nies  is  illustrated  by  the  following  curious 
advertisement,  which  appeared  in  the  Bos 
ton  Evening  Post  in  1748  : 

"  Choice  Pennsylvania  Tobacco  paper  is  to  be  sold 
by  the  publisher  of  this  paper  at  the  Heart  and  Crown, 
where  may  be  also  had  the  Bulls  or  Indulgencies  of 
the  present  Pope,  Urban  VIII.,  either  by  the  single 
Bull,  Quire,  or  Ream,  at  a  much  cheaper  rate  than  they 
can  be  purchased  of  the  French  or  Spanish  priests." 

The  explanation  of  this  was  that  several 
bales  of  "  indulgencies,"  printed  upon  very 
good  paper  and  only  on  one  side,  had  been 


captured  by  an  English  cruiser  from  a  Span 
ish  vessel,  and  being  offered  at  a  very  low 
price,  had  been  purchased  by  the  Boston 
printer,  who  saw  an  opportunity  for  profit 
by  printing  ballads  or  other  matter  for  his 
customers  upon  the  backs  of  the  pontifical 
documents  in  question.  It  is  also  to  be 
noted  that  about  this  time  Robert  Salton- 
stall  was  fined  five  shillings  by  the  General 
Court  of  Massachusetts  for  presenting  a  pe 
tition  on  a  small  and  bad  piece  of  paper. 

In  1768  Colonel  Christopher  Leflingwell 
erected  at  Norwich  the  first  paper  mill  in 
the  colony  of  Connecticut,  under  the  prom 
ise  of  a  bounty  from  the  General  Assembly. 
Two  years  after  he  was  accordingly  awarded 
twopence  a  quire  on  4020  quires  of  writing- 
paper,  and  one  penny  each  on  10,600  quires 
of  printing-paper.  Having  attained  such  a 
degree  of  success,  it  is  recorded  that  the 
government  patronage  was  soon  afterward 
withdrawn. 

In  Pennsylvania  the  Dunkers,  who  set 
tled  in  Lancaster  County,  very  early  gave 
their  attention  to  the  manufacture  of  paper, 
and  also  set  up  a  printing-press.  During 
the  Revolution,  and  just  previotis  to  the  bat 
tle  of  the  Brandy  wine,  messengers  were  sent 
to  their  mill  for  a  supply  of  paper  for  car 
tridges.  The  mill  happening  to  be  out  of 
unmanufactured  paper,  the  fraternity,  who 
held  their  property  in  common,  sent  back 
as  a  substitute  to  the  Continental  army  sev 
eral  wagon  loads  of  an  edition  of  Fox's  Boole 
of  Martyrs,  and  from  the  paper  supplied  by 
the  pages  of  this  work  the  cartridges  used 
in  the  battle  were  in  part  manufactured.1 

About  the  year  1770  the  number  of  paper 
mills  in  the  provinces  of  Pennsylvania,  New 
Jersey,  and  Delaware  was  reported  to  be 
forty,  this  department  of  manufacturing  in 
dustry  having  especially  developed  in  the 
vicinity  of  Philadelphia,  which  was  at  that 
time  the  centre  of  literary  activity  for  the 
colonies.  It  was  a  business,  moreover,  in 
which  Dr.  Franklin  was  greatly  interested ; 
and  he  told  De  Warville,  a  French  traveler 
who  visited  America  in  1788,  that  he  had 
himself  established  as  many  as  eighteen 
mills. 

The  business  of  the  manufacture  of  "  pa 
per-hangings"  commenced  in  the  colonies 

'  Bishop's  History  of  American  Manufactures. 


154 


PROGRESS  IN  MANUFACTURE. 


about  the  year  1760,  and  in  1791  it  was  one 
of  the  branches  of  domestic  industry,  ac 
cording  to  the  report  of  the  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  which  were  well  established. 
Samples  of  home  manufacture,  which  were 
highly  approved  of,  and  which  found  a 
ready  sale,  were  exhibited  to  the  New  York 
Society  of  Arts  and  Manufactures  as  early 
as  1765. 

The  household  manufacture  of  textile  fab 
rics — of  cotton- wool,  linen,  and  silk — was  al 
most  coeval  with  the  settlement  of  the  con 
tinent,  and  the  same  circumstances  which 
have  been  before  noted  as  favoring  the 
building  of  ships  also  greatly  encouraged 
the  development  of  these  other  industries. 
We  are  accustomed,  and  with  good  reason, 
to  regard  the  tide  and  volume  of  immigra 
tion  which  has  flowed  from  the  Old  World 
to  the  New  since  1850  as  something  most 
remarkable,  but  the  largest  comparative  im 
migration  which  this  country  has  ever  ex 
perienced  occurred  during  the  first  half  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  between  1630  and 
1640,  when  nearly  every  year  added  a  num 
ber  of  individuals  nearly  or  quite  equal  to 
the  previously  existing  population.     The 
result  was   an  extraordinary  demand  for 
provisions,  not  only  for  home  consumption, 
but  also  for  the  West  Indies,  with  which 
trade  had  been  greatly  fostered  by  the  en 
terprise  of  ship-building  and  the  exporta 
tion  of  lumber,  and  the   attention   of  the 
colonists,  especially  in  New  England  and 
in  New  York,  was  largely  directed  to  the 
raising  of  cattle,  and  in  the  former  also  to 
the  prosecution  of  the  fisheries.     Governor 
Hutchinson,  indeed,  records  that  at  one  time 
the  price  of  cattle  in  the  colonies  rose  as  high 
as  £25,  and  even  £28,  per  head.     The  ces 
sation  of  immigration  in  1640,  consequent 
upon  the  cessation  of  persecution  in  En 
gland  for  religious  non-conformity,  caused 
an  immediate  and  excessive  decline  in  the 
price  of  cattle,  and  as  suddenly  cut  off  a 
leading  source  of  provincial  revenue.     At 
the  same  time,  with  their  thus  impaired 
means  of  purchase,  the  diminished  inter 
course  with  England  also  caused  great  un 
certainty  in  respect  to  the  supply  of  cloth 
ing,  for  which  the  colonists  had  been  up  to 
this  time  almost  wholly  dependent  upon  the 
mother  country.     What  next  happened,  as 
told  with  quaint  simplicity  by  the  early  his 


torian  of  New  England  (Hubbard),  striking 
ly  illustrates  the  state  of  things  in  which  a 
resort  to  manufactures  becomes  a  necessi 
ty  in  a  new  country.  After  describing  the 
manner  in  which  their  necessity  first  came 
upon  them,  he  continues : 

"  Now  the  country  of  New  England  was  to  seek  of 
a  way  to  provide  themselves  with  clothing,  which  they 
could  not  obtain  by  selling  cattle  as  before,  which 
were  now  fallen  from  that  huge  price  forementioned 
to  five  pounds  apiece;  nor  was  there  at  that  rate  a 
ready  vent  for  them  neither.  Thus  the  flood  which 
brought  in  much  wealth  to  many  persons,  the  contra 
ry  ebb  carried  all  away  out  of  their  reach.  To  help 
themselves  in  this  their  exigent,  for  the  necessary  sup 
ply  of  themselves  and  their  families,  the  General  Court 
made  order  for  the  manufacture  of  woolen  and  linen 
cloth,  which  with  God's  blessing  upon  man's  endeav 
or  in  a  little  time  stopped  this  gap  in  part,  and  soon 
after  another  door  was  opened  by  special  Providence ; 
for  when  one  hand  was  shut  by  way  of  supply  from 
England,  another  was  opened  by  way  of  traffic,  first  to 
the  West  Indies  and  Wine  Islands,  whereby,  among 
other  goods,  much  cotton-wool  was  brought  into  the 
country,  which  the  inhabitants,  learning  to  spin  and 
breeding  of  sheep  and  sewing  of  hemp  and  flax,  they 
soon  found  out  a  way  to  supply  themselves  of  cloth." 

The  first  regular  or  systematic  attempt 
to  manufacture  cloth,  particularly  woolen, 
was  made  by  a  company  of  Yorkshire  immi 
grants  who  settled  at  Rowley,  Massachu 
setts,  where  in  1643  was  erected  the  first 
fulling-mill  in  the  North  American  colonies. 
The  manufacture  of  cordage  was  entered 
upon  in  Boston  as  early  as  1629.  In  the 
New  Netherlands  (New  York),  although  the 
primary  object  with  the  mercantile  com 
pany  which  planted  and  governed  that  col 
ony  was  trade  with  the  Indians,  yet  the 
characteristic  industry  of  the  Dutch  prompt 
ed  to  a  very  extensive  household  manufac 
ture  of  linens,  woolens,  "and  hosiery ;  and 
Denton,  the  earliest  writer  in  that  province, 
says  (1670)  of  them,  "Every  one  make  their 
own  linen  and  a  great  part  of  their  woolen 
cloth  for  their  ordinary  wear."  Under  the 
auspices  of  William  Penn,  the  manufacture 
of  (linen  and  woolen)  cloth  was  one  of  the 
first  branches  of  industry  undertaken  in  his 
new  colony;  and  among  the  articles  men 
tioned  as  produced  in  Pennsylvania  as  early 
as  1698  (which  daily  improved  in  quality) 
were  druggets,  serges,  camblets,  and  a  va 
riety  of  other  stuff,  giving  employment  to 
dyers,  fullers,  comb -makers,  card -makers, 
weavers,  spinners,  etc.  The  general  prog 
ress  made  in  the  manufacture  of  fabrics  dur 
ing  the  first  century  of  the  existence  of  the 
North  American  colonies  is  also  indicated  by 


IRON. 


155 


a  report  which  Colonel  Heathcote,  a  member 
of  the  Council  of  the  Province  of  New  York, 
made  to  the  English  Board  of  Trade  in  1708, 
in  which  he  says  that  he  had  labored  to  di 
vert  the  Americans  from  going  on  with  their 
woolen  and  linen  manufactures,  which  are 
already  so  far  advanced  that  three-fourths 
of  the  linen  and  woolen  used  was  made 
among  them,  "especially  the  coarse  sort ;  and 
if  some  speedy  and  effectual  ways  are  not 
found  to  put  a  stop  to  it,  they  will  carry  it 
on  a  great  deal  further,  and  perhaps  in  time 
very  much  to  the  prejudice  of  our  manufac 
tures  at  home."  And  a  letter  written  from 
New  England  to  the  Board  of  Trade  in  1715 
dwells  particularly  on  "the  very  consider 
able  manufacture"  (in  the  colonies)  "  of  ker 
seys,  linsey-woolseys,  flannels,  buttons,  etc., 
by  which  the  importations  of  these  provinces 
has  been  decreased  fifty  thousand  pounds 
per  annum." 

The  smelting  of  iron  ore  was  one  of  the 
industries  attempted  by  the  first  settlers 
in  Virginia ;  but  both  the  iron-works  and 
the  "  glass-house,"  which  had  been  erected, 
were  early  destroyed  by  the  Indians,  who, 
although  not  versed  in  any  system  of  po 
litical  economy,  nevertheless  ever  showed 
themselves  the  most  persistent  enemies  of 
diversified  employments.  In  New  England 
preliminary  attempts  to  establish  the  man 
ufacture  of  iron  were  made  in  1630,  and  in 
1645  regular  works  were  established  at 
Lynn.  Of  these  last  the  old  historian  (Hub- 
bard)  says,  contemptuously,  "That  instead 
of  drawing  out  bars  of  iron  for  the  country's 
use,  there  was  hammered  out  nothing  but 
contentions  and  lawsuits ;"  but,  notwith 
standing  this  disparagement,  the  operations 
commenced  in  this  locality  are  believed  to 
have  been  conducted  with  a  degree  of  suc 
cess  for  a  period  of  more  than  one  hundred 
years. 

One  of  the  first,  if  not  the  very  first  pat 
ent  granted  in  this  country  was  by  the 
General  Court  of  Massachusetts,  in  1646,  to 
one  Joseph  Jencks,  of  Lynn,  "  for  ye  making 
of  Engines  for  mills  to  goe  with  water,  for 
ye  more  speedy  dispatch  of  work  than  for 
merly,  and  mills  for  ye  making  of  Sithes  and 
other  Edged  Tooles,"  the  Court  having  pre 
viously  passed  a  law  that  there  "  should  be 
no  monopolies  but  of  such  new  inventions 
as  were  profitable  to  the  country,  and  that 


for  a  short  time  only."  The  same  Mr.  Jencks, 
who  is  claimed  to  have  been  "  the  first  found 
er  who  worked  in  brass  and  iron  on  the  West 
ern  Continent,"1  also  made  for  Massachu 
setts,  at  his  iron-works,  the  dies  with  which 
the  "  pine-tree"  shillings  and  other  coins  of 
the  colony  were  stamped ;  and  for  the  city 
of  Boston  "  an  ingine  to  carry  water  in  case 
of  fire,"  which  last  construction  was  years 
in  advance  of  any  use  of  fire-engines  on  the 
continent  of  Europe. 

Pig-iron  began  to  be  exported  from  the 
American  colonies  to  England  as  early  as 
1718,  when  a  record  is  made  of  a  small  lot 
of  three  and  one-half  tons  received  from  Vir 
ginia  and  Maryland.  By  1728,  however,  pig- 
iron  had  become  a  regular  and  important 
article  of  colonial  export,  and  some  years 
later  the  exportation  of  ftar-iron  also  com 
menced,  and  from  this  time  both  pig  and 
bar  iron  continued  to  be  annually  exported 
from  the  North  American  colonies  until  aft 
er  the  breaking  out  of  the  Revolution. 

From  the  official  returns  of  the  British 
Custom-house  (which  are  still  extant,  and 
have  been  published)  the  exact  amount  of 
such  exports  received  in  England  at  differ 
ent  periods  from  1728  to  1776  was  as  follows : 


Years 

Pig-iron. 

Bar-Iron. 

172S  29  

1127 

Tons. 

1732-33  

2404 

11 

1745  

2274 

196 

1754  

3244 

389 

1764  

2554 

1059 

1771  

5303 

2222 

1775   

2996 

916 

1776  

316 

28 

In  addition,  there  was  also  some  pig  and 
bar  iron  exported  from  the  colonies  during 
the  same  period  to  both  Scotland  and  Ire 
land,  though  probably  in  no  very  consider 
able  quantities. 

Contemporaneously  with  the  manufac 
tures  above  noticed  there  were  also  estab 
lished  throughout  the  provinces  manufac 
tures  of  leather,  of  bricks,  pottery,  and 
glass,  of  distilled  and  fermented  liquors,  of 
hardware  in  various  forms,  of  candles,  snuff, 
gunpowder,  copperas,  and  a  multitude  of 
other  articles,  so  that  at  the  close  of  the 
first  century  of  their  existence  there  was 
hardly  a  branch  of  useful  industry  common 
in  Europe  which  was  not  practiced  with 
more  or  less  of  success  in  the  British  North 

i  Lewis's  History  of  Lynn, 


156 


PROGRESS  IN  MANUFACTURE. 


American  colonies.  In  fact,  so  successful 
had  been  the  attempts  of  the  colonists  to 
manufacture  that  the  jealousy  of  the  moth 
er  country  began  to  be  awakened  at  a  peri 
od  considerably  anterior  to  that  mentioned, 
for  Sir  Josiah  Child,  although  a  much  more 
liberal  and  intelligent  politician  than  many 
of  his  countrymen  at  that  day,  in  a  dis 
course  "on  trade,"  published  in  1670,  de 
scribes  New  England  as  having  come  to  be 
the  most  prejudicial  plantation  of  Great 
Britain,  and  gives  for  this  opinion  the  sin 
gular  reason  that  they  are  a  people  "  whose 
frugality,  industry,  and  temperance,  and  the 
happiness  of  whose  laws  and  institutions, 
promise  to  them  a  long  life  and  a  wonderful 
increase  of  people,  riches,  and  power." 

TRUE  CAUSE  OF  THE  AMERICAN  REVOLUTION. 

And  here  we  come  for  the  first  time  upon 
the  true  cause  of  the  American  Revolution, 
which  is  now  well  understood  to  have  been 
not  so  much  that  the  colonists  were  denied 
representation  in  the  central  government, 
or  that  they  were  unduly  restrained  in  re 
spect  to  any  liberty  of  their  persons,  but 
rather  that  their  rights  to  property  were 
continually  interfered  with,  that  they  were 
denied  the  privilege  of  freely  buying  and 
selling  wherever  and  whenever  they  might 
see  fit,  and  of  following  the  occupations 
which  seemed  to  them  most  remunerative. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  acts  of  Great  Britain, 
viewed  in  the  light  of  the  investigations  and 
experiences  of  another  century,  are  suscep 
tible  of  a  much  less  harsh  interpretation 
than  it  has  been  the  custom  to  put  upon 
them.  Thus  England,  during  the  whole  of 
the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries, 
and  even  later,  held,  in  common  with  the 
rest  of  the  civilized  world,  a  most  firm  be 
lief  in  the  doctrine,  which  had  come  down 
from  the  Middle  Ages,  that  no  one  nation  or 
individual  could  get  gain  from  commerce  or 
trade  except  at  the  expense  of  some  other 
nation  or  individual,  and  that  therefore  the 
surest  way  for  a  nation  or  individual  to 
prosper  and  grow  rich  was  to  sell  as  much 
and  buy  as  little  as  possible,  and  to  endeav 
or  to  obtain  gold  and  silver  in  exchange  for 
what  they  did  sell  in  preference  to  any  oth 
er  products.  Stated  in  the  abstract,  and  in 
this  last  third  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
these  doctrines  seem  very  strange  and  most 


absurd;  and  yet  the  United  States  is  the 
one  nation  of  all  others  claiming  to  be  en 
lightened  which  to-day  by  her  commercial 
system  fails  to  recognize  or  practically  de 
nies  the  great  economic  axiom  that  no  na 
tion  or  community  can  sell  to  any  great  ex 
tent  except  in  proportion  as  it  is  willing  to 
buy ;  that  all  trade  and  commerce  must  be 
mutually  advantageous,  or  it  would  not  ex 
ist;  and  that  after  every  fair  mercantile 
transaction  both  parties,  however  varied 
their  nationality  and  residences,  are  richer 
than  before. 

It  is  also  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  the 
American  colonies  were  planted  with  the 
least  reference  to  the  pecuniary  or  person 
al  benefit  of  the  colonists  themselves.  The 
mode  was  simply  this:  The  King  of  En 
gland,  on  payment  to  himself  of  a  certain 
sum,  granted  a  tract  of  land  of  American 
territory,  together  with  a  charter,  to  a  joint- 
stock  company  of  English  merchants  and 
adventurers,  who  sent  out  a  colony  to  cul 
tivate  the  lands  and  gather  their  products 
for  the  pecuniary  benefit  of  the  stockhold 
ers.  It  Avas  clearly  an  enterprise  for  mak 
ing  money — as  much  so  as  are  the  railroad 
and  other  corporations  of  the  present  day — 
and  the  colonists  were  regarded  as  merely 
the  hired  servants  of  the  company.  This 
was  the  method  after  which  all  the  colonies 
were  established,  and  if  the  colonists  pos 
sessed  any  political  privileges  it  was  be 
cause  they  wrenched  them  from  the  unwill 
ing  hands  of  the  corporators.  For  proof  of 
the  correctness  of  this  position  reference  is 
made  to  the  pages  of  all  the  American  his 
torians,  and  to  the  still  stronger  testimony 
of  the  great  Adam  Smith,  of  Scotland,  who, 
while  the  American  Revolution  was  pro 
gressing,  declared  that  England  had  found 
ed  an  empire  on  the  other  side  of  the  At 
lantic  for  the  sole  purpose  of  raising  up  a 
people  of  customers — a  policy  which  he  de 
nounced  as  fit  only  for  a  nation  of  shop 
keepers. 

Entertaining  such  views  respecting  the 
nature  of  trade  and  commerce  and  the  use 
of  colonies,  nothing,  therefore,  was  more 
natural  and  legitimate  than  that  England 
should  regard  her  transatlantic  plantations 
as  instrumentalities  for  the  promotion  of  her 
own  interests  and  aggrandizement  exclu 
sively,  and  that  when  the  enterprise  of  the 


RESTRICTION  ON  COLONIAL  INDUSTRY. 


157 


Americans  in  respect  to  certain  branches  of 
manufacturing  industry  seemed  likely  to  be 
prejudicial  to  similar  industries  of  her  own, 
she  should  attempt  to  shackle  and  restrain 
their  progress.  It  ought  also  to  be  borne  in 
mind  that  if  Great  Britain  acted  unjustly 
toward  the  colonies,  she  was  at  least  con 
sistent  in  both  her  home  and  her  colonial 
policy,  and  framed  the  former,  equally  with 
the  latter,  in  strict  accordance  with  the  then 
narrow  commercial  spirit  of  the  age.  Thus, 
if  it  was  forbidden  to  the  colonists  to  export 
woolen  goods,  or  transport  AVOO!  from  one 
"plantation"  to  another,  there  was  at  the 
same  time  on  the  statute-book  of  England  a 
law  which  made  it  felony  for  any  English 
man  to  export  any  sheep  from  the  kingdom, 
or  to  purchase  or  transport  any  wool  within 
fifteen  miles  of  the  sea  without  permission 
of  the  king,  or  to  load  or  carry  any  wool 
within  five  miles  of  the  sea,  except  between 
sunrising  and  suusetting.  And  again,  if  the 
colonists  were  not  permitted  to  carry  any 
article  of  produce  on  the  seas  except  in 
British  ships,  the  necessity  was  about  the 
same  time  announced  in  Parliament  by  the 
Lord  Chancellor  of  going  to  war  with  the 
Dutch,  and  of  destroying  their  commerce, 
because  "  it  was  impairing  ours." 

On  the  other  hand,  in  respect  to  all  those 
colonial  industries  which  were  not  regarded 
as  antagonistic  to  British  interests,  the  ac 
tion  of  Parliament  was  generous  and  consid 
erate.  For  example,  the  cultivation  of  to 
bacco  was  forbidden  in  England  by  highly 
penal  enactments,  for  the  sake  of  securing  a 
monopoly  of  that  product  to  the  Southern 
colonies.  Liberal  premiums  were  also  of 
fered  and  awarded  for  the  cultivation  and 
exportation  of  colonial  silk,  indigo,  hemp, 
flax,  and  for  the  promotion  of  the  fisheries ; 
and  in  1750  an  act  passed  Parliament  to 
encourage  the  exportation  of  pig  and  bar 
iron  from  his  Majesty's  plantations  in  Amer 
ica,  -whereby  all  duties  on  the  import  of 
the  same  into  Great  Britain  were  removed, 
although  maintained  in  respect  to  the  im 
ports  from  all  other  countries.  Neverthe 
less,  the  one  most  important  fact  in  connec 
tion  with  this  topic  is  that  it  was  the  rapid 
growth  of  colonial  commerce  and  manu 
factures,  conjointly  with  the  attempt  of 
Great  Britain  to  interfere  with  and  sup 
press  them,  which  led  to  a  gradual  and  in 


creasing  alienation  and  final  violent  sepa- 
ration  of  the  two  countries. 

The  first  important  act  which  operated  as 
a  restriction  on  the  industry  of  the  colonists 
was  the  so-called  "  Navigation  Act"  of  1650, 
which,  although  primarily  intended,  to  use 
the  words  of  Sir  William  Blackstone,  "to 
mortify  our  sugar  islands,  which  were  disaf 
fected  to  Parliament,  and  at  the  same  time 
clip  the  wings  of  our  opulent  and  aspiring 
neighbors,"  the  Dutch,  nevertheless  struck 
a  heavy  blow  at  one  of  the  foremost  indus 
tries  of  the  colonies,  namely,  ship-building. 
By  this  act  and  its  extensions  in  1661  and 
1663  it  was  provided  that  no  article  of  colo 
nial  produce  or  British  manufacture  should 
be  carried  in  any  but  British  ships,  and  that 
the  colonists  should  not  be  allowed  to  pur 
chase  in  any  but  British  markets  any  manu 
factured  article  which  England  had  to  sell. 
Following  the  enactment  of  these  purely 
commercial  restrictions,  it  soon  also  became 
a  policy  on  the  part  of  Great  Britain  to  dis 
courage  all  attempts  at  manufacturing  by 
the  colonists  in  competition  with  similar 
British  industries ;  and  it  was  in  pursuance 
of  this  policy  that  in  1696  the  management 
of  the  affairs  of  the  colonies  was  by  royal 
order  committed  to  a  Board  of  Trade,  under 
the  title  of  "  The  Lords  Commissioners  for 
Trade  and  the  Plantations."  Henceforth 
the  vigilant  nation  of  shop-keepers  Avould 
not  be  content  with  watching  and  control 
ling  the  shipping  and  trade  of  American 
ports,  but  must  lay  its  hands  on  all  the  man 
ufacturing  industries  of  the  colonies.  The 
royal  governors  were  required  to  report 
yearly  to  the  board  on  the  state  of  the  prov 
inces,  and  to  do  all  in  their  power  to  divert 
them  from  setting  up  and  carrying  on  man 
ufactures.  But  reports  and  recommenda 
tions  were  not  sufficient  to  repress  the  in 
dustrial  enterprise  of  the  Americans,  and 
three  years  after,  the  board  having  received 
complaint  that  the  wool  and  woolen  manu 
factures  of  the  North  American  plantations 
began  to  be  exported  to  foreign  markets 
formerly  supplied  by  England,  an  act  was 
passed  by  Parliament  which,  after  declar 
ing  in  its  preamble  "that  colonial  industry 
would  inevitably  sink  the  value  of  lauds  in 
England,"  prohibited  thereafter  the  move 
ment  of  any  American  wool  or  woolen  man 
ufactures  not  only  to  foreign  countries,  but 


158 


PROGRESS  IN  MANUFACTURE. 


also  as  between  one  colony  and  another. 
And  in  1731,  as  complaint  of  the  increasing 
divergence  of  trade  from  its  prescribed  chan 
nels  by  the  action  of  the  colonists  continued 
to  be  made  by  British  merchants  and  manu 
facturers,  the  House  of  Commons  again  took 
up  the  subject,  and  ordered,  through  the 
Board  of  Trade,  an  inquiry  "  with  respect  to 
laws  made,  manufactures  set  up,  or  trade 
carried  on"  (in  the  colonies)  "detrimental 
to  the  trade,  navigation,  and  manufacture  of 
Great  Britain."  The  report  made  in  pursu 
ance  of  this  order  in  1731-32  furnishes  some 
curious  particulars  respecting  the  state  of 
manufactures  at  that  time  in  America,  al 
though  it  was  known  to  be  so  incomplete 
that  the  concealment  practiced  was  made 
the  subject  of  complaint  in  England.  The 
return  of  one  officer,  for  example,  stated  that 
it  was  extremely  difficult  to  obtain  any  true 
information,  and,  furthermore,  that  the  As 
sembly  of  Massachusetts  Bay  had  had  the 
boldness  to  summon  him  to  answer  for  hav 
ing  given  any  evidence  whatever  to  the 
British  House  of  Commons  respecting  the 
trade  and  manufactures  of  that  province. 
The  Governor  of  New  Hampshire  reported 
that  there  were  no  settled  manufactures  in 
that  province.  The  Governors  of  Connecti 
cut  and  the  Caroliuas  made  no  returns,  and 
the  Governor  of  Rhode  Island  confined  his 
report  to  matters  not  connected  with  man 
ufactures.  Massachusetts  was  reported  as 
having  manufactures  of  cloth,  a  paper  mill, 
also  several  forges  for  making  bar-iron,  some 
furnaces  for  cast  and  hollow  ware,  one  slit- 
ting-mill,  and  a  manufacture  of  nails.  The 
Surveyor -General  of  his  Majesty's  Woods 
wrote  that  they  have  in  New  England  six 
furnaces  and  nineteen  forges  for  making 
iron ;  that  many  ships  were  built  for  the 
French  and  Spaniards ;  and  that  great  quan 
tities  of  hats  were  made  and  exported  to 
Spain,  Portugal,  and  the  West  Indies.  They 
also  make  all  kinds  of  iron  for  shipping,  and 
have  several  still-houses  and  sugar-bakeries. 
Immediately  after  the  reception  and  pub 
lication  of  this  report,  or  in  1732,  it  was  en 
acted  by  Parliament  that  "  no  hats  or  felts 
should  be  exported  from  the  colonies,  or  be 
laden  upon  any  horse  or  carriage  to  the  in 
tent  to  be  exported  from  thence  to  any  oth 
er  plantation  or  to  any  other  place  whatev 
er;"  limiting  also  the  number  of  apprentices 


at  the  business,  and  forbidding  any  black 
or  negro  from  making  hats  under  any  cir 
cumstances.  Nor  wras  this  all,  for  in  1750 
a  bill  was  introduced  into  Parliament  de 
creeing  that  every  slittiug-mill  in  America 
should  be  demolished;  and  although  this 
bill  failed  of  passing  the  House  of  Commons 
by  only  twenty-two  votes,  a  subsequent  act 
did  pass,  that  no  new  mills  of  that  descrip 
tion  should  be  erected. 

It  is  most  important  and  instructive  to 
diverge  for  a  moment  at  this  point  from 
tracing  the  development  of  American  man 
ufactures,  and  briefly  notice  the  effect  of 
the  long-continued  restrictive  legislation  of 
Great  Britain  on  political  and  commercial 
morality.  The  multitude  of  arbitrary  laws 
enacted  to  force  the  industry  and  commerce 
of  the  colonies  and  the  British  people  into 
artificial  and  unnatural  channels  created  a 
multitude  of  new  crimes ;  and  transactions 
which  appeared  necessary  for  the  general 
welfare,  and  were  no  way  repugnant  to  the 
moral  sense  of  good  men,  were  forbidden  by 
law  under  heavy  penalties.  The  colonists 
became  thenceforth  a  nation  of  law-break 
ers.  Nine-tenths  of  the  colonial  merchants 
were  smugglers.  One-quarter  of  the  whole 
number  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  were  bred  to  commerce,  to 
the  command  of  ships,  and  the  contraband 
trade.  John  Hancock  was  the  prince  of 
contraband  traders,  and,  with  John  Adams 
as  his  counsel,  was  on  trial  before  the  Ad 
miralty  Court  in  Boston  at  the  exact  hour 
of  the  shedding  of  blood  at  Lexington,  to 
answer  for  half  a  million  dollars'  penalties 
alleged  to  have  been  by  him  incurred  as  a 
smuggler.  And  if  good  old  Governor  Jon 
athan  Trumbull,  of  Connecticut  (Brother 
Jonathan),  did  not  walk  in  the  same  ways 
as  his  brother  patriot  in  Massachusetts, 
then  tradition,  if  not  record,  has  done  him 
very  great  injustice.  There  is  also  on  rec 
ord  a  letter  of  Alexander  Hamilton,  written 
in  1771,  at  the  time  he  was  in  mercantile 
business  as  a  clerk  in  the  West  Indies,  indi 
cating  an  entire  familiarity  with  a  contra 
band  trade  carried  on  by  his  employers  with 
the  Spanish  colonies.  But  men  like  Hancock 
and  Trumbull  had  been  made  to  feel  that 
government  was  their  enemy ;  that  it  de 
prived  them  of  their  natural  rights ;  that 
in  enacting  laws  to  restrain  them  from  la- 


AFTER  THE  REVOLUTION. 


159 


boring  freely,  and  freely  exchanging  the 
fruits  of  their  labors,  it  at  the  same  time 
enacted  the  principle  of  slavery,  and  that 
therefore  every  evasion  of  such  laws  was  a 
gain  to  liberty. 

Furthermore,  the  continuance  of  such  a 
policy  as  -was  adopted  by  Great  Britain  to 
ward  the  colonies,  and  the  spirit  of  resist 
ance  which  was  as  naturally  evoked  in  turn 
on  the  part  of  the  colonists,  could  tend  to 
but  one  end,  namely,  war  and  revolution; 
and  in  1775  war  and  revolution  came. 

The  population  of  the  colonies  at  about 
the  time  (1670)  that  their  progress  in  man 
ufactures  began  to  excite  the  jealousy  of 
Great  Britain  was  probably  a  little  less  than 
200,000. 

In  1714  the  Board  of  Trade,  for  the  pur 
pose  of  aiding  their  judgment  in  respect  to 
the  condition  of  affairs  in  America,  caused  a 
census  to  be  taken  of  the  colonies,  which  re 
turned  a  population  of  434,000 ;  and  another 
in  1727,  which  gave  an  aggregate  of  580,000. 
Mr.  Bancroft  estimates  the  total  popula 
tion  of  the  colonies  in  1750  to  have  been 
1,260,000 ;  and  in  1770,  five  years  previous  to 
the  outbreak  of  the  Revolution,  at  2,312,000 ; 
of  whom  1,850,000  were  white  and  462,000 
black. 

PROGRESS  SINCE  THE  REVOLUTION. 
The  immediate  effect  of  the  war  of  the 
Revolution,  by  cutting  off  all  except  casual 
and  uncertain  commercial  intercourse  with 
Europe  and  other  countries,  was  to  impart  a 
fresh  impulse  to  such  manufactures  in  the 
colonies  as  were  then  established,  and  to 
call  into  existence  some  new  ones.  The 
immediate  effect  of  the  return  of  peace  (in 
1783),  on  the  contrary,  was  most  disastrous 
to  nearly  all  business  interests,  and  more  es 
pecially  to  the  mechanical  and  manufactur 
ing  industries.  But  such  a  result  could  not 
well  have  been  otherwise.  The  country  had 
been  subjected  to  a  long  and  impoverishing 
war ;  it  Avas  exhausted  of  men  as  well  as  of 
means ;  labor  was  scarce  and  high,  and  the 
burden  of  debt,  both  public  and  private,  was 
most  onerous.  It  has  been  the  custom  of 
many  writers  in  treating  of  this  period  to 
attribute  the  disastrous  condition  of  affairs 
which  was  immediately  incident  to  the  close 
of  the  Revolution  to  an  unrestrained  influx 
of  foreign  commodities ;  but  that  this  agen 


cy  was  not  in  a  high  degree  potential  for 
mischief  is  proved  by  the  circumstance  that 
the  average  imports  of  British  manufactures 
into  the  country  for  several  years  previous 
to  1789,  notwithstanding  a  great  increase  to 
the  population  of  the  States,  was  consider 
ably  less  than  the  average  of  several  years 
preceding  the  war ;  and  also  that  when  the 
first  tariff  on  imports  came  to  be  enacted 
under  the  Constitution,  the  rate  establish 
ed  on  all  textile  fabrics  was  only  five  per 
cent.,  and  on  all  manufactures  of  metal  but 
seven  and  a  half  per  cent.  But  the  manner 
in  which  importations  were  then  made  was 
undoubtedly  most  mischievous.  There  was 
no  national  government,  and  the  division  of 
the  powers  of  government  among  thirteen 
petty  sovereignties  rendered  the  adoption 
of  uniform  laws  impossible.  Each  State 
accordingly  had  its  own  tariff  and  regula 
ted  its  own  trade.  What  was  binding  in 
Massachusetts  had  no  validity  in  Rhode  Isl 
and,  and  what  was  subject  to  duty  in  New 
York  might  be  imported  free  into  Connect 
icut  or  New  Jersey.  Practically,  therefore, 
no  revenue  could  be  collected  on  imports. 
Great  Britain,  also,  seeing  that  as  a  nation 
we  were  commercially  helpless,  not  only  re 
fused  to  negotiate  a  commercial  treaty  with 
us,  but  by  an  Order  in  Council  excluded  our 
ships  from  their  ports  in  the  West  Indies, 
and,  as  the  government  of  the  States  was 
then  constituted,  we  had  no  power  through 
retaliation  to  compel  reciprocity.  Yet,  ac 
cording  to  one  who  participated  in  the  acts 
of  the  Revolution,  and  was  one  of  the  most 
sagacious  observers  and  writers  of  the  peri 
od — Peletiah  Webster,  of  Philadelphia — all 
the  sufferings  and  evils  ichich  the  country  endured 
from  all  other  agencies  were  insignificant  in 
comparison  with  the  misery  that  resulted 
from  the  introduction  and  use  of  an  irre 
deemable  paper  money,  and  the  consequent 
irregularities  of  the  entire  American  fiscal 
system,  his  exact  language  being  as  follows : 
"We  have  suffered  more  from  this  cause  than 
from  any  other  cause  of  calamity.  It  has 
killed  more  men,  perverted  and  corrupted 
the  choicest  interests  of  our  country  more, 
and  done  more  injustice,  than  even  the  arms 
and  artifices  of  our  enemies."  And  again 
he  says,  "  If  it  saved  the  state,  it  has  vio 
lated  the  equity  of  our  laws,  corrupted  the 
justice  of  our  public  administration,  ener- 


160 


PROGRESS  IN  MANUFACTURE. 


rated  the  trade,  industry,  and  manufactures 
of  our  country,  and  gone  far  to  destroy  the 
morality  of  our  people." 

But  let  the  causes  have  been  what  they 
may,  there  is  no  doubt  that  for  a  brief  pe 
riod  subsequent  to  the  close  of  the  war 
the  industry  of  the  country  was  greatly 
depressed.  The  establishment  of  a  stable 
government,  however,  by  the  adoption  of 
the  Constitution  at  once  gave  to  affairs  a 
new  aspect.  The  wretched  system  of  dis 
trust,  jealousy,  and  weakness,  which  had 
before  paralyzed  all  enterprise,  and  sunk 
the  revenues  and  credit  of  the  Confedera 
tion  to  the  lowest  point,  disappeared,  and 
fresh  energy  was  infused  into  all  depart 
ments  of  business.  "American  labor,"  says 
Dr.  Bishop,  "  at  this  period  began  steadily 
to  change  its  form  from  a  general  system 
of  isolated  and  fireside  manual  operations — 
though  these  continued  for  some  time  lon 
ger  its  chief  characteristic — to  the  more  or 
ganized  efforts  of  regular  establishments, 
with  associated  capital  and  corporate  priv 
ileges,  employing  more  or  less  of  the  new 
machinery  which  was  then  coming  into  use 
in  Europe." 

The  population  of  the  country  increased 
from  an  estimate  of  2,945,000  in  1780  to 
3,924,000  in  1790 ;  and  it  is  curious  to  note 
that  the  percentage  of  decennial  increase 
of  thirty-three  per  cent,  thus  established  in 
this  decade  maintained  itself  with  approx 
imative1  uniformity  for  each  subsequent 
decade  from  1790  to  the  breaking  out  of  the 
rebellion  in  1860. 

In  an  address  before  the  "Pennsylvania 
Society  for  the  Encouragement  of  Manufac 
tures,"  August,  1787,  by  Mr.  Tench  Coxe  (aft 
erward  Assistant-Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
under  Hamilton),  the  great  progress  in  agri 
culture  and  manufactures  "since  the  late 
war"  was  particularly  dwelt  upon.  In  Con 
necticut,  at  this  time,  according  to  this  au 
thority,  the  household  manufactures  were 
such  as  to  furnish  "a  surplus  sold  out  of  the 
State.  New  England  linen  had  affected  the 
price  and  importations  of  that  article  from 
New  York  to  Georgia."  In  Massachusetts 
the  importation  of  foreign  manufactures 
was  less  by  one -half  than  it  was  twenty 
years  before,  although  population  had  great 
ly  increased,  and  considerable  quantities  of 
home-made  articles  were  shipped  out  of  the 


State.  In  one  regular  factory  of  the  latter 
State  there  were  made  as  much  as  10,000 
pairs  of  cotton  and  wool  cards,  100  tons  of 
nails  in  another,  and  150,000  pairs  of  stuff 
and  silk  shoes  in  the  single  town  of  Lynn. 
In  the  course  of  the  address,  pattern  cards, 
embracing  thirty-six  specimens  of  silk  lace 
and  edgings  from  the  town  of  Ipswich, 
Massachusetts,  were  exhibited.  In  Rhode 
Island  the  number  of  regular  factories  was 
stated  to  be  "  great  in  proportion  to  its  pop 
ulation."  Mr.  Coxe,  however,  greatly  dep 
recated  the  wasteful  use  of  foreign  manu 
factures,  and  as  an  illustration  stated  that 
the  importation  into  Philadelphia  alone  of 
the  finer  kinds  of  coat,  vest,  and  sleeve  but 
tons,  buckles,  and  other  trinkets  cost  the 
wearers  annually  sixty  thousand  dollars. 
The  sale  of  spinning-wheel  irons  from  one 
shop  in  Philadelphia  in  1790  amounted  to 
1500  sets,  an  increase  of  twenty-nine  per 
cent,  over  the  sales  of  the  previous  year. 
In  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania,  then  the  largest 
inland  town  in  the  United  States,  there  were 
in  1786  about  700  families,  of  whom  234  were 
manufacturers,  in  which  number  were  in 
cluded  14  hatters,  36  shoe-makers,  25  tailors, 
25  weavers  of  cloth,  and  4  dyers.  Within 
ten  miles  of  the  town  were  four  oil  mills,  five 
hemp  mills,  one  fulling-mill.  Frederick  and 
Elizabeth,  towns  in  Maryland,  and  Stanton 
and  Winchester,  Virginia,  were  also  impor 
tant  centres  of  domestic  industry,  the  last- 
named  being  famous  for  its  manufacture  of 
hats.  There  was  also  a  manufactory  of  glass 
at  Alexandria,  Virginia,  which,  according  to 
the  French  traveler,  De  Warville,  exported 
in  1787  glass  to  the  amount  of  10,000  pounds, 
and  employed  500  hands.  In  1789  Mr.  Cly- 
mer,  of  Pennsylvania,  stated  in  Congress 
that  there  were  fifty -three  paper  mills  with 
in  range  of  the  Philadelphia  market,  and 
that  the  annual  product  of  the  Pennsylva 
nia  mills  was  70,000  reams,  which  was  sold 
as  cheap  as  it  could  be  imported,  and  that, 
too,  in  the  absence  of  any  duty.  The  com 
piler  of  the  Blbliotheca  Americana,  published 
in  London  in  1789,  states  that  the  people 
of  North  America  manufactured  their  own 
paper  in  sufficient  quantities  for  home  con 
sumption  ;  and  the  report  of  Secretary 
Hamilton  the  following  year  also  repre 
sents  the  paper  manufacture  as  one  of  the 
branches  of  American  industry  which  had 


HAMILTON'S  REPORT. 


1C1 


arrived  at  the  greatest  perfection,  and  was 
"most  adequate  to  national  supply."  And 
yet  De  Warville  a  few  years  previous  wrote 
that  on  account  of  the  scarcity  and  dear- 
ness  of  labor  and  of  rags,  the  Americans 
could  not  for  many  years  to  come  furnish 
sufficient  paper  for  the  prodigious  consump 
tion  caused  by  the  increase  of  knowledge 
and  the  freedom  of  the  press.1 

An  estimate  made  by  Mr.  Coxe  in  1790 
fixed  the  annual  value  of  the  manufactures 
of  the  United  States  for  that  year  at  more 
than  $20,000,000.  It  is  also  curious  to  note 
that  he  took  as  the  basis  of  his  computation 
the  returns  of  the  manufacturing  industry 
of  Virginia,  which  then  included  Kentucky. 
As  Assistant-Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  Mr. 
Coxe  also  asserted,  about  this  period,  that 
the  manufactures  of  the  United  States  were 
certainly  greater  than  double  the  value  of 
their  exports  in  native  commodities,  and 
much  greater  than  the  gross  value  of  all 
their  imports,  including  the  value  of  all  the 
goods  exported  again. 

In  January,  1790,  President  Washington 
delivered  his  first  annual  message  to  Con 
gress,  and  it  is  noted  that  he  was  dressed 
at  the  time  in  a  full  suit  of  broadcloth, 
manufactured  at  the  woolen  factory  of  Col 
onel  Jeremiah  Wordsworth,  at  Hartford, 
Connecticut,  "where  all  parts  of  the  busi 
ness  are  performed  except  spinning."  In 
this  message  the  subject  of  the  promotion 
of  manufactures  was  commended  to  the  at 
tention  of  Congress ;  and  acting  upon  the 
suggestions  of  the  President,  Congress  there 
upon  ordered  that  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas 
ury  "  prepare  and  report  a  proper  plan  or 
plans  for  the  encouragement  and  promo 
tion  of  manufactories  as  will  tend  to  ren 
der  the  United  States  independent  of  other 
nations  for  essential,  particularly  for  mili 
tary,  supplies ;"  and  in  accordance  with  this 
order  Mr.  Hamilton  in  the  following  year 
(1791)  submitted  his  famous  report,  twice 
printed  by  order  of  Congress,  on  American 
manufactures. 

In  this  report  the  Secretary,  after  discuss 
ing  at  length  the  relations  of  agriculture 
and  manufactures  to  each  other  and  the 
state,  the  importance  of  manufacturing  es 
tablishments  as  agencies  for  augmenting  the 


>  Bishop's  History  of  American  Manufactures. 
11 


produce  and  revenue  of  society,  the  then 
existing  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  exten 
sion  of  American  manufactures,  the  neces 
sity  of  the  adoption  of  a  policy  of  encour 
agement  toward  them  by  the  state,  and 
the  unity  of  interest  between  the  different 
sections  of  the  country,  presents  in  general 
terms  an  exhibit,  classified  under  seventeen 
heads,  of  the  manufacturing  industries  in 
the  country,  which  had  at  that  time  made 
such  progress  as  in  a  great  measure  to  sup 
ply  the  home  market,  and  which  were  also 
carried  on  "  as  regular  trades."  Among 
these  the  Secretary  enumerates  manufac 
tures  of  skins  and  leather,  including  under 
this  head  leather  breeches  and  glue;  flax 
and  hemp,  but  not  cotton ;  iron,  and  most 
implements  of  iron  and  steel;  bricks  and 
pottery ;  starch  and  hair-powder ;  manufac 
tures  of  brass  and  copper,  particularly  spec 
ifying  utensils  for  brewers  and  distillers, 
andirons  and  philosophical  apparatus ;  tin 
ware  "  for  most  purposes ;"  carriages  of  all 
kinds ;  "  lamp-black  and  other  painter's  col 
ors  ;"  refined  sugars,  oils,  soaps,  caudles,  hats, 
gunpowder,  chocolate,  silk  shoes,  and  "wom 
en's  stuffs ;"  snuff,  chewing  tobacco,  etc.,  etc. 
"  Besides  these,"  he  continues,  "  there  is  a 
vast  scene  of  household  manufacturing, 
which  contributes  more  largely  to  the  sup 
ply  of  the  community  than  could  be  imag 
ined  without  having  made  it  an  object  of 
particular  inquiry."  But  as  indicating  how 
limited  an  idea  of  the  actual  and  future  re 
sources  of  the  country  was  even  then  pos 
sessed  by  a  mind  so  intelligent  and  com 
prehensive  as  that  of  Alexander  Hamilton, 
the  following  memoranda  from  this  report 
are  also  exceedingly  curious  and  pertinent. 
Thus,  for  example,  under  the  head  of  coal, 
he  notes  "that  there  are  several  mines  in 
Virginia  now  worked,  and  appearances  of 
their  existence  are  familiar  in  a  number  of 
places."  "There  is  something,"  also  says 
the  Secretary,  "in  the  texture  of  cotton 
which  adapts  it  in  a  peculiar  degree  to  the 
application  of  machines,"  and  in  a  country 
in  which  a  deficit  of  hands  constitutes  the 
greatest  obstacle  to  success,  this  circum 
stance  particularly  recommends  its  fabrica 
tion.  American  cotton,  he  adds,  can  be  pro 
duced  in  abundance ;  and  "  a  hope  may  be 
reasonably  indulged  that  with  due  care  and 
attention"  its  quality  will  greatly  improve. 


162 


PKOGEESS IN  MANUFACTURE. 


Under  the  head  of  "  the  means  proper  to 
be  resorted  to"  by  the  government  for  the 
promotion  of  manufactures,  the  Secretary, 
after  enumerating  and  discussing  the  va 
rious  agencies  "  which  have  been  employed 
with  success  in  other  countries,"  gave  his 
recommendation  in  favor  of  a  system  of 
"pecuniary  bounties,"  and  offered  in  support 
of  the  same  the  following  reasons : 

"  1.  It  is  a  species  of  encouragement  more  positive 
and  direct  than  any  other. 

"  2.  It  avoids  the  inconvenience  of  a  temporary  aug 
mentation  of  price,  which  is  incident  to  some  other 
modes. 

"  3.  Bounties  have  not,  like  high  protecting  duties, 
a  tendency  to  produce  scarcity. 

"  4.  Bounties  are  sometimes  not  only  the  best  but 
the  only  proper  expedient  for  uniting  the  encourage 
ment  of  a  new  object  of  agriculture  with  that  of  a  new 
object  of  manufacture.  The  true  way  to  conciliate 
these  two  interests  is  to  lay  a  duty  on  foreign  manu 
factures  of  the  material  the  growth  of  which  is  de 
sired  to  be  encouraged,  and  apply  the  produce  of  that 
duty,  by  way  of  bounty,  either  upon  the  production  of 
the  material  itself,  or  upon  its  manufacture  at  home, 
or  upon  both.  In  this  disposition  of  the  theory  the 
manufacturer  commences  his  enterprise  under  every 
advantage  which  is  attainable  as  to  quantity  and  price 
of  the  raw  material,  and  the  farmer,  if  the  bounty  be 
immediately  to  him,  is  enabled  by  it  to  enter  into  a 
successful  competition  with  the  foreign  material." 

He  accordingly  recommended  the  imposi 
tion  of  additional  duties  on  imports,  the  pro 
ceeds  of  which,  after  satisfying  the  national 
pledges  in  respect  to  the  public  debt,  he  pro 
posed  should  constitute  a  fund  for  paying 
the  bounties  which  might  be  decreed,  and 
for  the  operations  of  a  board  to  be  estab 
lished  for  promoting  arts,  agriculture,  man 
ufactures,  and  commerce.  The  members  of 
this  board  were  to  consist  of  certain  officers 
of  the  government,  and  were  to  apply  the 
funds  derived  from  the  sources  indicated  to 
assist  the  immigration  of  artists  and  man 
ufacturers,  to  promote  the  discovery  and 
introduction  of  useful  inventions  and  im 
provements,  and  "  to  encourage  by  premi 
ums,  both  honorable  and  lucrative,  the  ex 
ertions  of  individuals  and  of  classes  in 
relation  to  the  several  objects  they  are 
charged  with  promoting."  The  bounties 
thus  recommended  were  not,  however,  in 
tended  by  the  Secretary  to  be  permanent ; 
for,  as  he  remarks,  their  "  continuance  on 
manufactures  long  established  must  always 
be  of  questionable  policy,  because  presump 
tion  would  arise  in  every  such  case  that 
there  were  natural  and  inherent  impedi 
ments  to  success." 


He  also  dwells  at  considerable  length  on 
a  topic  too  often  overlooked,  namely,  that  it 
"  is  not  merely  necessary  that  the  measures 
of  government  which  have  a  direct  view  to 
manufactures  should  be  calculated  to  assist 
and  protect  them,  but  also  that  those  which 
collaterally  affect  them  in  the  general  course 
of  administration  should  be  guarded  from 
any  particular  tendency  to  injure  them;" 
and  under  this  head  especially  asks  atten 
tion  to  "  the  unfriendly  aspect  of  certain  spe 
cies  of  taxes  toward  manufactures."  Among 
such  he  enumerates,  first,  all  poll  and  capi 
tation  taxes,  which,  if  levied  according  to  a 
fixed  rule,  operate  unequally  and  injuriously 
on  the  industrious  poor ;  "  second,  all  taxes 
which  proceed  according  to  the  amount  of 
capital  supposed  to  be  employed  in  a  busi 
ness,  or  of  profits  supposed  to  be  made  on  it, 
are  unavoidably  hurtful  to  industry :  men 
engaged  in  any  trade  or  business  have  com 
monly  weighty  reasons  to  avoid  disclosures 
which  would  expose  with  any  thing  like  ac 
curacy  the  real  state  of  affairs,  and  allowing 
to  the  public  officers  the  most  equitable  dis 
positions,  yet  when  they  are  to  exercise  a 
discretion  without  certain  data  they  can 
not  fail  to  be  often  misled  by  appearances ;" 
and  finally,  continues  the  Secretary,  in  words 
that  deserve  to  be  printed  in  gold  on  the 
walls  of  every  legislative  assembly,  "arbi 
trary  taxes,  under  which  denomination  are 
comprised  all  those  that  leave  the  quantum 
of  the  tax  to  be  raised  by  each  person  to 
the  discretion  of  certain  officers,  are  as  con 
trary  to  the  genius  of  liberty  as  to  the  max 
ims  of  industry." 

Although  this  celebrated  report  of  Alex 
ander  Hamilton  both  at  the  time  it  was 
made  and  since  has  been  regarded  as  a  mod 
el  of  clear  and  unanswerable  reasoning,  and 
was  also  unquestionably  of  great  service  to 
the  country,  yet  it  is  well  known  that  his 
specific  recommendations  of  bounties  in  pref 
erence  to  protective  or  prohibitory  duties, 
and  also  for  tli£  repeal  of  all  duties  on  im 
ported  cotton  as  a  raw  material  of  manu 
factures,  were  not  complied  with ;  but  that, 
on  the  contrary,  the  system  of  protective 
duties  on  imports  which  then  prevailed  in 
Europe  was  gradually  established  in  its 
place,  and  from  that  day  to  this  has  been 
continued. 

The  period  of  the  adoption  of  the  Federal 


COTTON  MANUFACTURE. 


Constitution,  in  1789,  marks  also  the  period 
of  the  commencement  of  the  manufacture  of 
cotton  in  the  United  States,  as  a  regular 
and  systematic  in  contradistinction  to  a  do 
mestic  and  irregular  business.  Cotton  had 
indeed  been  grown  for  many  years  previous 
throughout  the  Southern  sections  of  the 
country,  but  its  use  up  to  1789-90  had  been 
almost  exclusively  domestic,  and  even  for 
this  purpose  the  quantity  produced  was  in 
adequate  to  supply  the  home  demand.  In 
fact,  so  little  suspicion  was  entertained  of 
the  particular  adaptability  of  the  soil  and 
climate  of  the  Southern  States  for  the  cul 
ture  of  cotton,  that  when  in  1784  an  Ameri 
can  ship  entered  Liverpool  with  eight  bags 
of  the  fibre  as  a  part  of  her  cargo,  the  same 
was  regarded  as  an  unlawful  importation, 
on  the  assumption  that  so  large  a  quantity 
tould  not  have  been  the  produce  of  the 
iJnited  States.  And  as  late,  furthermore,  as 
1792  the  cotton  product  of  the  United  States 
Was  regarded  as  of  so  little  value  commer 
cially  that  John  Jay  consented  to  the  in- 
«w>rporation  of  a  provision  (afterward  re 
jected  by  the  Senate)  in  the  treaty  that  he 
negotiated  with  Great  Britain  that  "no 
cotton  should  be  imported  from  the  United 
States,"  the  design  on  the  part  of  Great  Brit 
ain  being  not  to  interfere  with  the  cotton 
culture  of  the  United  States,  but  to  secure 
for  her  own  mercantile  marine  the  exclu 
sive  movement  of  cotton  from  the  West  In 
dies.  Mr.  Tench  Coxe,  in  common  with 
other  members  of  the  "Pennsylvania  Soci 
ety  for  Encouraging  Manufactures,"  seems, 
however,  to  have  early  foreseen  the  future 
importance  of  cotton  to  both  American  ag 
riculture  and  manufactures,  and  when  the 
Convention  for  framing  the  Constitution 
assembled  in  Philadelphia  his  earnest  rec 
ommendations  to  the  Southern  delegates  on 
the  subject  induced  many  of  them,  on  their 
return  home,  to  make  personal  eiforts  to 
interest  their  constituents  in  extending  the 
cultivation  of  the  fibre. 

The  inventions  of  Hargreaves,  Arkwright, 
Compton,  and  Cartwright  for  carding,  spin 
ning,  and  weaving  cotton  by  machinery 
were  introduced  in  England  between  the 
years  1768  and  1788 ;  and  although  at  first 
were  so  much  opposed  that  the  inventors 
were  afraid  to  work  openly,  and  had  in  some 
instances  their  lives  threatened  and  their 


machinery  destroyed,  yet  Parliament  very 
early  appreciated  the  national  importance 
of  the  several  inventions,  and  in  accordance 
with  the  narrow  spirit  of  the  age,  enacted  in 
1774,  and  subsequently,  most  strict  prohibi 
tions  of  the  export  of  any  textile  machinery 
from  the  kingdom.  These  statutes,  which 
were  vigilantly  enforced  by  the  British  gov 
ernment,  together  with  a  law  against  enti 
cing  artificers  to  emigrate,  for  a  time  proved 
most  serious  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the  in 
troduction  of  the  new  English  textile  ma 
chinery  into  the  United  States,  although 
many  most  ingenious  efforts  to  evade  the 
law  were  made  by  our  countrymen.  Mr. 
Tench  Coxe,  who  omitted  no  opportunity  to 
promote  the  cotton  industry,  at  one  time, 
for  example,  succeeded,  after  no  little  trou 
ble  and  expense,  in  having  secretly  made  in 
England  models  of  a  full  set  of  Arkwright's 
machinery,  but  they  were  unluckily  seized 
and  confiscated  as  they  were  on  the  point  of 
shipment.  The  information  sought  for  was, 
however,  gradually  obtained,  and  in  1786 
Hugh  Orr,  of  Bridgewater,  Massachusetts, 
a  pioneer  in  American  manufactures,  noti 
fied  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  that 
he  had  in  hia  employ  two  Scotchmen,  broth 
ers,  by  the  name  of  Barr,  who  had  some 
knowledge  of  the  new  cotton  machinery. 
Thereupon  the  Legislature  appointed  a  com 
mittee  to  examine  the  men  and  find  out  what 
they  knew,  which  committee  subsequently 
reported  in  favor  of  a  grant  of  £200  to  the 
Barrs  to  enable  them  to  complete  certain 
machines,  and  also  as  a  gratuity  for  "  their 
public  spirit  in  making  them  known  to  the 
public."  Six  tickets  in  a  State  Land  Lot 
tery,  which  had  no  blanks,  were  accordingly 
voted  to  the  Scotch  brothers  by  the  Legis 
lature,  and  out  of  the  proceeds  the  first 
"  stock  card"  and  "  spinning-jenny"  made  in 
the  United  States  were  constructed.  These 
machines  were  deposited  by  the  order  of  the 
General  Court  with  Mr.  Orr,  who  was  allow 
ed  to  use  them,  as  some  compensation  for  his 
exertions  in  the  matter,  and  was  also  re 
quested  to  exhibit  them  and  explain  their 
principles  "  to  any  who  might  wish  to  be 
informed  of  their  great  use  and  advantage 
in  carrying  on  the  woolen  and  cotton  man 
ufacture."  The  subsequent  year,  1787,  a 
company  to  manufacture  cotton  was  organ 
ized  at  Beverly,  Massachusetts,  with  one  or 


164 


PROGRESS  IN  MANUFACTURE. 


more  spinning-jennies,  imported  or  made 
from  the  State's  models,  and  a  carding-ma- 
chine,  imported  at  a  cost  of  £1100;  and 
about  the  same  time  also  several  other  cot 
ton  manufactories  were  projected  or  start 
ed — at  Worcester,  Massachusetts ;  Provi 
dence,  Rhode  Island;  Paterson,  New  Jer 
sey,  and  other  places  ;  none  of  which,  how 
ever,  for  want  of  skill  or  proper  machinery, 
appear  to  have  been  successful. 

Meanwhile  (1789)  there  arrived  in  New 
York  a  young  Englishman,  not  twenty-two 
years  of  age,  whose  name,  Samuel  Slater, 
was  destined  to  become  famous  in  the  man 
ufacturing  annals  of  the  United  States.  He 
had  been  apprenticed  at  an  early  age  to 
Jedediah  Strutt,  a  partner  with  Sir  Richard 
Arkwright  in  the  cotton-spinning  business, 
and  had  afterward  served  the  firm  as  clerk 
and  general  overseer,  until  he  had  rendered 
himself  perfectly  familiar  with  the  manu 
facture  of  cotton  as  it  was  then  carried  on 
in  the  model  establishments  of  Great  Brit 
ain.  The  reason  which  has  been  assigned 
for  his  emigration  to  the  United  States  was 
a  notice  in  the  newspapers  of  a  grant  of 
£100  by  the  Legislature  of  Pennsylvania 
for  the  introduction  of  a  new  machine  for 
carding  cotton,  and  of  the  establishment  of 
a  society  for  promoting  the  manufacture  of 
cotton.  But  be  this  as  it  may,  the  18th  of 
January,  1790,  found  him  at  Providence, 
Rhode  Island,  entered  into  partnership  with 
the  firm  of  Almy  and  Brown,  under  an  agree 
ment  to  construct  the  Arkwright  series  of 
machines,  and  carry  on  with  his  partners 
the  manufacture  of  cotton  by  the  improved 
methods.  In  consequence  of  the  restrictions 
on  the  emigration  of  artisans  and  the  ex 
portation  of  models  and  machinery  from 
Great  Britain,  Mr.  Slater  did  not  on  leaving 
home  inform  his  family  of  his  destination, 
or  take  with  him  any  patterns,  drawings,  or 
memoranda  that  could  betray  his  occupa 
tion,  and  so  lead  to  his  detention.  But  so 
thoroughly  was  he  master  of  his  profession 
that  by  the  20th  of  December  of  the  same 
year,  having  discarded  all  the  old  machin 
ery  previously  used  by  Almy  and  Brown  in' 
their  attempts  to  manufacture  cotton,  he 
had  constructed,  chiefly  with  his  own  hands, 
the  whole  series  of  machines  on  the  Ark 
wright  plan,  and  had  started  three  cards, 
drawing  and  roving  frames,  and  two  frames 


of  seventy-two  spindles.  The  machinery 
was  first  set  in  motion  in  an  old  building 
which  had  been  used  as  a  clothier's  estab 
lishment  ;  but  in  1793  the  new  firm  built  a 
small  factory,  which  may  be  considered  as 
the  first  really  successful  cotton  mill  in  the 
United  States. 

The  only  thing  then  wanting  to  insure 
the  rapid  development  of  the  cotton  manu 
facture  not  only  in  the  United  States,  but 
throughout  Europe,  was  an  abundant  sup 
ply  of  the  fibre  at  a  cheap  rate ;  and  this 
the  invention  of  the  cotton-gin  by  Eli  Whit 
ney  in  1793  at  once  supplied.  For  some 
years  previous  to  this  the  price  of  cotton  in 
the  United  States  was  about  forty  cents  per 
pound,  and  it  required  oftentimes  a  day's 
labor  to  separate  a  pound  of  the  clean  staple 
from  the  seed.  In  1795  Georgia  cotton  of 
good  quality  was  offered  in  New  York  at 
Is.  Gd.  (thirty-six  cents)  per  pound ;  and  at 
that  time  cotton  continued  also  to  be  im 
ported.  When  Slater  first  began  to  spin  he 
used  Cayenne  cotton,  but  after  a  few  years 
he  began  to  mix  about  one-third  of  Southern 
cotton,  the  yarn  produced  being  designated 
as  second  quality,  and  sold  accordingly. 
The  total  cotton  product  of  the  world  in 
1791  has  been  estimated  at  about  490,000,000 
pounds,  or  about  a  million  bales,  appor 
tioned  as  follows :  United  States,  2,000,000 
pounds;  Brazil,  22,000,000  pounds;  West 
Indies,  12,000,000 ;  Africa,  46,000,000  ;  India, 
130,000,000 ;  the  rest  of  Asia,  190,000,000 ; 
Mexico  and  South  America,  68,000,000.  Of 
the  product  of  the  United  States  at  that 
time  Georgia  supplied  about  half  a  million 
pounds,  and  South  Carolina  a  million  and 
a  half.  In  1801  the  product  of  the  United 
States  was  estimated  at  48,000,000  pounds ; 
and  from  that  time  the  progress  of  the  cul 
ture  of  cotton  is  indicated  by  the  following 
table : 


Years. 

Pounds. 

Years. 

Pounds. 

1801  
1811  
1821  
1881-32... 

48,000,000 
80,000,000 
180,000,000 
355,000,000 

]*M  4H... 
1849-50... 
1859-60... 
1872-T3... 

834,000,000 
958,000,000 
2,241,000,000 
1,824,000,000 

It  will  thus  be  seen  that  the  largest  crop 
of  cotton  ever  grown  in  the  United  States 
was  in  the  year  1859-60,  just  previous  to 
the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion ;  yet  it  has 
been  demonstrated  by  Mr.  Atkinson  that  in 
that  year  the  amount  of  land  occupied  by 
the  growth  of  cotton  was  less  than  two  per 


COTTON  MANUFACTURE. 


165 


cent.  (1.G34)  of  the  territory  of  the  United 
States  which  is  especially  adapted  to  its 
cultivation. 

In  1799  Mr.  Slater  built  his  second  cotton 
mill,  on  the  east  side  of  thePawtuckct  River, 
in  the  limits  of  Massachusetts,  the  first  mill 
ever  erected  in  the  State  on  the  Arkwright 
system ;  and  by  act  of  the  Legislature  the 
same,  with  all  its  appurtenances,  was  for  a 
period  of  seven  years  exempted  from  taxa 
tion.  Until  this  date  the  improved  meth 
ods  of  manufacture  had  been  confined  to 
Mr.  Slater  and  his  associates,  but  after  this 
men  who  had  been  in  their  employ,  and  had 
learned  the  construction  and  operation  of 
the  machinery,  left  them,  and  commenced 
the  erection  of  mills  for  themselves  or  other 
parties,  and  before  the  year  1808  fifteen  cot 
ton  mills  on  the  Arkwright  basis  were  in 
successful  operation  in  different  sections  of 
the  country.  The  first  cotton  mill  west  of 
Albany  was  erected  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Utica,  Oneida  County,  New  York,  in  1807-6. 
In  1807  the  whole  number  of  spindles  in  the 
United  States  was  estimated  at  4000 ;  in  1808 
the  estimate  was  8000 ;  and  in  1809,  31,000. 
From  this  time  until  1840,  apart  from  the 
annual  estimates  of  the  domestic  consump 
tion  of  cotton  for  all  purposes,  the  statistics 
of  the  growth  of  the  cotton  manufacture  in 
the  United  States  are  very  deficient  and  un 
reliable.  In  1815  the  three  States  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  and  Connecticut 
had  165  factories  and  119,510  spindles.  In 
1831,795  factories  and  1,246,500  spindles  were 
reported  for  the  whole  country.  In  1840, 
by  the  census,  2,285,000  spindles;  in  1850 
(for  New  England  only),  2,728,000  spindles. 
After  this  the  data  are  reliable,  and  are 
as  follows:  1860,  5,035,798  spindles;  1870, 
7,114,000;  1874  (July  1),  9,415,383,  of  which 
8,927,754  were  returned  for  the  Northern 
States,  and  487,629  for  the  Southern.  The 
recent  rapid  progress  of  the  Southern  States 
in  the  manufacture  of  cotton  is  indicated 
by  the  fact  that  in  1869  this  section  of  the 
country  had  225,063  spindles  in  operation, 
and  in  1874,  487,629.  The  progress  of  the 
whole  country  in  spinning  spindles  from 
1870  to  1874  was  about  thirty-three  per  cent. 
The  aggregate  and  average  per  capita  man 
ufacturing  consumption  of  cotton  in  the 
United  States  since  1827  is  shown  by  the 
following  table : 


Year,. 

Pounds. 

Comumption 
per  Capita. 

1827  

49,489  796 

4   •>•> 

1835  

79,597,896 

5  31 

1840  

113  058  919 

6  68 

1846  

161,43.%O.M) 

8  15 

1850  

263,190,642 

11.34 

1855  

306,582  808 

11  40 

1860  

450,877,823 

14  32 

1865  

145,935,000 

5.21 

1869  

447,216,000 

11  57 

1-.74  

567,583,873 

13.50 

In  1794  the  price  of  Slater's  cotton  yarn, 
No.  20,  was  $1  21  per  pound.  In  1808  the 
price  of  the  same  number  was  $1  31.  Power- 
loom  weaving  was  first  successfully  intro 
duced  into  Great  Britain  in  1806,  previous 
to  which  time  all  weaving  had  been  per 
formed  upon  hand-looms.  The  first  power- 
looms  in  the  United  States  were  put  in  op 
eration  at  Waltham,  Massachusetts,  in  1814, 
and  it  was  at  the  mills  of  the  company  at 
this  place,  also,  that  the  spinning  and  weav 
ing  of  cotton  were  for  the  first  time  com 
bined  in  any  large  establishment.  In  this 
same  year  the  price  of  cotton  yarn  was  re 
duced  by  the  operations  of  the  Waltham 
Company  to  less  than  one  dollar  per  pound. 
In  1823  the  "domestics"  of  the  Waltham 
Company — which  at  about  this  time  extend 
ed  its  operations  and  built  the  first  mill  at 
Lowell — had  become  so  popular  that  they 
were  counterfeited  by  foreign  manufactur 
ers,  and  in  1827  it  is  recorded  that  the  de 
mand  for  American  cottons  in  Brazil  was 
considerably  aifected  by  imitations  of  them 
made  at  Manchester,  England,  and  offered 
there  (in  Brazil)  "at  lower  prices,  although 
they  could  be  made  as  cheaply  in  the  United 
States  as  the  same  quality  could  be  produced 
in  Manchester."  It  is  also  a  noteworthy 
circumstance  that  in  1850  in  New  England 
the  ratio  of  cotton  spindles  to  population 
was  that  of  1008  spindles  to  each  1000  in 
habitants,  while  in  Great  Britain  for  the 
same  year  the  ratio  was  1003  spindles  to 
1000  inhabitants,  so  that  at  this  period  New 
England  in  respect  to  cotton  had  compara 
tively  exceeded  Great  Britain  in  its  manu 
facturing  industry.  From  1850  to  1860  and 
from  1860  to  1870  the  number  of  spindles  in 
New  England  increased  much  faster  than 
the  population,  averaging  in  1860  1265  and 
in  1870  1478  to  each  1000  inhabitants. 

The  most  important  cotton  manufactur 
ing  States  of  the  Union,  arranged  in  the 
order  of  their  consumption  of  cotton  for  the 
year  1874,  were  as  follows :  Massachusetts, 


166 


PROGRESS  IN  MANUFACTURE. 


New  Hampshire,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut, 
Pennsylvania,  Maine,  New  York,  Maryland, 
Georgia,  New  Jersey,  South  Carolina,  North 
Carolina,  Alabama,  Tennessee,  and  Virginia. 
Few  or  no  cotton  factories  exist  in  the  States 
of  Illinois,  Iowa,  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Kan 
sas,  Nebraska,  California,  or  Oregon.  The 
following  table  exhibits  the  amount  and 
character  of  the  principal  products  of  the 
cotton  manufactories  of  the  United  States 
for  1874 : 


such  as  lumber,  sugar,  ashes,  wine,  bricks, 
indigo,  hemp,  and  the  products  of  the  fisher 
ies,  was  at  least  $172,000,000,  or  including 
products  of  the  nature  specified,  $198,000,000. 
In  1810,  also,  Mr.  Gallatin,  then  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury,  reported  to  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  that  the  following  manufac 
tures  were  carried  on  to  an  extent  which 
might  be  considered  adequate  to  the  re 
quirements  of  the  United  States  for  con 
sumption,  as  the  value  of  these  products 


STATEMENT  or  THE  KINDS  AND  QUANTITIES  OF  COTTON  GOODS  MANUFACTURED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  FOR 

THE  YEAR  ENDING  JULY  1,  1874. 


New  England 
Stiites. 

Middle  and 
Western  States. 

Total  Northern 
States. 

Total  South 
ern  States. 

Total  United 

States. 

32,000,000 

99  000  000 

131  000  000 

18  000  000 

149  000  000 

Sheetings,    shirtings,    and    similar    plain 
goods  yds. 

520,000,000 

90,000,000 

610,000  000 

97,000  000 

707  000  000 

Twilled  and  fancy  goods,  osnaburgs,  jeans, 
etc  yds. 

204,000,000 

80,000,000 

284  000  000 

22  000  000 

306  000  000 

Print  cloths  yds. 

481  ,000,000 

107  000  000 

588  000  000 

588  000  000 

Ginghams  yds. 

30,000,000 

3,000,000 

33,000  000 

33  000  000 

Ducks       yds. 

14,000  000 

16  000  000 

30  000  000 

30  000  000 

Bags  

6,000,000 

1,000,000 

6,000,000 

6,000,000 

Besides  the  above,  there  is  a  large  produc 
tion  of  articles,  like  hosiery,  etc.,  composed 
of  mixed  cotton  and  wool,  for  the  details 
of  which  there  are  no  satisfactory  statistics. 

Among  other  notable  improvements  which 
were  invented  and  brought  into  use  about 
the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  Federal 
Constitution  were  those  of  Oliver  Evans,  of 
Pennsylvania,  in  respect  to  the  manufacture 
of  flour,  the  importance  of  which  may  per 
haps  be  sufficiently  indicated  by  saying  that 
in  all  the  subsequent  progress  of  invention 
no  radical  change  has  ever  been  made  in 
the  system  of  "milling"  machinery  as  Mr. 
Evans  devised  it,  and  that  it  constitutes  to 
day  the  mechanical  basis  upon  which  all  the 
extensive  flour  mills  of  the  United  States 
and  Europe  are  operated.  The  more  spe 
cial  results  of  the  invention  were  a  saving 
of  one-half  the  labor  of  attendance,  a  better 
product  of  manufacture,  and  an  increase  of 
about  twenty-eight  pounds  of  flour  to  each 
barrel  above  the  method  previously  in  use. 

As  has  been  already  stated,  the  value  of 
the  product  of  American  manufactures  for 
the  year  1790,  as  estimated  by  Mr.  Tench 
Coxe,  was  about  $20,000,000. 

The  census  of  1810  fixed  the  total  value 
of  the  manufactured  products  of  the  coun 
try  for  that  year  at  $127,000,000,  but  Mr. 
Coxe,  to  whom  the  returns  were  referred  by 
resolution  of  Congress  for  revision,  was  of 
the  opinion  that  the  aggregate,  exclusive 
of  all  products  closely  allied  to  agriculture, 


annually  exported  exceeded  that  of  the  for 
eign  articles  of  the  same  general  class  an 
nually  imported,  viz.,  manufactures  of  wood, 
leather  and  manufactures  of  leather,  soap 
and  tallow-caudles,  spermaceti  oil  and  can 
dles,  flaxseed  oil,  refined  sugar,  coarse  earth 
enware,  snuff,  hair -powder,  chocolate,  and 
mustard.  The  following  branches  were  also 
reported  as  so  firmly  established  as  to  supply 
in  several  instances  the  greater  and  in  all 
a  considerable  part  of  the  consumption  of 
the  country,  viz.,  iron  and  manufactures  of 
iron,  manufactures  of  cotton,  wool,  and  flax, 
hats,  paper,  printing  types,  printed  books, 
and  playing-cards,  spirituous  and  malt  liq 
uors,  gunpowder,  window  glass,  jewelry  and 
clocks,  several  manufactures  of  hemp  and 
of  lead,  straw  bonnets  and  hats,  and  wax- 
candles.1 

Accepting  the  estimates  of  Mr.  Coxe,  it 
also  appears  that  the  annual  value  of  the 
manufactured  products  of  the  8,500,000  pop 
ulation  of  the  United  States  in  1810,  less 
than  thirty  years  after  the  close  of  the  Rev 
olution,  was  in  excess  of  that  of  Great  Brit 
ain,  with  her  accumulated  capital  and  ex 
perience,  in  1787,  when  the  population  of 
the  United  Kingdom  closely  approximated 
to  the  same  figure. 

The  immediate  effect  of  the  war  of  1812, 
by  increasing  demand  for  all  necessary  prod 
ucts,  and  at  the  same  time  cutting  off  all 

1  Bishop's  History  of  Ainerican  Manufactures. 


AFTER  THE  WAR  OF  1812. 


1(57 


foreign  imports  and  competition,  was  to  im 
part  a  most  unnatural  and  unhealthy  stim 
ulus  to  American  manufacturing  industry. 
Capital,  especially  under  the  form  of  joint- 
stock  companies,  and  often  without  the  ex 
ercise  of  the  most  ordinary  prudence  or  fore 
thought,  hastened  to  inaugurate  a  host  of 
new  industrial  enterprises.  Mill  privileges 
readily  commanded  most  extravagant  fig 
ures,  wages  rose  from  30  to  50  per  cent.,  and 
raw  materials  and  manufactured  goods  from 
50  to  200  per  cent.  Cottons  which  had  sold 
before  the  war  at  from  17  to  25  cents  per 
yard,  found  purchasers  by  the  package  at 
75  cents  per  yard ;  and  salt,  which  was,  in 
1812,  55  cents  per  bushel,  commanded  in  Oc 
tober,  1814,  $3  per  bushel.  The  number  of 
cotton  mills  in  Rhode  Island  and  in  Massa 
chusetts  within  thirty  miles  of  Providence, 
at  the  commencement  of  the  war  in  1812, 
was  about  seventy ;  at  the  close  of  the 
war,  in  1815,  this  number  had  increased  to 
ninety-six. 

So  long  as  the  war  continued  there  was 
for  nearly  all  these  enterprises  an  apparent 
great  prosperity,  to  magnify  and  innate 
which  an  almost  unlimited  issue  of  paper 
money  also  powerfully  contributed.  All  the 
banks  in  the  country,  save  those  in  New  En 
gland,  suspended  specie  payments  in  1814 ; 
and  the  Federal  government,  finding  itself 
short  of  revenue,  early  in  the  course  of  the 
war  commenced  the  issue  of  Treasury  paper. 
But  as  specie  disappeared  and  redemption 
was  abrogated,  not  only  public  and  pri 
vate  banking  associations,  but  manufac 
turing  and  bridge  -  building  associations, 
and  even  individuals,  issued  paper  notes, 
which  rapidly  passed  into  circulation,  and 
were  largely  taken  by  the  public.  In  one 
session,  that  of  1813-14,  the  Legislature 
of  Pennsylvania  chartered  forty-one  new 
banks,  with  $17,000,000  of  capital ;  and  ac 
cording  to  one  writer  of  the  time,  "the 
plenty  of  money  was  so  profuse  that  the 
managers  of  the  banks  were  fearful  that 
they  could  not  find  a  demand  for  all  they 
could  fabricate,  and  it  was  no  infrequent 
occurrence  to  hear  solicitations  urged  to  in 
dividuals  to  become  borrowers,  under  prom 
ises  of  indulgences  the  most  tempting." 
The  result  was  that  the  money  of  the  coun 
try  in  a  great  degree  lost  its  value,  and  its 
depreciation,  enhancing  the  prices  of  every 


species  of  property  and  commodity,  appear 
ed  like  a  real  rise  in  value,  and  induced  all 
manner  of  speculations  and  extravagance. 
The  editor  of  Nilcs's  Register  characterized 
"the  prodigality  and  waste  as  almost  be 
yond  belief,"  and  speaks  of  the  furniture  of 
a  single  private  parlor  in  one  of  the  Eastern 
cities  as  costing  upward  of  $40,000.  On  the 
other  hand,  Mr.  Mathew  Carey,  of  Phila 
delphia,  writing  in  1816,  called  this  period 
"  the  golden  age  of  Philadelphia,"  and  says, 
"  The  rapid  circulation  of  property,  the  im 
mensity  of  business  done,  and  the  profits 
made  on  that  business  produced  a  degree 
of  prosperity  which  she  had  perhaps  never 
before  witnessed."  And  in  another  portion 
of  the  pamphlet  from  which  the  above  lan 
guage  is  quoted  he  further  declared  "that 
never  was  the  country  in  a  more  enviable 
state." 

With  the  return  of  peace,  and  the  conse 
quent  cessation  of  demand  for  commodities 
on  the  part  of  the  government,  the  fall  of 
prices,  and  the  resumption  of  importations, 
all  this  bubble  of  prosperity,  however,  col 
lapsed  with  great  rapidity,  and  the  country 
entered  upon  a  period  of  prostration  and 
stagnation  of  all  industrial  effort  which  has 
had  no  parallel  in  all  its  history  except 
possibly  during  the  darkest  hours  of  the 
Revolution.  Expecting  large  demands  and 
high  prices  for  commodities,  English  and 
American  merchants  imported  enormously 
as  soon  as  practicable  after  the  ports  had 
been  opened ;  but  the  markets  becoming 
soon  overstocked,  prices,  under  forced  sales, 
declined  to  such  an  extent  as  to  prove  ruin 
ous  not  only  to  the  importers,  but  also  to  a 
large  proportion  of  the  injudicious  or  high- 
cost  manufacturing  establishments  which 
the  war  had  stimulated  into  existence.  To 
remedy  this  state  of  things,  Congress  in  1816 
enacted  the  first  strong  protective  tariff,  al 
though  the  average  rate  of  duty  imposed 
by  it  on  all  imports  was  only  about  twenty- 
five  per  cent.,  and  on  only  a  few  articles 
was  in  excess  of  thirty  per  cent.  It  is  in 
teresting  also  to  note  that  this  measure  was 
proposed  and  mainly  supported  by  South 
ern  members  of  Congress — especially  on  the 
ground  of  encouraging  the  manufacture  of 
our  own  cotton — and  met  with  decided  op 
position  from  the  people  and  Representa 
tives  of  the  North,  whose  capital  and  labor 


168 


PROGRESS  IN  MANUFACTURE. 


were  at  that  time  largely  interested  in  com 
merce  and  navigation. 

But  whatever  may  have  been  the  ulti 
mate  effect  of  this  tariff,  its  immediate  ben 
eficial  influence  in  restoring  prosperity  to 
the  manufacturing  and  other  interests  of 
the  country  proved  far  less  than  what  was 
anticipated.  On  the  contrary,  the  stagna 
tion  of  every  kind  of  trade  and  industry,  in 
stead  of  diminishing,  continued  to  increase, 
and  did  not  reach  its  maximum  until  four 
years  after  the  war,  or  in  1819.  Specie  pay 
ments  were  resumed  in  1817 ;  and  as  a  legit 
imate  consequence  no  small  proportion  of 
the  paper  promises  to  pay,  which  had  been 
so  recklessly  issued  and  so  profusely  circula 
ted  as  money,  without  security  behind  them 
for  their  payment,  rapidly  became  worthless 
in  the  hands  of  the  holders.  The  United 
States  Bank,  which  at  that  time  was  the 
great  financial  regulator  of  the  exchanges  of 
the  country,  became  also  involved,  through 
imprudent  or  dishonest  management — los 
ing  through  its  Baltimore  branch  alone 
$1,671,000 — and  in  attempting  to  save  it 
self  wrought  such  new  mischief  that  the 
previous  financial  and  industrial  disasters 
of  the  country  became  almost  insignificant 
in  comparison.  Rents  and  values  of  all  real 
estate  and  merchandise  were  enormously 
depreciated.  The  population  of  Philadel 
phia  decreased  10,000  between  1815  and 
1820.  At  Pittsburg  flour  was  one  dollar  per 
barrel,  boards  twenty  cents  per  hundred, 
and  sheep  one  dollar  per  head.  Farms  were 
mortgaged  and  sold  every  where  for  one- 
half  to  one-third  of  their  value.  Factories 
and  workshops  were  every  where  closed; 
and  in  August,  1819,  it  was  estimated  by 
some  authorities  that  as  many  as  260,000 
persons,  formerly  dependent  on  manufac 
tures,  were  absolutely  without  means  of 
support. 

After  1819,  although  the  depression  of 
prices  continued  through  1820,  affairs  began 
to  improve.  In  this  latter  year  the  site  for 
the  city  of  Lowell  was  purchased,  and  be 
tween  1821  and  1827  it  is  noted  that  thirty 
new  cotton  factories  were  erected  in  the 
State  of  New  York  alone.  But  from  the 
epoch  of  the  great  financial  and  industrial 
revulsion  following  the  war  of  1812  down  to 
the  year  1850  there  are  no  reliable  data  for 
exhibiting  by  decades,  or  for  shorter  peri 


ods,  the  aggregate  progress  and  results  of 
American  manufacturing  industry.  Some 
specific  details  of  interest  may,  however,  be 
mentioned. 

Thus,  in  1821  the  value  of  the  manufac 
tured  products  of  the  United  States  exported 
was  equal  to  28  cents  per  head  of  the  entire 
population.  In  1825  this  value  had  risen  to 
51  cents,  from  which  it  declined  in  1830  to 
41  cents.  In  1835  it  was  again  51  cents ;  in 
1840,  58  cents ;  in  1845,  53  cents ;  in  1850,  60 
cents ;  and  in  the  period  from  1851  to  1861 
it  attained  the  highest  figures  in  our  in 
dustrial  history,  namely,  $1  40  in  1854  and 
$1  53  in  1860.  Since  the  outbreak  of  the 
war,  however,  this  representative  value  of 
exports  of  manufactures  has  not  in  any  one 
year  risen  as  high  as  $1  per  capita  for  our  en 
tire  population. 

In  1820  the  total  value  of  the  books  pub 
lished  in  the  United  States  was  estimated  at 
$2,500.000,  and  the  relative  proportion  of 
British  and  American  books  consumed  was 
estimated  by  S.  C.  Goodrich  (Peter  Parley) 
at  seventy  per  cent,  of  the  former  to  thirty  of 
the  latter ;  but  before  1850  the  proportion  of 
foreign  books  to  American  consumed  in  the 
country  had  become  very  inconsiderable. 

The  mechanical  inventions  by  which  the 
cost  of  the  manufacture  of  paper  was  great 
ly  reduced,  through  the  substitution  of  ma 
chinery  producing  a  continuous  sheet,  in 
place  of  the  old  hand  process  by  which  sin 
gle  sheets  were  made  successively  and  slow 
ly,  had  their  inception  unquestionably  in 
Europe  at  about  the  commencement  of  the 
present  century,  but  the  credit  of  so  simpli 
fying  and  enlarging  the  machinery  as  to 
make  it  practical  and  thoroughly  efficient 
undoubtedly  belongs  to  American  paper- 
makers,  John  Ames,  of  Springfield,  having 
been  especially  noted  for  his  useful  inven 
tions.  In  1800,  "by  the  hand  process,  it 
took  three  months  to  complete  the  paper, 
ready  for  delivery,  from  the  time  of  receiv 
ing  the  rags  into  the  mill."1  At  the  present 
day  twenty-four  hours  are  amply  sufficient. 
In  1820  the  annual  value  of  the  product  of 
the  paper  manufacturing  industry  of  the 
United  States  was  estimated  at  $3,000,000 ; 
in  1829,  $7,000,000 ;  in  1844,  $16,000,000,  by 
600  mills;  in  1854,  $27,000,000,  by  750  mills; 

'  Munsell's  Chronology  of  Paper  and  Paper-Making. 


IRON  INDUSTRY. 


1G9 


in  1860,  $39,428,000;  and  in  1870  (exclusive  j 
of  paper-hangings),  $48,675,000. 

The  iron  industry  of  the  United  States 
divides  itself  into  two  periods,  one  dating 
from  the  first  settlement  of  the  country  to 
the  end  of  the  year  1862 ;  the  other  extend 
ing  from  1863  to  the  end  of  1873.  The  first 
period  was  one  of  gradual  but  continuous 
growth ;  the  second  was  that  in  which  the 
iron  industry  was  stimulated  into  an  extraor 
dinary  growth  and  activity,  first  by  the  war, 
and  then  by  railroad  building  on  the  most 
extensive  scale. 

The  fact  that  both  pig  and  bar  iron  were 
included  among  the  regular  exports  of  the 
country  for  many  years  prior  to  the  Revolu 
tion  has  been  already  noticed.  After  the 
war  the  progress  of  this  industry  was  for  a 
time  very  rapid,  and  in  1791  Mr.  Hamilton 
in  his  report  says,  "  Iron-works  have  great 
ly  increased  in  the  United  States,  and  are 
prosecuted  with  much  more  advantage  than 
formerly."  We  find  it  also  recorded  at 
about  this  time  that  "  a  dangerous  rivalry 
to  British  iron  interests  was  apprehended 
in  the  American  States,  not  only  in  the  pro 
duction  of  rough  iron,  from  the  cheapness 
of  fuel  and  the  quality  of  the  iron,  but  also 
in  articles  of  steel  cutlery  and  other  finished 
products,  from  the  dexterity  of  the  Ameri 
cans  in  the  manufacture  of  scythes,  axes, 
nails,  etc."  In  1810  Mr.  Gallatin,  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  in  a  report  on  manufac 
tures,  classed  that  of  iron  as  firmly  estab 
lished,  and  estimated  the  quantity  of  bar- 
iron  produced  to  be  40,000  tons,  against 
about  9000  imported.  According  to  the 
census  of  1810,  there  were  153  furnaces  in  the 
United  States,  producing  53,908  tons  of  iron, 
and  four  steel  furnaces,  producing  917  tons 
of  steel,  the  importation  of  steel  for  the 
same  year  being  reported  at  only  550  tons. 
The  commercial  and  financial  revulsions 
which  followed  the  war  of  1812-15  affected 
disastrously  the  iron  manufacture  in  com 
mon  with  all  other  industries ;  but  that  it 
did  not  entirely  interrupt  it  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  some  new  establishments  of  great 
importance  went  into  operation  at  the  time 
of  the  greatest  depression  ;  and  in  1816  the 
total  import  of  pig-iron  was  but  329  tons. 
By  1824  the  iron  production  and  manufac 
ture  were  both  very  active,  and  the  pig-iron 
product  of  this  year  undoubtedly  exceeded 


100,000  tons.  For  1832  it  was  reported  at 
200,000  tons.  The  first  furnace  for  smelting 
with  anthracite  coal  was  built  in  1837,  but 
at  the  close  of  1843  there  were  twenty  an 
thracite  furnaces  in  successful  operation. 
The  first  important  demand  for  iron  in  the 
United  States  for  railroad  purposes  com 
menced  in  1835,  during  which  year  465  miles 
of  road  were  constructed,  followed  by  416  in 
1838, 516  in  1840,  and  717  in  1841.  In  regard 
to  the  production  of  pig-iron  in  the  United 
States  during  the  decade  from  1840  to  1850, 
a  period  characterized  by  extreme  variations 
in  the  tariff  policy  of  the  government,  there 
has  been  no  little  of  controversy ;  but  the 
most  careful  investigation  yet  made  into 
the  subject  (that  of  Hon.  W.  M.  Grosvenor) 
leads  to  the  conclusion  that  the  product 
of  1840  was  about  347,000  tons,  and  that  it 
increased  from  that  figure  to  an  aggregate 
of  not  more  than  551,000  tons  in  1846,  and 
570,000  in  1848.  Subsequent  to  this  date 
the  progress  of  the  pig-iron  industry  may  be 
accurately  indicated  as  follows :  1850, 564,755 
tons;  1855,  784,178;  1860,  919,770;  1865, 
931,582  ;  1870,  1,865,000  ;  1873,  2,695,000. 

In  1865  the  production  of  cast  steel  in 
the  United  States  was  15,262  tons ;  in  1873, 
28,000  tons. 

In  1868  the  production  of  pneumatic  or 
Bessemer  steel  was  8500  tons;  in  1873  (esti 
mated),  140,000  tons.  The  recent  progress 
of  that  department  of  the  iron  industry  of 
the  United  States  engaged  in  the  manufac 
ture  of  rails  for  railroads  is  also  indicated 
by  the  following  statistics  of  annual  prod 
uct  :  1849,  24,314  tons ;  1855,  138,674 ;  1860, 
205,038;  1865,  356,292;  1870,  620,000;  1872, 
941,000;  1873,850,000. 

In  1840  the  consumption  of  iron  in  the 
United  States  for  all  purposes  was  estima 
ted  at  about  40  pounds  per  capita  ;  in  1846, 
at  about  60  pounds ;  in  1856,  at  64 ;  and  in 
1867,  at  (approximately)  100  pounds.  The 
per  capita  consumption  of  Great  Britain 
and  Belgium  alike  for  this  latter  year 
was  189  pounds ;  and  of  France,  69^  pounds. 
For  the  years  1872-73  the  per  capita  con 
sumption  of  iron  in  the  United  States  has 
been  estimated  as  high  as  150  pounds ;  and 
that  of  Great  Britain,  at  200  pounds. 

It  is  more  difficult  to  present  the  details 
of  the  growth  and  development  of  the  wool 
en  manufacture  of  the  United  States  than 


170 


PROGRESS  IN  MANUFACTURE. 


those  of  almost  any  other  great  domestic  in 
dustry  ;  and  this,  in  a  great  degree,  for  the 
reason  that  no  other  industry  has  been  sub 
jected  to  such  violent  and  radical  disturb 
ances  by  reason  of  financial  and  commercial 
revulsions,  and  by  the  frequent  changes  in 
the  fiscal  policy  of  the  government  in  re 
spect  to  the  tariff.  Previous  to  the  Revo 
lution  this  branch  of  manufacturing  was  so 
successfully  established  that  its  progress 
was  regarded  with  probably  more  of  jeal 
ousy  and  apprehension  by  Great  Britain 
than  that  of  any  other  colonial  industry, 
and  most  stringent  efforts  were  made  by 
Parliament  to  check  or  suppress  it.  After 
the  war  the  business  generally  changed  its 
"home"  or  "domestic"  character,  and  be 
came  more  and  more  of  a  "  factory"  enter 
prise,  and  developed  rapidly,  down  to  the 
period  of  the  "  embargo"  of  1808.  Before 
the  "  embargo"  American  woolens  were 
made  for  $1  06  per  yard,  equal  in  fineness 
and  quality  with  British  goods  of  double 
the  width,  costing  $3  50  per  yard. 

The  immediate  effect  of  the  embargo  and 
of  the  subsequent  war  was  to  greatly  stim 
ulate  the  manufacture  of  woolens ;  but  wool 
was  so  high  and  scarce  as  to  command  in 
1815  $4  per  pound,  while  broadcloths  were 
as  high  as  $18  per  yard.  The  detailed  ac 
counts  of  one  factory  established  at  Goshen, 
Connecticut,  in  1813,  which  have  been  pre 
served,  show  that  the  proprietors  purchased 
wool  at  $1  50  per  pound,  and  sold  cloth  of  a 
quality  which  at  the  present  time  would 
not  command  over  $1  per  yard,  for  $10 ; 
and,  further,  that  the  ultimate  end  of  that 
factory  after  the  war  was  an  entire  loss  of 
the  original  capital,  and  three  times  as  much 
more  in  addition. 

In  the  prostration  of  all  business  interests 
that  followed  the  war  the  woolen  industry 
participated,  but  yet  not  more  largely  than 
did  that  of  cotton ;  and  it  recovered  so  vig 
orously  that  the  capital  invested  in  it  was 
reported  to  Congress  to  have  more  than 
doubled  between  1815-16  and  1827.  From 
this  time,  although  the  woolen  manufacture 
has  continued  to  increase,  and  at  the  pres 
ent  time  has  attained  to  a  large  develop 


ment  in  almost  every  department,  its  record 
on  the  whole  has  been  one  of  disaster  rath 
er  than  of  success ;  and  the  annals  of  Con 
gress  from  1827  onward  are  filled  with  ap 
plications  by  representatives  of  the  woolen 
interests  for  legislative  relief,  and  with  most 
pitiful  statements  of  lack  of  profit,  loss  of 
capital,  and  abandonment  of  business.  The 
explanation  of  this  curious  result  in  great 
part  is  that  no  one  country  produces  all  the 
different  kinds  of  wool,  which  in  variety  of 
character  may  be  said  to  range  from  the 
coarsest  hair  to  the  finest  and  most  glossy 
silk;  and  that  in  order  that  the  manufac 
ture  of  woolens  may  be  conducted  successful 
ly,  it  is  absolutely  essential  that  the  manu 
facturer  should  be  allowed  to  freely  select 
his  raw  material  from  the  peculiar  products 
of  every  climate  and  soil,  and  at  prices  com 
mon  to  all  competitors.  But  such  a  condi 
tion  of  things,  through  legislative  interfer 
ence,  has  not  been  given  to  American  wool 
en  manufacturers  in  one  single  year  since 
1827 ;  added  to  which  there  has  been  no  sta 
bility  in  the  duties  imposed  on  imported 
fabrics  of  wool,  the  tariff  on  the  single  ar 
ticle  of  blankets,  for  example,  having  been 
subjected  to  five  radical  and  sudden  changes 
during  the  period  from  1857  to  1867  inclu 
sive.  The  extreme  and  rapid  variations  in 
the  price  of  American  wool  (upon  which  the 
American  manufacturer  has  been  obliged  to 
mainly  rely)  since  the  year  1827  also  strik 
ingly  illustrate  how  imstable  have  been 
what  may  be  regarded  as  the  fundamental 
elements  of  the  business.  Thus  the  average 
price  per  pound  of  common  "  fleece"  in  New 
York  for  the  year  1825  was  33  cents ;  in 
1830, 22  cents ;  in  1835, 33|  cents ;  in  1839, 38 
cents ;  in  1842,  19  cents ;  in  1850,  35  cents ; 
in  1853,  41  cents ;  in  1858,  30  cents ;  in  1863, 
67  cents ;  and  in  1873,  40  to  90  cents. 

By  the  census  of  1840  the  capital  invest 
ed  in  the  manufacture  of  woolens  in  the 
United  States  was  returned  as  in  excess  of 
$15,000,000,  employing  21,000  persons,  and 
producing  goods  to  the  value  of  $20,696,000. 
Since  1850  the  progress  and  condition  of 
this  industry  as  returned  by  the  census  arc 
shown  by  the  following  table : 


IftoO. 

1  Still. 

1870. 

Number  of  establishments  

1,559 

1,260 

2,s'.U 

39,252 

41,360 

93,108 

Capital  invested  

128,118,000 

$30,862,000 

$108,998,000 

Value  of  product  

$43,207,000 

$61,894,000 

$177,968,000 

AGGREGATE  ANNUAL  PRODUCTION. 


171 


In  1850  the  Federal  government  for  the 
first  time  attempted  to  ascertain  through 
the  machinery  of  the  census  with  any  ap 
proach  to  accuracy  the  exact  condition  and 
annual  product  of  all  the  various  industries 
of  the  country,  not,  however,  including  any 
establishment  the  value  of  whose  annual 
product  was  not  in  excess  of  $500.  The 
amount  of  capital  at  that  time  invested  in 
manufactures  in  the  whole  country  was  re 
turned  at  $553,123,822,  and  the  value  of  the 
annual  product  (including  fisheries  and  the 
products  of  the  mines)  at  $1,019,106,616. 

By  the  census  of  1860  the  aggregate  capi 
tal  employed  in  manufacturing  for  the  whole 
country  was  returned  at  $1,009,855,715,  and 
the  gross  value  of  the  total  annual  product 
at  $1,885,861,676,  an  increase  as  compared 
with  the  aggregate  of  1850  of  about  eighty- 
eight  per  cent.  By  the  census  of  1870  the 
aggregate  manufacturing  capital  returned 
was  $2,118,208,000,  and  the  gross  value  of 
the  total  annual  product  of  manufactures 
$4,232,325,442.  Reducing  the  census  state 
ments  of  these  values  of  the  annual  product 
to  equal  terms  respectively,  the  increase  in 
the  reported  values  of  the  products  of  man 
ufacturing  industry  for  the  decade  from  1860 
to  1870  was  one  hundred  and  eight  per  cent. 
But  of  this  increase  fifty-six  per  cent,  was 
computed  to  represent  merely  the  enhance 
ment  of  prices  in  1870  over  those  of  1860  by 
reason  of  the  inflation  of  the  currency  and 
other  general  causes,  leaving  ffty-tu-o  per 
cent,  as  the  actual  increase  in  the  value  of 
production.  Of  this  latter  increase  it  was 
further  estimated  that  about  twenty-eight 
per  cent,  was  due  to  increase  during  the 
decade  in  the  amount  of  labor  employed, 
and  twenty -four  per  cent,  to  the  applica 
tion  of  steam  or  water  power,  the  intro 
duction  of  machinery,  and  the  perfecting  of 
processes. 

But  the  evidence  is  unquestionable  that 
the  returns  of  both  the  census  of  1860  and 
that  of  1870  in  respect  to  the  aggregate 
value  of  the  annual  product  of  our  manu 
facturing  industries  were  much  less  than 
the  actual  facts  warranted,  and  that  if  prop 
er  account  had  been  taken  of  the  omissions 
and  deficiencies  in  the  estimates  of  the  pe 
riods  above  given,  the  true  value  of  the  an 
nual  manufacturing  product  for  1860  would 
have  been  about  $2,325,000,000  in  place  of 


$1,885,000,000,  and  for  1870  $4,839,000,000  in 
place  of  $4,232,000,000. 

Careful  investigation  has  also  shown  that 
the  data  upon  which  the  amount  of  capital 
invested  in  manufactures  in  the  United 
States  has  from  time  to  time  been  estimated 
under  the  census  have  been  too  unreliable 
and  imperfect  to  authorize  any  but  the  most 
general  conclusions ;  and  furthermore  that 
the  results  of  any  inquiry  by  Federal  or 
State  officials  looking  to  the  obtaining  of 
accurate  information  respecting  invested 
capital  must,  from  the  almost  universal  un 
willingness  of  persons  interested  to  give  in 
formation,  be  ever  most  unsatisfactory,  if 
not  wholly  worthless.  Thus  the  estimate 
under  this  head,  based  on  the  official  returus 
of  the  census  for  1870,  was,  as  before  shown, 
$2,118,000,000  ;  but  this  sum,  in  the  opinion 
of  the  Superintendent  of  the  Census,  Hon. 
F.  A.  Walker,  did  not  in  fact  truly  repre 
sent  more  than  one -fourth  of  the  capital 
which  actually  contributed  to  make  up  the 
gross  annual  value  of  the  manufactured 
product  returned  for  the  year  1870. 

RELATIVE  IMPORTANCE  OF  THE  MANUFACTUR 
ING  INDUSTRIES  OF  THE   UNITED  STATES. 

The  following  detailed  statements,  com 
piled  from  the  returns  of  the  census  of  1870, 
indicate  the  relative  importance  of  the  great 
manufacturing  industries  of  the  country : 

Leather  (including  the  dressing  and  tan 
ning  of  skins,  the  manufacture  of  boots  and 
shoes,  saddlery,  harnesses,  belting,  hose, 
pocket  -  books,  trunks,  bags,  and  valises, 
but  excluding  all  other  manufactures). — 
Hands  employed,  202,613 ;  capital  invested, 
$133,902,000;  value  of  annual  product,  exclu 
sive  of  value  of  material  used,  $162,872,000. 

Lumber  (planed  and  sawed). — Hands  em 
ployed,  163,511;  capital  invested,  $161,406,- 
000  ;  value  of  annual  product,  exclusive  of 
value  of  material  used,  $120,201,000. 

Flouring  and  Gri«t  Mill  Products. — Hands 
employed,  58,448 ;  capital  invested,  $151,565,- 
000  ;  value  of  annual  product,  exclusive  of 
value  of  material  used,  $77,593,000. 

Pig  and  liar  Iron  Manufacture  (including 
pigs,  blooms,  and  iron  forged  and  rolled). — 
Hands  employed,  78,347  ;  capital  invested, 
$119,860,000 ;  value  of  annual  product,  ex 
clusive  of  value  of  raw  material  used, 
$70,272,000. 

Clothing  (ready-made). — Hands  employed. 


172 


PROGRESS  IN  MANUFACTURE. 


118,824  ;  capital  invested,  $52,743,000;  value 
of  annual  product,  exclusive  of  value  of  ma 
terial  used,  $69,600,000. 

Manufactures  of  Cotton  (including  batting 
and  wadding,  thread,  twine,  and  yarns). — 
Hands  employed,  136,763 ;  capital  invested, 
$140,900.000 ;  value  of  annual  product,  ex 
clusive  of  \alue  of  raw  material  used, 
$64,828,000. 

Manufactures  of  Wool  (including  woolen 
and  worsted  goods,  wool  carding,  and  cloth 
dressing). — Hands  employed,  93,108  ;  capital 
invested,  $108.998,000  ;  value  of  annual  prod 
uct,  exclusive  of  value  of  material  used, 
$66,745,000. 

Machinery. — Hands  employed,  83,514 ;  cap 
ital  invested,  $101,181,000  ;  value  of  annual 
product,  exclusive  of  value  of  material  used, 
$57,597,000. 

Carnages  and  Wagons  (including  building 
and  repairing  of  railroad  cars,  children's 
wagons,  and  sleds).  —  Hands  employed, 
71,772  ;  capital  invested,  $53,941,000 ;  value 
of  annual  product,  exclusive  of  value  of 
material  used,  $56,565,000. 

Agricultural  Implements. — Hands  employ 
ed,  25,279 ;  capital  invested,  $34,834,000 :  val 
ue  of  annual  product,  exclusive  of  value  of 
material  used,  $30,593,000. 

Paper  (exclusive  of  paper-hangings). — 
Hands  employed,  17,910 ;  capital  invested, 
$39,362,000 ;  value  of  annual  product,  exclu 
sive  of  value  of  material  used,  $18,648,000. 

Stoves,  Heaters,  and  Hollow  Ware. — Hands 
employed,  13,325 ;  capital  invested,  $19,833,- 
000;  value  of  annual  product,  exclusive  of 
value  of  material  used,  $14,345,000. 

Hats  and  Caps. — Hands  employed,  16,173; 
capital  invested,  $6,409,000 ;  value  of  annual 
product,  exclusive  of  value  of  material  used, 
$12,587,000. 

Sillc  (including  sewing  and  twist). — Hands 
employed,  6699 ;  capital  invested,  $6,242,000 ; 
value  of  annual  product,  exclusive  of  value 
of  material  used,  $4,415,000. 

It  thus  appears  that  the  preparation  and 
manufacture  of  leather  ranks  first  in  impor 
tance  of  the  various  manufacturing  indus 
tries  of  the  United  States,  and  that  the  in 
dustries  represented  by  the  planing  and 
sawing  of  lumber,  and  by  the  "milling"  of 
cereals,  take  precedence  over  the  primary 
manufactures  of  iron  and  over  the  great 
textile  industries  of  cotton  and  of  wool. 


NUMBER  OF   PERSOXS   EMPLOYED. 

By  the  census  of  1870,  11,155,240  persons, 
twenty  years  of  age  and  upward,  were  re 
turned  according  to  occupations.  Of  this 
number  2,500,189  were  engaged  in  manufac 
tures  and  mining,  being  a  gain  of  twenty-eight 
per  cent,  since  1860,  or  five  and  one-half  per 
cent,  more  than  the  ratio  of  decennial  in 
crease  in  population.  The  number  em 
ployed  in  agriculture  was  at  the  same  time 
returned  at  5,151,767,  and  in  trade  and  trans 
portation  at  1,117,928. 

SOCIAL   CONDITION   OF   LABORERS. 

The  data  and  material  for  describing  the 
condition  of  laborers  engaged  in  the  manu 
facturing  industries  of  the  United  States  at 
different  periods  are  very  meagre.  During 
the  colonial  period  and  the  early  days  of 
the  republic  there  was  but  little  accumula 
ted  national  wealth,  but  what  there  was  was 
probably  distributed  with  more  of  equality 
than  has  ever  prevailed  in  any  other  large 
community  of  which  we  have  a  correct  his 
tory  for  any  lengthened  period.  At  the 
commencement  of  the  present  century  there 
were  probably  a  smaller  number  of  individ 
uals  in  the  country,  in  proportion  to  the 
whole  population,  who  possessed  an  accu 
mulated  capital  of  $5000  than  there  are  at 
the  present  time  who  possess  $100,000.  But 
if  there  was  but  little  accumulated  wealth 
in  the  early  days  of  our  national  history, 
there  was  but  little  poverty,  and  conse 
quently  but  few  social  distinctions,  and  the 
natural  resources  of  the  country  then  as 
.now  afforded  remarkable  facilities  to  all 
who  were  willing  and  able  to  work  for 
earning  a  comfortable  livelihood.  With  the 
gradual  accumulation  of  wealth,  the  utili 
zation  of  natural  forces  through  the  agency 
of  machinery,  and  the  great  improvements 
in  the  means  of  transportation,  the  consum 
ing  power  of  the  masses  has  also  greatly  in 
creased,  and  many  things  which  were  once 
regarded  as  luxuries  have  come  to  be  con 
sidered  by  even  the  humblest  in  the  light 
of  necessities.  But  it  can  not,  at  the  same 
time,  be  doubted  that  the  general  tendency 
of  events  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  cen 
tury  of  our  national  history  has  been  to 
more  unequally  distribute  the  results  of  in 
dustrial  effort,  to  accumulate  great  fortunes 
in  a  few  hands— in  short,  to  cause  the  rich 


SOCIAL  CONDITION  OF  LABORERS. 


to  grow  richer  and  the  poor  poorer.  Such 
results,  however,  caii  not  be  referred  to  any 
one  cause,  but  they  are  primarily  due  to 
an  abandonment  of  that  spirit  of  economy 
which  so  pre-eminently  characterized  our 
ancestors ;  to  a  marked  decrease  in  the  effi 
ciency  of  labor;  to  a  continual,  if  not  in 
creasing,  use  of  artificial  stimulants  ;  to  the 
crowding  of  population  in  large  industrial 
and  commercial  centres  ;  to  war  ;  to  the  in 
terference  of  legislation  with  the  freedom  of 
trade ;  and  latterly,  to  the  use  of  an  unsta 
ble,  fluctuating  medium  of  exchange,  which 
all  experience  shows  is  one  of  the  greatest 
curses  that  can  befall  the  laboring  popula 
tion  of  any  country. 

As  elements  for  estimating  the  social  con 
dition  of  laborers  in  the  manufacturing  in 
dustries  of  the  United  States,  the  statistics 
of  the  wages  paid  in  different  occupations 
are  most  important ;  and  from  the  great 
mass  of  information  on  this  subject  which, 
has  recently  been  collected  and  published 
the  following  general  items  have  been  se 
lected.  Thus  in  Pennsylvania,  the  leading 
State  in  the  production  and  fabrication  of 
iron,  the  average  earnings  per  annum  in  the 
different  manufacturing  establishments  of 
the  State  for  the  years  1872-73  (as  reported 
by  the  State  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor) 
were  as  follows  :  foremen,  $638  per  annum  ; 
skilled  workmen,  $536  ;  laborers,  first-class, 
$402;  laborers,  second-class,  $332;  females 
above  sixteen,  $228 ;  youths,  apprentices, 
etc.,  $150. 

In  Massachusetts  for  about  the  same  pe 
riod  the  average  wages  reported  in  the  cot 
ton-manufacturing  industry  were,  for  men, 
$403  per  annum;  women, $268;  children, $134. 

In  the  silk  industry  the  average  earnings 
per  hand  in  the  most  prosperous  establish 


ments  probably  approximate  $335  per  an 
num  as  a  maximum. 

In  the  woolen  industry  the  average  daily 
wages  of  5500  operatives  in  the  mills  of 
Massachusetts  were  reported  for  the  year 
1871  as  follows  :  men,  $1  62  per  day  ;  women, 
$1  12 ;  young  persons,  94  cents ;  children, 
64  cents. 

In  any  limited  review  of  the  progress  of 
a  great  nation  for  a  period  of  one  hundred 
years,  in  respect  to  any  one  of  its  leading 
departments  of  industry,  much  that  is  inter 
esting  and  suggestive  must  of  necessity  be 
wholly  omitted,  and  many  things  treated 
most  superficially.  But  a  general  conclu 
sion  to  which  a  study  of  all  the  facts  con 
nected  with  our  national  development  from 
the  time  of  the  founding  the  first  colonies 
in  the  wilderness  to  the  epoch  of  the  Decla 
ration  of  Independence,  and  from  the  estab 
lishment  of  peace  and  the  adoption  of  the 
Federal  Constitution  to  the  present  hour,  is 
that  the  progress  of  the  country,  especially 
in  respect  to  its  manufacturing  industry, 
and  through  what  may  be  termed  its  ele 
ment  of  vitality,  is  independent  of  legisla 
tion,  and  even  of  the  impoverishment  and 
waste  of  a  great  war.  Like  one  of  our 
mighty  rivers,  its  movement  is  beyond  con 
trol.  Successive  years,  like  successive  afflu 
ents,  only  add  to  and  increase  its  volume, 
while  legislative  enactments  and  conflicting 
commercial  and  fiscal  policies,  like  the  con 
struction  of  piers  and  the  deposits  of  sunken 
wrecks,  simply  deflect  the  current  or  consti 
tute  temporary  obstructions.  In  fact,  if  the 
nation  in  all  respects  has  not  yet  been  lifted 
to  a  full  comprehension  of  its  own  work,  it 
builds  steadily  and  determiuately,  and,  as  it 
were,  by  instinct. 


IV. 


AGRICULTURAL  PROGRESS. 


THE  early  colonists  of  the  United  States 
were  largely  agriculturists,  or  became 
so  within  a  very  few  years  after  their  ar 
rival.  A  hundred  and  fifty  years  before  our 
Independence,  agriculture  had  already  a 
promising  foot-hold  in  several  places  within 
our  present  domain ;  a  full  century  before 
the  same  date  in  our  history  the  settle 
ments  were  quite  widely  extended,  near 
ly  all  the  useful  domestic  animals  and  cul 
tivated  plants  of  Europe  had  been  tried  on 
our  soil,  and  most  of  those  we  now  have 
were  already  in  successful  use. 

New  and  peculiar  problems  were  present 
ed  to  the  new  settlers.  In  the  New  World 
they  found  every  thing  new.  The  wild 
plants  were  new  to  them,  and  the  good  or 
bad  qualities  of  each  could  only  be  learned 
by  experience,  for  whether  a  plant  was  to 
be  a  valuable  forage  plant  or  a  pestilent 
weed  could  not  be  foretold.  Their  crops 
as  well  as  their  flocks  were  subject  to  rav 
ages  by  new  enemies.  Emigrants  from  near 
ly  every  part  of  Europe  brought  with  them 
the  useful  plants  they  had  known  at  home. 
But  from  whatever  country  they  came,  and 
wherever  they  settled  here,  they  found  a 
climate  unlike  any  they  had  known  before. 
In  the  North  they  encountered  a  most  try 
ing  climate,  where  an  almost  arctic  winter 
was  followed  by  a  semi-tropical  summer; 
the  severity  of  the  winter  prevented  the 
success  of  some  of  the  crops  which  flourish 
ed  well  during  summer,  while  the  drier  air, 
clearer  sky,  and  more  fervid  sun  of  summer 
proved  unpropitious  to  others.  The  warm 
er  parts,  too,  were  unlike  the  warmer  parts 
of  Europe.  As  a  consequence,  the  adapta 
bility  of  each  crop  to  our  climate  had  to  be 
tried  for  itself  in  each  locality.  This  groat 
experiment  went  on  until  one  by  one  these 
questions  were  settled.  Some  crops,  after 
repeated  failures,  were  abandoned,  and  oth 
ers  found  their  appropriate  localities.  Hemp, 
indigo,  rice,  cotton,  madder,  millet,  spelt, 
lentils,  lucern,  sainfoin,  etc.,  were  tried  and 
failed  in  New  England,  as  did  other  crops 
in  the  Southern  colonies.  Not  only  the 


plants  of  Europe,  but  many  from  Asia  and 
the  East  Indies,  were  tried,  including  such 
spices  as  cinnamon,  also  various  commer 
cial  plants.  Some  of  these  crops,  on  ex 
periment,  failed  entirely.  Others  flourish 
ed  after  a  fashion,  but  proved  unprofitable ; 
others  flourished  with  peculiar  luxuriance, 
and  with  characters  unchanged;  and  still 
others,  under  the  new  conditions,  assumed 
new  characters  or  excellences.  Before  the 
war  of  the  Eevolution  these  trials  had  been 
made  along  or  near  the  coast  from  Maine  to 
Texas,  and  so  completely  had  this  century 
and  a  half  of  experiments  solved  the  great 
problems  of  adaptation,  acclimation  (and 
often  naturalization),  that  not  a  single  im 
portant  species  of  domestic  animal  has  been 
profitably  introduced  since,  and  but  one 
plant,  sorghum,  since  added  is  of  sufficient 
importance  to  be  recognized  in  our  official 
statistics. 

The  agriculture  of  most  civilized  coun 
tries  is  based  on  the  rearing  and  use  of  cer 
tain  domestic  animals,  and  these  in  turn 
depend  on  the  pastures  and  meadows.  The 
only  exception  to  this  is  where  the  cultiva 
tion  of  commercial  plants  greatly  predom 
inates  over  all  other  crops.  The  forage 
grasses  used  in  Europe  were  practically  in 
digenous  there,  and  were  such  as  ages  of 
cultivation  or  use  had  adapted  to  the  condi 
tions  there  found.  In  Great  Britain,  and 
perhaps  also  throughout  Northern  Europe, 
the  actual  cultivation  of  their  native  grass 
es  only  became  common  toward  the  close  of 
the  last  century.  Before  that  they  knew  lit 
tle  or  nothing  of  seeding  lands  to  grass,  and 
their  pastures  and  meadows  were  fostered 
rather  than  cultivated.  Such  cultivation, 
however,  had  sprung  up  in  the  colonies 
much  earlier,  and  from  dire  necessity.  Of 
nearly  300  species  of  grasses  now  known  to 
be  indigenous  to  some  part  of  the  United 
States,  very  few  indeed  seem  well  adapted 
to  cultivation.  Perhaps  more  than  nine- 
tenths  of  the  forage  of  to-day  in  the  culti 
vated  parts  of  this  country  is  furnished  by 
plants  introduced.  How  and  why  the  arti- 


AGRICULTURAL  IMPLEMENTS. 


175 


ficial  production  of  pastures  and  meadows 
and  the  cultivation  of  the  true  grasses 
sprung  up  in  the  American  colonies  north 
of  the  Chesapeake,  how  the  grasses  which 
we  derived  from  Europe,  half  wild,  were 
caught  and  tamed,  as  it  were,  and  sent  back 
for  cultivation,  is  an  interesting  chapter  in 
the  history  of  American  agriculture  in  colo 
nial  times,  but  it  requires  more  space  than 
we  can  give  it  in  this  review,  and  is  only 
alluded  to  because  of  its  relation  to  stock- 
raising,  to  be  noticed  later. 

Agriculture  as  an  art  had  reached  nearly 
as  high  a  point  a  hundred  years  ago  as  it 
occupies  to-day,  but  agriculture  as  a  science 
has  nearly  its  whole  history  in  the  century 
we  are  to  consider.  Science  belongs  to  no 
particular  nation;  and  thus  it  is  that  we 
can  not  consider  the  agricultural  progress 
of  the  United  States  entirely  independent 
of  that  of  other  lauds :  it  forms  too  inti 
mate  a  part  of  the  agricultural  progress 
of  the  age. 

The  century  is  especially  characterized 
in  history  by  mechanical  invention  and  by 
the  growth  of  the  so-called  natural  sci 
ences,  these  two  being  intimately  related; 
and  it  is  through  them  that  all  the  greater 
changes  have  occurred. 

The  mechanical  progress  of  the  century 
has  been  so  fully  treated  in  previous  papers 
that  its  relations  to  agriculture  will  in  this 
be  treated  only  incidentally ;  but  all  im 
provements  in  tillage,  in  planting,  in  har 
vesting,  in  preparing  for  market,  and  in 
transportation  are  related  to  the  subject 
under  consideration. 

The  "  Centennial  of  Chemistry"  was  cel 
ebrated  in  both  Europe  and  America  in 
1874.  The  specific  branch  of  that  science, 
agricultural  chemistry,  belongs  properly  to 
this  century  only.  Through  its  influence 
have  come  more  philosophical  theories  of 
the  rotation  of  crops,  of  the  nature  and  use 
of  manures ;  and  the  whole  commerce  in 
and  manufacture  of  "commercial  fertiliz 
ers"  is  the  direct  result  of  this  science.  It 
has,  moreover,  thrown  great  light  on  the 
nature  of  the  soil  and  its  tillage,  on  drain 
ing  and  irrigation,  on  the  nutrition  and  fat 
tening  of  animals,  and  the  production  of 
wool,  flesh,  butter,  and  cheese.  Moreover, 
chemistry,  in  its  extensive  applications  in 
various  manufacturing  processes,  has  intro 


duced  new  uses  for  agricultural  products  as 
raw  material. 

The  biological  sciences  have  aided  in  their 
way.  The  laws  of  vegetable  and  animal 
growth  are  better  understood,  and  by  the 
application  of  this  knowledge  old  varieties 
and  breeds  are  improved  with  more  ease  and 
certainty,  and  new  ones  are  made  at  pleas 
ure  for  specific  uses. 

In  noting  our  agricultural  progress  along 
the  three  ways  indicated,  that  produced  by 
mechanical  invention  comes  naturally  first, 
but  the  three  classes  of  improvements  are 
parallel,  and  each  blends  with  the  other 
along  nearly  the  entire  course. 

The  first  and  most  obvious  aid  of  mechan 
ical  invention  has  been  to  lessen  the  amount 
of  human  labor  required  to  produce  a  given 
amount  of  agricultural  product.  For  many 
of  the  processes  new  machines  have  been 
devised,  and  in  those  cases  where  old  kinds 
of  implements  or  tools  have  remained  in  use, 
they  have  been  improved  in  quality,  and 
usually  cheapened  in  price.  The  simpler 
tools  of  a  century  ago  were  made  mostly  on 
the  farms  where  they  were  to  be  used,  or  by 
the  neighboring  mechanic.  They  were  usu 
ally  heavy  and  costly  to  use,  that  is,  costly 
in  labor.  With  the  specialization  of  labor, 
and  the  use  of  special  machinery  for  the 
purpose,  the  manufacture  of  agricultural 
implements  has  become  a  great  industry, 
the  last  national  census  enumerating  over 
2000  establishments,  the  value  of  whose 
products  for  that  year  amounted  to  over 
$50,000,000,  the  value  of  the  product  in  1850 
having  been  less  than  $7,000,000.  The  val 
ue  of  the  farming  implements  in  use  on 
the  farms  in  1870  was  about  $337,000,000, 
while  in  1850  it  was  only  about  $15-2,000,000. 
These  figures  of  manufacture  and  use  at 
these  two  periods  indicate  extraordinary 
progress  in  agricultural  operations  in  those 
twenty  years. 

This  will  be  more  apparent  if  we  consider, 
in  a  general  way,  the  different  processes. 
First,  as  regards  the  implements  of  tillage, 
wo  may  say  that  either  old  ones  have  been 
improved  or  new  ones  devised.  Scarcely 
one  remains  in  its  old  state.  Some  of  the 
improvements  economize  power,  others  ma 
terial,  and  others  time ;  and  what  the  aggre 
gate  cheapening  of  labor  in  tillage  actually 
is  it  is  impossible  to  say.  A  single  laborer 


170 


AGRICULTURAL  PROGRESS. 


can  certainly  till  more  than  twice  the  acre 
age,  and  with  some  crops  three,  four,  or  five 
times  as  much.  Beginning  with  the  im 
provement  in  hoes  and  simple  tools,  then 
passing  to  iron  or  steel  plows,  cultivators, 
horse -hoes,  pulverizers,  crushers,  etc.,  the 
entire  process  of  tillage  has  been  modified, 
and  animal  power  performs  much  that  was 
then  done  by  human  muscle.  Steam  tillage 
is  on  trial,  or  at  least  steam  plowing  is,  but 
is  not  yet  common  enough  to  be  considered 
more  than  a  limited  experiment. 

Drilling  machines  for  planting  certain 
crops  were  used  to  a  limited  extent  before 
the  Revolution.  In  Eliot's  "Fifth  Essay 
on  Field  Husbandry,"  published  in  1754,  he 
says : 

"Mr.  Tull's  Wheat  Drill  is  a  wonderfull  Invention, 
but  it  being  the  first  invented  of  that  Kind,  no  Won 
der  if  it  be  intricate,  as  indeed  it  is,  and  consists  of 
more  Wheels  and  other  Parts  than  there  is  really  any 
Need  of.  This  I  was  very  sensible  of  all  along,  but 
knew  not  how  to  mend  it.  Therefore  I  applied  my 
self  to  the  Reverend  Mr.  Clap,  President  of  Yale  Col- 
ledge,  and  desired  him  for  the  regard  he  had  for  the 
Publick  and  to  me  that  he  would  apply  his  mathemat 
ical  Learning  and  mechanical  Genius  in  that  Affair; 
which  he  did  to  so  good  Purpose  that  this  new  mod 
elled  Drill  can  be  made  for  the  fourth  Part  of  what 
Mr.  Tull's  will  cost." 

We  find  that  a  drill  for  spreading  manure 
was  soon  afterward  devised,  and  various 
drills  have  been  in  use  ever  since.  The 
history  of  the  above  drill  has  been  repeat 
ed  in  numerous  instances.  The  more  intri 
cate  and  expensive  machines  of  Europe 
have  been  simplified  and  cheapened  here, 
and  thus  brought  into  quicker  use.  The 
threshing  machine  and  reaper  were  both 
undoubtedly  invented  in  Great  Britain,  but 
in  America  they  were  simplified,  cheapened, 
and,  to  use  an  Americanism,  were  made 
handier,  hence  more  practical.  Although 
drills  thus  early  came  into  use,  nearly  all 
the  planting  was  done  by  hand  until  less 
than  forty  years  ago,  particularly  for  the  ce 
reals.  Now  drills  or  sowers  of  some  kind  are 
in  almost  universal  use  on  the  larger  farms. 
The  improvement  for  harvesting  has  been 
much  greater  than  for  either  tillage  or  plant 
ing.  Previous  to  1850  the  scythe  and  sickle 
were  the  almost  universal  tools  for  cutting, 
and  the  common  use  of  the  modern  reaper 
and  mower  dates  back  but  about  twenty 
years.  Labor  has  always  been  dearer  here 
than  in  Europe,  hence  the  sickle  was  never 


so  much  used  as  was  the  scythe.  As  to 
what  its  capacity  was  here  we  have  no  pre 
cise  data.  Experiments  and  estimates  pub 
lished  by  the  Highland  Agricultural  Society 
in  Scotland  in  1844,  and  approvingly  quoted 
by  standard  authorities  on  British  agricul 
ture  later,  give  "  the  average  quantities  of 
ground  reaped  by  seven  persons,  on  an  aver 
age  of  ten  hours'  work,"  as  one  to  one  and  a 
half  acres  of  wheat,  and  two  to  three  acres  of 
oats  and  barley.  (A  bandwin  of  reapers  con 
sists  usually  of  seven  persons,  who  cut,  bind, 
and  stook  the  grain.)  By  the  use  of  the 
cradle  in  this  country,  one  and  a  half  acres 
of  wheat  was  not  a  large  day's  work  to  be 
cut  by  one  man,  raked,  bound,  and  stooked 
by  two  others,  but  this  was  doubtless  above 
the  average.  With  hay,  two  acres  per  day 
is  a  reasonably  large  amount.  At  a  recent 
meeting  of  a  certain  State  Board  of  Agri 
culture,  in  a  discussion  concerning  hay,  the 
belief  was  concurred  in  that  "  hired  labor 
with  a  scythe  mows  much  less  than  one  and 
a  half  acres  per  day  per  man  on  the  aver 
age."  It  is  safe  to  say  that  a  man  with  a 
team  of  horses  and  modern  mower  or  reap 
er  will  average  about  six  times  as  much  as 
with  a  scythe.  Under  the  best  conditions 
more  is  done  (we  hear  of  fifteen  or  twenty 
acres  sometimes),  but  the  average  would  be 
not  far  from  this  estimate.  With  our  hay 
crop  nearly  every  step  in  the  process  has 
been  changed.  The  horse-rake  came  into 
general  use  before  the  reaper,  the  tedder 
and  horse-fork  later.  A  century  ago  all 
the  processes  were  by  hand  labor;  now  the 
only  labor  performed  in  the  old  way  is 
pitching  on  the  load,  loading,  hauling,  and 
stowing  or  stacking,  and  each  of  these  is 
done  with  improved  tools. 

To  obtain  the  most  profitable  yield  of  hay 
or  grain,  it  must  be  cut  and  secured  at  just 
the  right  time,  hence  with  most  crops  this 
has  always  been  considered  the  most  critical 
period,  and  the  labor  then  required  brings 
the  highest  wages.  If  cut  too  early,  it  is 
immature ;  if  too  late,  it  deteriorates  or 
wastes.  Moreover,  it  is  then  especially 
subject  to  damage  by  unfavorable  weather. 
Taking  all  these  into  account,  it  is  seen 
that  the  actual  gain  to  agriculture  by  the 
use  of  the  various  harvesting  machines 
can  not  be  measured  by  merely  noting 
the  relative  areas  operated  on  by  a  man 


PREPARATION  FOR  MARKET. 


177 


in  a  given  time  by  the  old  methods  com 
pared  with  the  new. 

With  the  great  crops  of  cotton,  Indian 
corn,  potatoes,  and  tohacco  there  has  been 
no  such  great  advance.  With  cotton,  the 
nature  of  the  crop  and  the  prolonged  har 
vest  forbid  hope  for  much  improvement, 
and  a  similar  condition  exists  in  the  case  of 
tobacco.  With  potatoes  and  Indian  corn 
there  have  been  many  attempts,  with  but 
very  moderate  success  as  yet. 

Intimately  connected  with  the  harvest  is 
the  preparation  for  market ;  and  in  this  the 
progress,  as  a  whole,  has  been  even  more 
marked  than  in  either  of  the  processes  al 
ready  noticed.  The  most  illustrious  exam 
ple  is  seen  in  the  cotton  crop.  In  no  other 
case  has  the  cultivation  of  a  great  staple  by 
people  of  European  civilization  depended 
for  its  success  upon  the  solution  of  a  single 
and  simple  mechanical  problem.  We  hear 
of  cotton  being  planted  in  our  colonies  as 
early  as  1621,  and  again,  in  the  Carolinas, 
in  1666,  and  during  the  century  after  the 
last  date  it  is  often  spoken  of.  It  was  tried 
over  and  over  again  along  nearly  the  whole 
extent  of  the  colonies.  Eliot,  in  his  "  Second 
Essay  on  Field  Husbandry,"  published  in 
1749,  tells  of  his  experiments  with  it  in  Con 
necticut.  It  appears  to  have  been,  how 
ever,  a  rather  rare  garden  plant  until  just 
after  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  war, 
when  it  was  introduced  anew,  and  soon  aft 
er  that  its  field  cultivation  began.  But  its 
production  was  extremely  limited  by  the 
cost  of  getting  it  ready  for  market.  Hand 
labor  was  expensive ;  and  so  long  as  a  la 
borer  could  prepare  but  a  single  "pound 
per  day"  there  could  be  no  great  breadth  of 
culture,  no  matter  how  fertile  and  cheap 
the  soil,  how  favorable  the  climate,  or  how 
complete  the  means  of  tillage.  The  inven 
tion  of  the  cotton-gin  in  1793  placed  it  on 
the  same  level  with  other  field  products. 
Since  then  the  rapid  increase  of  its  produc 
tion  is  one  of  the  marvels  of  the  century. 
A  single  generation  saw  the  crop  grow  from 
nothing  to  be  the  great  commercial  plant 
of  the  world,  constituting,  some  years,  five- 
sixths  of  our  entire  agricultural  exports. 
The  relations  of  this  growth  to  the  civil 
ization  and  prosperity  of  many  countries, 
and  especially  its  relations  to  our  own  so 
cial  and  political  history,  furnish  perhaps 
12 


the  most  romantic  chapter  in  the  retrospect 
of  agriculture. 

Threshing  machines  for  our  cereals  were 
practically  unknown  here  before  the  pres 
ent  century.  We  infer  from  the  journals 
of  that  day  that  they  came  into  somewhat 
common  use  in  Great  Britain  between  1810 
and  1820  ;  their  universal  use  there  was 
still  later  by  some  years,  the  flail  continu 
ing  to  be  a  common  implement  down  to 
1850. 

The  dearness  of  labor  and  other  reasons 
caused  the  flail  to  be  used  relatively  less  in 
this  country  than  in  Europe,  yet  it  was  not 
a  rare  implement  by  any  means  down  to 
1830  or  later.  Grain  was,  however,  usually 
trodden  out  with  horses,  or  threshed  by 
dragging  over  it  a  great  roller  armed  with 
large  wooden  pins.  This  was  an  approved 
implement,  and  received  the  official  recom 
mendation  of  at  least  one  agricultural  soci 
ety  as  late  as  1816,  and  the  writer  has  seen 
it  in  use  as  late  as  1835.  In  the  better  farm 
ing  regions  of  the  Middle  States,  early  in  the 
present  century,  eight  to  twelve  bushels  of 
wheat  per  day  were  considered  a  good  aver 
age  for  a  man  to  thresh  with  a  flail.  Thresh 
ing  was  largely  done  in  the  winter,  and 
where  horses  were  used  to  tread  out  the 
grain,  twenty -three  to  thirty  bushels  per 
day  for  three  horses  and  a  man  and  boy 
were  common  results.  The  average  was 
perhaps  not  much  above  the  lowest  figures 
here  given.  To  illustrate :  in  a  specific  case 
in  1826,  on  one  farm  in  a  prosperous  and 
old  farming  region,  1300  bushels  of  wheat 
were  threshed,  the  grain  wriunowed,  and 
the  straw  drawn  from  the  barn  to  a  neigh 
boring  field,  in  twelve  weeks,  two  men  and 
five  horses  performing  the  labor.  This  was 
considered,  in  that  neighborhood,  good  work. 
Before  1825  threshing  machines  were  very 
rare  in  this  country,  but  between  that  date 
and  1835  their  use  spread  rapidly,  and  be 
fore  1840  comparatively  little  of  the  cereal 
grains  was  threshed  by  other  means.  For 
cleaning  grain  the  hand  fan  was  extensive 
ly  employed  in  1776,  but  fanning-mills  came 
into  common  use  long  before  threshing  ma 
chines.  The  first  threshing  machines  mere 
ly  threshed,  next  separators  were  added, 
and  then  "  cleaners ;"  and  now  the  grain 
is  threshed  and  cleaned  for  market  in  one 
operation.  Horses  were  the  universal  power 


178 


AGRICULTURAL  PROGRESS. 


applied  until  quite  lately.  Now  steam-pow 
er  is  extensively  used,  particularly  in  the 
Western  States  and  in  California.  Horse 
power,  however,  is  still  in  general  use. 

What  the  possible  capacity  of  the  modern 
thresher  is,  when  working  under  the  most 
favorable  conditions,  although  an  interest 
ing  question,  is  not  the  one  we  have  to  con 
sider  here,  but  rather  what  is  the  average 
of  good  work,  or  work  that  can  be  common 
ly  hoped  for  by  good  farmers.  The  larger 
machines  are  mostly  employed  in  doing  cus 
tom  work,  and  time  is  lost  in  passing  from 
farm  to  farm,  and  in  the  delays  which  are 
unavoidable  in  work  affected  by  so  many 
conditions.  A  steam-thresher,  under  such 
conditions  as  they  have  in  California,  will 
thresh,  in  actual  practice,  from  40,000  to 
100,000  bushels  of  grain  in  a  "season"  of 
three  months.  With  such  a  machine,  oper 
ated  by  a  gang  of  eighteen  hands,  whose 
combined  wages  (in  the  year  1874)  would 
amount  to  forty-three  dollars  per  day,  2000 
bushels  of  wheat  per  day  is  fair  work.  A 
recent  agricultural  journal  states  of  the  act 
ual  practice  that  the  "  full  capacity  of  such 
a  machine  is  1500  sacks  a  day,  the  average 
work  about  1000,  holding  over  two  bushels 
each."  This  means  that  the  grain  is  thresh 
ed,  cleaned,  put  in  sacks,  and  the  sacks  piled 
up  ready  for  removal  by  cars  or  team,  and 
amounts  to  over  a  hundred  bushels  per  day 
per  man.  Vastly  larger  figures  are  cited 
for  short  periods  under  exceptionally  favor 
able  conditions.  The  agricultural  papers 
of  the  same  State  mention  incidentally,  as 
a  local  news  item,  a  horse-power  machine 
which  averaged  1500  bushels  of  wheat  per 
day  for  thirty-one  successive  days,  moving 
on  twenty  -  eight  different  farms  in  that 
time,  and  speak  of  another  (also  horse 
power)  which  in  1874  threshed  and  cleaned 
80,400  bushels  in  fifty-two  days,  of  which 
11,300  bushels  were  threshed  in  five  and  a 
half  days. 

The  effect  of  these  improved  methods  is 
best  seen  by  noting  the  total  saving  of  the 
several  processes.  A  hundred  years  ago,  to 
cut  a  hundred  bushels  of  wheat  required 
about  three  days'  work  (which  could  not  be 
delegated  to  other  power) ;  to  bind  and  stook 
it,  four  days;  to  thresh  and  clean  it,  five 
days,  which,  with  the  other  processes  be 
tween  the  standing  grain  and  the  merchant 


able  product,  would  amount  to  some  fifteen 
days'  actual  manual  (and  mostly  very  hard) 
labor  for  each  hundred  bushels.  The  av 
erage  was  doubtless  more  than  this,  that 
is,  a  day's  labor  would  not  get  more  than 
six  or  seven  bushels  of  grain  through  these 
processes. 

The  president  of  an  agricultural  society 
in  California  in  1866  stated  that  on  his  farm 
that  year  40,318  bushels  of  grain  (three- 
fourths  of  it  wheat)  were  harvested,  thresh 
ed,  cleaned  for  the  market,  and  stored  in 
the  granaries  in  thirty-six  days,  including 
all  delays,  with  an  average  of  twenty-two 
hands.  This  is  an  average  of  about  fifty 
bushels  per  man  per  day  for  the  entire  crop. 
Much  larger  figures  are  reported  in  other 
cases  of  later  date ;  but  the  exact  data  are 
not  at  hand. 

While  such  progress  has  not  marked  the 
gathering  and  preparing  of  all  the  crops, 
yet  it  has  extended  to  so  many  of  them  that 
all  the  more  laborious  processes  have  been 
revolutionized. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  mechanical 
invention  has  not  only  aided  agriculture, 
but  that  in  turn  it  has  been  stimulated  by 
the  wants  of  agriculture,  and  some  of  the 
most  profitable  patents  have  been  in  this 
direction,  and  we  get  a  vivid  idea  of  the 
demand  and  supply  of  new  methods  and  ap 
pliances  in  the  fact  that  the  Patent-office 
issues  about  twelve  hundred  patents  per 
year  relating  to  agriculture. 

It  is  through  the  aids  of  mechanical  in 
vention,  including  the  means  of  transpor 
tation,  that  what  is  known  as  "the  Great 
West"  has  been  so  rapidly  settled  and  its 
products  made  accessible  to  the  world. 

That  soils  became  exhausted  by  cropping, 
and  that  the  exhaustion  could  be  checked 
by  manuring,  were  facts  well  enough  known 
from  remote  antiquity:  the  philosophical 
reason  why  was  left  for  agricultural  chem 
istry  to  discover.  So  soon  as  chemical 
analysis  became  established  on  a  reasonably 
sure  foundation,  and  chemistry  began  to  as 
sume  the  character  of  an  exact  science, 
practical  applications  to  agriculture  began 
to  follow.  Chemical  experiments  relating 
to  this  art  had  been  made  earlier  by  Arthur 
Young  and  others,  but  agricultural  chemis 
try,  as  the  science  we  now  know  it,  began 
with  Sir  Humphry  Davy.  He  first  lectured 


AGRICULTURAL  CHEMISTRY. 


179 


before  the  English  Board  of  Agriculture  in 
1802.  He  experimented  on  guano,  phos 
phates,  and  various  other  manures,  and  an 
alyzed  them.  He  lectured  again  before  the 
Board  of  Agriculture  in  1812,  and  these  lect 
ures  furnished  the  basis  of  his  Elements  of 
Agricultural  Chemistry,  published  in  1813. 
This  work  was  extensively  read,  and  was 
translated  and  printed  in  several  languages. 
During  the  next  thirty  years  there  were 
numerous  experimenters,  and  it  was  a  pe 
riod  rich  in  discoveries  in  chemistry.  Spren- 
gel  made  many  analyses  of  the  ashes  of 
plants  about  1832,  and  then  came  the  works 
of  Johnston,  Mulder,  and  others ;  but  it  was 
left  to  Liebig  to  bring  order  out  of  the 
great  mass  of  experiment  and  theory  which 
had  accumulated,  and  to  really  place  agri 
cultural  chemistry  on  its  present  founda 
tion.  His  Chemistry  in  its  Applications  to 
Agriculture  and  Physiology  appeared  in  1840, 
and  soon  after  Boussiugault  published  his 
Economic  Rurale.  Johnston  published  his 
Lectures  on  the  Applications  of  Chemistry  and 
Geology  to  Agriculture  m  1844,  since  which 
time  works  on  this  department  of  science 
have  been  particularly  numerous.  While 
the  science  has  had  most  of  its  development 
in  Europe,  America  has  not  been  without 
its  workers,  and  the  later  writings  of  Pro 
fessor  Johnson  have  been  republished  in 
Europe  in  the  English,  German,  Swedish, 
and  Russian  languages. 

"  The  art  of  manuring"  was  a  favorite 
theme  in  olden  times,  and  it  was  an  art 
brought  to  high  perfection ;  but  it  follow 
ed  experience  only.  With  the  aid  of  chem 
istry  the  art  assumed  the  features  of  a  sci 
ence.  Manures  known  before  were  used  to 
better  advantage,  rare  ones  brought  into 
greater  prominence,  and  new  ones  devised. 
The  introduction  of  turnips  and  clover  into 
extensive  cultivation  in  England  about  the 
time  of  the  American  Revolution,  and  the 
great  rise  in  rents  soon  after,  produced  a 
radical  change  in  the  systems  of  rotation 
and  tillage,  and  the  discoveries  in  chemis 
try  came  in  at  just  the  right  time  to  supple 
ment  this.  Bones  had  long  been  used,  but 
their  special  merits  were  pointed  out  by 
Davy,  and  soon  their  use  became  very  ex 
tensive.  Then  followed  the  manufacture 
of  superphosphates.  To  show  what  great 
and  speedy  changes  were  wrought  through 


these  means,  where  mechanical  invention 
had  but  little  to  do  with  results,  a  single 
illustration  may  be  given.  A  light-house, 
known  as  the  Dunston  Pillar,  was  built  on 
the  Lincoln  Heath,  in  Lincolnshire,  about 
the  middle  of  the  last  century.  This  was 
said  to  be  the  only  land  light-house  known. 
It  was  built  to  guide  travelers  over  the  bar 
ren  and  dreary  waste,  and  it  long  fulfilled 
its  useful  purpose.  This  pillar,  no  longer  a 
light-house,  now  stands  in  the  midst  of  a  fer 
tile  and  wealthy  farming  region,  where  all 
the  land  is  in  high  cultivation.  For  twen 
ty-five  years  no  barren  moors  have  been  in 
sight  even  from  its  top.  Turnips  and  phos 
phates  were  the  principal  means  through 
which  this  great  change  came.  In  this 
country  the  abundance  of  fertile  soil  and 
its  cheapness,  and  the  cost  of  labor,  while 
inducing  the  use  of  improved  implements 
and  machines  earlier  than  in  Europe,  hin 
dered  rather  than  accelerated  the  use  of 
chemical  aids.  It  was  easier  to  break  new 
land,  particularly  if  it  were  prairie,  than  it 
was  to  renovate  the  old.  For  a  long  while 
bones  were  extensively  exported  from  this 
country  to  England,  but  since  the  year  1850 
the  use  of  commercial  fertilizers  has  been 
rapidly  increasing,  until  now  it  has  reached 
immense  proportions. 

The  history  of  the  use  of  guano  is  some 
what  similar  to  that  of  the  phosphates. 
This  material  has  been  in  use  as  a  manure 
on  the  western  side  of  South  America  for 
centuries,  and  from  time  to  time  its  merits 
were  spoken  of  in  European  publications.1 
Its  use,  however,  remained  local  until  it  was 
prominently  brought  into  notice  by  the 
modern  agricultural  chemists.  How  early  it 
was  brought  to  Europe  can  not  now  be  as 
certained.  Sir  Humphry  Davy  experiment 
ed  with  it  as  early  as  1805 ;  but  it  was  not 
until  after  the  recommendations  of  Liebig 
that  it  began  to  be  an  article  of  commerce. 
A  few  casks  were  imported  into  England  in 
1840  "  as  an  experiment."  It  was  followed 
by  2000  tons  the  next  year,  and  in  sixteen 

i  In  The  Art  of  Metals,  written  "in  the  kingdom  of 
Peru,  in  the  West  Indies,  in  the  year  1640,"  translated 
and  published  in  London  in  1674,  it  is  said  that  "  out  of 
the  Islands  of  the  South  Sea,  not  far  from  the  City  of 
Arica,  they  fetch  earth  called  Guano,"  etc.  And  then 
follows  a  description,  and  the  statement  that  it  is  used 
for  manure,  and  that  the  fields  are  "  put  in  heart  there 
by  for  100  years  after." 


180 


AGRICULTURAL  PROGRESS. 


years  its  aggregated  sales  in  Great  Britain 
were  reported  at  100,000,000  of  dollars.  Its 
use  began  in  this  country  somewhat  later, 
the  aggregate  imports  previous  to  1850 
amounting  to  less  than  30,000  tons.  At 
present  it  supports  a  vast  commerce,  regu 
lated  by  special  national  treaties,  and  em 
ploys  hundreds  of  ships  and  millions  of 
capital  in  its  transportation. 

Along  with  the  importation  of  guano 
and  the  development  of  beds  of  mineral 
manures  and  their  preparation,  comes  the 
manufacture  of  commercial  fertilizers,  one 
of  the  most  rapidly  -  growing  of  our  in 
dustries.  This  enterprise  is  of  very  re 
cent  origin  in  this  country,  but  in  1870 
more  than  four  millions  of  capital  were 
employed  in  this  branch  of  manufacture, 
and  the  value  of  the  products  amounted 
to  $6,000,000.  The  official  estimates  place 
the  present  product  several  times  higher. 
Gypsum,  which  was  not  included  in  the 
above  estimate,  was  used  sparingly  in  co 
lonial  times,  but  to  most  farmers  it  was 
then  an  unheard  -  of  substance.  It  was 
prominently  brought  into  notice  by  Benja 
min  Franklin,  after  his  return  from  France, 
but  its  rapid  spread  kept  pace  with  that  of 
the  cultivation  of  clover  between  1810  and 
1830.  At  the  last  census  there  were  321 
mills,  the  value  of  the  ground  product 
amounting  to  about  $2,500,000,  a  part  of 
which,  however,  is  applied  to  other  uses  in 
the  arts. 

From  the  nature  of  the  case,  the  actual 
value  of  these  new  aids  to  American  agri 
culture  can  not  be  shown  statistically.  For 
obvious  reasons,  their  greatest  effect  is  as 
yet  seen  only  in  the  older  States  and  in  the 
South.  Throughout  the  North,  where  the 
farm-yard  is,  and  perhaps  always  will  be, 
the  great  source  of  farm  fertilizers,  these 
commercial  manures  come  in  as  an  auxil 
iary;  but  farther  south,  and  in  those  re 
gions  where  the  cattle  roam  the  fields 
throughout  the  year,  preventing  farm-yard 
accumulations  to  any  considerable  extent, 
the  case  is  quite  different.  As  cotton  and 
tobacco,  the  two  great  commercial  crops, 
have  been  heretofore  cultivated,  exhaustion 
was  inevitable.  The  history  of  a  region  com 
prised,  of  necessity,  first  the  settlement, 
then  its  rise  and  wealth  during  the  increas 
ing  growth  of  the  crop,  then  a  period  of 


prosperity  of  longer  or  shorter  duration, 
regulated  by  the  original  fertility  of  the 
soil,  and  finally  the  inevitable  decline.  In 
actual  history,  many  great  plantations  be 
came  so  completely  impoverished  by  crop 
ping  with  tobacco  that  they  were  abandon 
ed  and  returned  to  forest  again,  and  more 
to  sparsely  peopled,  impoverished  places. 
The  exhaustion  by  cotton-growing  was 
similar,  although  not  always  so  complete. 
The  necessity  of  new  lands  for  this  crop 
when  it  was  "king,"  and  the  connection  of 
this  necessity  with  political  events,  are  fa 
miliar  to  every  student  of  our  history, 
while  its  relation  to  fertilizers  was  gen 
erally  ignored.  Here,  as  in  Southern  Eu 
rope,  "great  political  and  social  events  had 
their  foundation  in  the  dunghill." 

The  theory  and  largely  the  practice  of 
tobacco  and  cotton  cultivation  are  now 
changed,  and  we  see  no  reason  why,  by  the 
new  methods,  the  profitable  fertility  of  the 
soil  may  not  be  maintained  indefinitely. 
Official  reports  in  Georgia  estimate  that 
"the  planters  of  that  State  pay  over 
$10,000,000  for  fertilizers"  annually;  and 
single  towns  in  the  Connecticut  Valley, 
where  tobacco  is  the  leading  crop,  in  ad 
dition  to  the  home  fertilizers,  pay  from 
$30,000  to  $50,000  a  year  for  those  from 
outside  sources. 

To  follow  up  this  subject  in  jts  relations 
to  the  price  of  real  estate,  to  vegetable  or 
"market"  farming  near  our  cities,  to  other 
manufactures  whose  waste  products  are 
utilized,  to  the  great  question  of  the  use  of 
sewage  and  its  relations  to  public  health, 
would  lead  us  entirely  beyond  the  limits  of 
this  paper. 

Draining  and  irrigation,  although  strictly 
mechanical  processes,  have  been  the  subjects 
of  much  chemical  investigation.  Thorough 
under-draining  was  practiced  to  some  ex 
tent  long  ago,  but  has  only  come  into  ex 
tensive  use  during  the  last  sixty  or  seventy 
years  even  in  Great  Britain.  In  this  coun 
try  its  use  is  more  modern.  Noah  Webster, 
in  an  agricultural  address  published  in  1818, 
speaks  of  "  the  art  of  draining  wet  lands, 
which  is  now  in  its  infancy  in  this  coun 
try."  John  Johnston,  a  Scottish  farmer  still 
living  near  Geneva,  New  York,  was  the  first 
in  the  United  States  to  use  tiles,  about  1835, 
making  the  tiles  15y  hand  after  Scotch  mod- 


VARIETIES  OF  CROPS. 


181 


els.  The  few  under-drains  made  earlier,  as 
indeed  many  made  since,  were  of  stone. 
John  Delafield,  a  neighbor  of  Mr.  Johnston, 
and  a  man  noted  for  his  interest  in  agricul 
ture,  imported  a  tile  machine  in  1848,  the 
first  one  in  this  country.  The  practice  is 
now  common  enough,  but  there  are  no  sta 
tistics  to  show  the  amount  of  land  drained. 

Irrigation  has  only  come  into  any  consid 
erable  use  in  those  Western  regions  where 
the  rain-fall  is  insufficient  for  all  the  pur 
poses  of  agriculture.  It  is  as  yet  carried 
on,  for  the  most  part,  on  a  small  scale  and 
by  private  capital.  Vast  schemes  are  dis 
cussed  or  projected,  but  we  must  leave  their 
results  to  the  future. 

We  have  already  alluded  to  the  class  of 
improvements  introduced  through  or  aided 
by  the  biological  sciences.  We  have  al 
ready  said  that  a  hundred  years  ago  all  our 
species  of  field  crops,  except  sorghum,  were 
already  in  cultivation  here.  While  this  is 
true,  the  number  of  varieties  of  these  crops 
then  was  less.  A  neighborhood  would  know 
perhaps  three  or  four  varieties  of  each  spe 
cies,  rarely  more.  About  that  time  many 
farmers  began  to  grow  more  kinds,  in  order 
that  if  one  failed  because  of  a  bad  season, 
others  might  succeed.  Old  varieties  were 
slowly  improved  by  careful  selection  of 
seed,  but  the  occurrence  of  new  ones  de 
pended  on  accident,  or  on  causes  not  then 
understood.  Late  in  the  last  century  and 
early  in  this  the  facts  relating  to  the  pro 
duction  of  new  varieties  of  cultivated  plants 
began  to  be  studied  by  new  methods,  and, 
through  the  observations  and  experiments 
of  botanists  and  gardeners  rather  than  by 
farmers,  the  laws  came  to  be  better  under 
stood.  As  a  result  of  this  knowledge,  vari 
eties  are  now  multiplied  almost  at  pleasure, 
and  the  kinds  in  cultivation,  or  at  least 
known,  amount  to  hundreds  or  even  thou 
sands  for  each  species.  As  an  example,  we 
may  mention  potatoes.  Deane,  in  his  New 
England  Farmer,  a  dictionary  which  profess 
es  to  contain  "  a  compendious  account"  of 
"  the  Art  of  Husbandry  as  practiced  to  the 
greatest  Advantage  in  this  Country,"  pub 
lished  at  Boston  in  1790,  says,  "No  longer 
ago  than  the  year  1740  we  had  but  one  sort, 
a  small  reddish-colored  potato,  of  so  rank  a 
taste  that  it  was  scarcely  eatable."  He  then 
enumerates  twelve  varieties  known  up  to 


the  date  of  writing,  which  had  originated 
in  various  countries,  some  in  the  Old  World. 
The  paucity  of  kinds  was  often  spoken  of 
by  writers  before  the  Revolution.  Guided 
by  the  knowledge  since  gained,  a  single 
American  experimenter  claims  to  have  pro 
duced  and  tested  6000  different  varieties. 
Other  crops  have  a  similar  but  not  quite  so 
striking  a  history.  Several  hundred  varie 
ties  of  wheat  were  grown  and  tried  by  one 
farmer  in  the  Geuesee  Valley  all  in  thirty 
years.  This  has  given  so  ample  means  of 
selection,  of  choosing  just  the  best  kind 
for  each  soil  and  condition,  that  there  is 
doubtless  a  great  actual  increase  in  pro 
duction  due  to  it,  but  its  most  obvious 
effect  is  to  give  us  a  choice  as  to  quality. 
With  fruits  this  application  of  science  has 
had  even  more  remarkable  results  than 
with  grains. 

Although  but  few  field  crops  have  been 
introduced  since  1776,  this  is  not  true  of 
field  weeds.  Some  which  actually  came  ear 
lier  only  became  numerous  and  troublesome 
later,  and  others  were  then  introduced. 
Several  local  traditions  exist  in  the  New 
England  and  Middle  States  of  weeds  intro 
duced  by  the  British  armies  and  their  allies 
during  that  war,  which  have  spread  and 
maintained  a  foot-hold  ever  since.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  questionable  if  science  has 
aided  in  the  suppression  of  weeds  except  in 
a  very  general  way. 

Columbus,  on  his  second  voyage  to  Amer 
ica,  brought  various  kinds  of  domestic  ani 
mals  with  him,  and  importations  have  been 
frequent  nearly  ever  since.  In  our  own 
colonies  there  were  many  importations,  and 
from  several  countries,  from  the  north  of 
Europe  direct  and  from  Southern  Europe  by 
way  of  the  Spanish- American  colonies.  The 
live  stock  in  existence  at  the  time  of  the 
Revolution  was  the  mongrel  progeny  of 
these  numerous  importations.  There  is  no 
question  but  that  the  domestic  animals  in 
troduced  from  Europe  rapidly  deteriorated 
here.  Various  travelers  have  borne  testi 
mony  to  this,  and  indeed  it  was  to  be  ex 
pected.  The  pastures  of  Europe  were  such 
as  fostering  care  for  ages  had  made  them, 
and,  as  already  said,  of  peculiarly  nutritious 
grasses.  The  early  colonists  found  only 
crude  grasses,  and  no  natural  meadows  bet- 


182 


AGRICULTURAL  PROGRESS. 


ter  than  the  salt-marshes  near  the  coast  or 
the  coarse  sedges  by  some  of  the  streams. 
The  pasturage  in  the  forests  was  meagre. 
In  the  winter,  straw,  corn  stalks,  or  in  places 
wild  marsh  hay  and  the  browse  of  the  woods, 
were  all  the  miserable  animals  had.  Spring 
usually  found  the  flock  or  herd  reduced  in 
numbers,  poor,  and  weak.  Too  often  the 
farmer's  first  work  of  the  spring  morning 
was  to  assist  the  weakened  creatures  to  rise 
to  their  feet,  and  several  native  plants  had 
reputation  for  strengthening  cattle  so  that 
they  could  get  up  alone  when  weakened  by 
the  winter's  starvation.  The  colonists  ear 
ly  learned  to  plant  grass  seed  from  Europe, 
and  to  plant  corn  for  the  animals.  Tur 
nips,  so  valuable  in  the  north  of  Europe, 
were  of  little  value  here.  In  the  South  they 
did  not  flourish  well ;  in  the  North  they  grew 
well  enough,  but  being  very  watery  in  their 
nature,  and  the  winters  being  so  cold,  they 
froze  very  readily,  and  thus  their  value  was 
greatly  diminished.  Maize  was  made  to 
take  their  place,  and  sometimes  beans  were 
sparingly  cultivated ;  but  with  this  crop, 
again,  we  had  to  learn  by  experience  and 
disappointment.  The  field  bean  of  Europe 
did  not  thrive  well  here.  It  struggled  for 
cultivation  for  more  than  a  century,  and 
was  finally  abandoned  as  a  field  crop.  Oth 
er  kinds  of  beans,  however,  partially  took 
its  place.  Clover  was  introduced  from  En 
gland  quite  early  last  century.  Eliot  speaks 
in  its  praise  as  early  as  1747,  but  for  some 
reason  it  did  not  come  into  common  use  un 
til  sixty  or  seventy  years  later.  It  is,  there 
fore,  no  wonder  that  all  kinds  of  live  stock 
deteriorated,  that  they  fell  an  easy  prey  to 
the  wolves,  and  that  they  only  began  to 
thrive  successfully  after  so  long  experiment 
and  so  bitter  experience.  It  must  be  re 
membered,  too,  that  the  laws  of  breeding 
were  not  then  well  understood ;  but  special 
attention  was  given  to  this  practical  ques 
tion  during  the  last  half  of  the  last  century. 
Sebright  published  about  1773,  and  Bake- 
well's  experiments  were  then  in  full  prog 
ress  ;  and  although  he  died  without  giving 
the  secret  of  his  successes  to  the  world,  the 
results  were  seen  and  many  of  the  condi 
tions  known.  In  this  period  the  breeding 
of  all  kinds  of  animals  received  special  at 
tention,  and  while  the  more  scientific  prob 
lems  were  being  solved  abroad,  the  colonists 


here  had  solved  those  of  forage,  acclima 
tion,  and  adaptation. 

Several  of  the  more  valued  breeds  of 
neat  cattle  were  established  early  in  the 
Old  World,  and  improved  during  the  period 
spoken  of.  Pedigrees  began  to  be  carefully 
looked  after.  The  first  volume  of  the  En 
glish  Short-horn  Herd-Book  appeared  in  1822, 
but  its  pedigrees  began  at  about  this  period, 
or  a  little  earlier.  Only  thirty  animals  are 
recorded  that  flourished  in  1780  and  earlier ; 
and  while  the  blood  of  unrecorded  animals 
afterward  came  in,  for  present  purposes  the 
pedigrees  of  all  the  thousands  of  thorough 
bred  short-horns  date  back  to  about  that 
time,  theoretically  at  least.  Precisely  when 
the  first  importations  of  this  breed  were 
made  to  this  country  is  uncertain.  It  is 
now  believed  that  they  occurred  very  soon 
after  the  Revolutionary  war,  and  there  are 
traditions  of  several  importations  before 
1800.  Soon  after  that  date  importations 
began  in  earnest,  and  have  gone  on  ever 
since.  The  first  volume  of  the  American 
Short-horn  Herd-Boole  was  published  in  1846, 
the  thirteenth  in  1874,  and  in  the  series  are 
recorded  some  33,000  pedigrees.  Certain 
strains  of  this  breed  have  thrived  peculiar 
ly  well  here,  and  the  sale  of  one  herd,  Sep 
tember  10,  1873,  at  New  York  Mills,  was 
doubtless  the  most  extraordinary  cattle  sale 
that  has  ever  taken  place  any  where.  At 
this  sale  109  head  sold  for  about  $382,000,  or 
an  average  of  over  $3500  per  head,  the  high 
er  prices  being  $40,600  for  a  cow,  and  several 
sold  for  over  $20,000  each,  a  calf  but  five 
months  old  selling  for  $27,000.  The  Devons 
were  also  introduced  early,  and  previous  to 
1840  were  imported  more  abundantly  than 
the  short-horns,  and  have  perhaps  had  as 
wide  an  influence  on  the  improvement  of 
American  cattle  as  the  last-named  breed, 
or  even  a  wider.  Now  all  the  more  distin 
guished  breeds  of  Europe  are  successfully 
bred  here,  and  some  five  or  six  of  the  more 
numerous  or  important  have  American  herd- 
books  now  published. 

The  effect  of  all  this  has  been  to  enor 
mously  elevate  the  quality  of  American 
cattle ;  and  so  completely  has  the  mongrel 
or  "native"  stock  been  improved  through 
these  that  in  certain  agricultural  societies 
where  premiums  are  offered  for  the  best 
"  natives"  it  is  found  that  all  that  are  offer- 


LIVE  STOCK. 


183 


ed  as  such  are,  in  fact,  "  grades,"  having  had 
an  infusion  of  better  hlood  within  three  or 
four  generations.  Even  the  Spanish  cattle 
of  Texas  and  California  are  being  rapidly 
changed  and  improved  through  and  by  these 
better  breeds. 

The  history  of  American  horses  is  in  most 
respects  similar  to  that  of  the  cattle.  There 
was  at  first  deterioration,  but  in  a  less  de 
gree,  then  a  slow  improvement  through  se 
lection  and  better  feeding,  then  a  more 
rapid  improvement  through  better  breeding 
and  the  importation  of  better  stock.  The 
race  of  trotters  is  peculiarly  American.  It 
originated  here,  and  is  here  found  in  its 
greatest  development.  It  appears  to  have 
followed  and  been  caused  by  the  introduc 
tion  and  improvement  in  light  carriages. 
The  thorough-breds  of  Europe,  the  race 
horse  and  the  hunter,  are  essentially  run 
ning  horses.  For  American  uses  trotters 
were  needed;  various  causes  tended  to 
make  them  popular,  and  in  the  last  fifty 
years  the  breed  has  been  made.  It  has  a 
large  infusion  of  the  English  thorough-bred 
in  it,  yet  few  noted  trotters  are  thorough 
breds.  The  gait  and  speed  are  in  part  the 
result  of  training,  and  are  in  part  hereditary. 
There  has  been  a  constantly  augmenting 
speed  and  a  great  increase  in  the  number 
of  horses  that  are  fast  trotters.  But  a  few 
years  ago  the  speed  of  a  mile  in  two  and  a 
half  minutes  was  unheard  of;  now  per 
haps  500  or  600  horses  are  known  to  have 
trotted  a  mile  in  that  time. 

There  is  no  question  but  that,  as  a  whole, 
the  quality  of  American  horses  has  greatly 
improved  in  the  hundred  years.  It  was  be 
lieved  that  the  great  increase  of  railroads 
would  diminish  the  number  required,  but, 
as  a  fact,  the  reverse  is  true. 

American  sheep  before  1776  were  all 
coarse- wooled  and  mostly  very  inferior  ani 
mals.  In  Europe  the  fine-wooled  breeds 
were  shut  up  in  Spain,  and  various  causes 
prevented  the  exportation  of  the  English 
improved  coarse-wooled  breeds.  Eliot,  in  his 
"  First  Essay"  (1747),  says :  "  A  better  Breed 
of  Sheep  is  what  we  want.  The  English  Breed 
of  Cotswold  Sheep  can  not  be  obtained,  or 
at  least  without  great  Difficulty  :  for  Wool 
and  live  Sheep  are  contraband  Goods, 
which  all  Strangers  are  prohibited  from 
carrying  out  on  Pain  of  having  the  right 


Hand  cut  off."  Before  1800  there  were  a 
few  importations  of  improved  coarse-wooled 
sheep,  and  very  many  importations  since. 
Merino  sheep  were  carried  into  Saxony  from 
Spain  in  1765,  into  France  about  1776,  and 
England  about  1790.  Three  merinoes  were 
brought  into  the  United  States  in  1793,  but 
the  person  to  whom  they  were  presented 
not  knowing  their  value,  they  were  eaten 
for  mutton.  In  1801  or  1802  a  few  more 
came,  and  there  were  several  small  importa 
tions  from  Spain  and  France  before  1815. 
The  Saxon  merino  was  introduced  in  1824. 
Various  causes  led  to  wild  speculation  more 
than  once  in  fine-wooled  sheep  in  the  United 
States,  but  they  have  increased  now  to  many 
millions,  and  some  of  the  most  noted  flocks 
of  the  world  have  been  or  are  here.  Indi 
vidual  animals  have  sold  as  high  as  $10,000 
and  even  $14,000.  Both  for  fineness  of  fibre 
and  weight  of  fleece  the  American  wool  is 
celebrated,  and  the  finest  fibre  yet  attained 
was  from  sheep  bred  in  Western  Pennsyl 
vania  about  1850.  Since  that  time  weight 
of  fleece  rather  than  excessive  fineness  has 
been  bred  for.  The  great  pastures  of  Texas 
and  California  at  home,  and  of  Australia  and 
South  America,  are  now  in  competition  in 
the  markets  of  the  world,  but  the  wool 
produced  in  some  of  the  older  States,  par 
ticularly  in  the  Ohio  Basin,  is  especially 
sought  after  by  the  manufacturers  of  the 
finer  goods. 

The  statistics  of  live  stock  in  the  United 
States  as  given  in  the  last  census  are  con 
fessedly  very  imperfect,  hence  no  numbers 
are  here  quoted  except  the  aggregate  value, 
which  was  estimated  as  amounting  to  up 
ward  of  $1,500,000,000. 

Incidental  to  this  branch  of  our  subject, 
we  may  mention  an  American  invention,  the 
cheese-factory  system.  This  was  first  put  in 
operation  in  1851  by  Mr.  Jesse  Williams,  in 
Oneida  County,  New  York.  Down  to  April, 
1860,  twenty-one  factories  had  been  started. 
Then  the  increase  was  so  rapid  that  by  the 
end  of  1866  there  had  been  500  factories 
erected  in  the  State  of  New  York  alone, 
and  the  capital  incidentally  employed  in 
the  farms  and  stock  amounted  to  at  least 
$40,000,000.  In  1870  there  were  over  1300 
factories  in  operation  in  the  country,  pro 
ducing  about  55,000  tons  of  cheese.  The 


184 


AGRICULTUKAL  PROGRESS. 


system  is  still  growing  here,  and  has  ex 
tended  to  foreign  countries. 

The  great  improvements  that  have  taken 
place  in  transportation,  which  make  it  pos 
sible  for  the  wheat  of  Iowa  and  California 
to  compete  in  the  English  markets  with 
that  raised  on  the  Atlantic  sea-board,  and 
which  place  Iowa  in  competition  with  New 
England,  have  operated  to  specialize  farm 
ing.  The  large  farmer  of  to-day  raises  fewer 
kinds  on  his  farm  than  did  the  small  farmer 
of  the  last  century.  This  specialization  al 
lows  the  use  of  the  higher  appliances  and 
the  use  of  capital  as  the  former  system 
could  not.  The  true  farms  have  doubtless 
grown  in  size,  on  the  average.  The  early 
settlers  of  necessity  could  till  but  small 
farms.  The  tax  lists  of  Long  Island  for 
years  between  1675  and  1685  show  that  in 
nine  English  towns  the  average  land-hold 
ing  was  about  twenty-two  acres,  and  in  the 
five  Dutch  towns  about  thirty-seven  acres, 
or  for  the  whole  fourteen  towns  it  was  twen 
ty-five  and  one-third  acres,  and  at  that  time 
over  ninety  per  cent,  of  the  tax-payers  were 
laud-holders.  The  national  census  of  1870 
enumerates  2,660,000  farms,  only  six  and  a 
half  per  cent,  of  which  were  of  less  than  ten 
acres,  and  more  than  half  of  the  whole  num 
ber  contained  over  fifty  acres.  The  cash  val 
ue  of  the  farms,  implements,  and  live  stock 
was  placed  at  upward  of  $11,000,000,000,  and 
the  total  estimated  value  of  all  the  farm 
productions  at  about  $2,448,000,000.  Of  the 
12,500,000  persons  "  engaged  in  all  classes  of 
occupations,"  6,000,000  were  engaged  in  ag 
riculture.  We  have  absolutely  no  statistics 
of  the  agriculture  of  the  colonies  at  the  time 
of  the  Revolution  ;  therefore  the  actual  fig 
ures  of  progress  can  not  be  given,  and  we 
refrain  from  estimates. 

Agricultural  newspapers,  societies,  schools, 
and  literature  hardly  had  an  existence  be 
fore  1776.  Less  than  forty  newspapers  were 
then  published  in  the  colonies,  none  of  them 
agricultural.  In  1870  there  were  ninety- 
three  agricultural  and  horticultural  news 
papers  and  periodicals,  with  an  aggregate 
annual  issue  of  21,500,000  copies. 

Agricultural  societies  were  organized  just 


after  the  Revolution ;  exhibitions  or  "  fairs" 
began  between  1810  and  18-20.  It  is  believed 
that  there  are  now  2000  agricultural  socie 
ties,  clubs,  and  boards  of  agriculture  organ 
ized  and  in  operation.  Their  annual  "re 
ports"  amount  to  very  many  volumes.  A 
few  tracts  and  essays,  which  altogether 
would  make  but  a  single  small  volume,  were 
the  entire  special  agricultural  literature  the 
colonies  produced.  The  agricultural  liter 
ature  of  to-day  is  confusing  by  its  quantity 
and  variety. 

Agricultural  professorships  were  estab 
lished  in  Europe  some  time  last  century, 
and  the  first  agricultural  school  began  in 
1799.  In  this  country,  Samuel  L.  Mitchill 
was  made  "  Professor  of  Chemistry  and  Ag 
riculture"  in  Columbia  College,  New  York, 
in  1791,  but  there  is  no  record  that  he  gave 
special  instruction  in  agriculture.  In  vari 
ous  colleges  professors  of  general  chemistry 
treated  more  or  less  of  agricultural  chemis 
try.  After  special  preparation  for  the  office, 
John  P.  Norton  was  appointed  "  Professor 
of  Agricultural  Chemistry  and  Vegetable 
and  Animal  Physiology"  in  Yale  College  in 
1846,  perhaps  the  first  actual  professor  of 
agriculture  in  an  American  college.  His 
instruction  began  in  1847,  since  which  time 
numerous  other  similar  professorships  have 
been  established. 

Agricultural  schools  and  colleges  were 
talked  of  for  many  years,  and  a  few  made 
an  actual  or  nominal  beginning  before  1850, 
and  several  before  1860.  In  1862  Congress 
appropriated  certain  lands  to  establish  or 
aid  schools  in  the  various  States,  "  without 
excluding  other  studies,"  to  "teach  such 
branches  of  learning  as  are  related  to  agri 
culture  and  the  mechanic  arts."  Stimu 
lated  by  this,  and  aided  by  private  and 
State  aid,  about  forty  schools  are  now  in 
existence,  trying  in  various  ways  to  fulfill 
the  purposes  for  which  they  were  establish 
ed.  The  most  of  them  are  recent,  and  they 
are  mainly  important,  in  this  account  of 
progress,  because  of  what  they  indicate  rath 
er  than  what  they  have  yet  accomplished. 
A  few  of  the  older  ones  have,  however,  al 
ready  had  considerable  influence,  and  all  are 
ready  for  the  coming  century's  work. 


V. 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  OUR  MINERAL  RESOURCES. 


TO  write  the  story  of  the  development 
of  the  mineral  resources  of  the  United 
States  during  the  last  century  would  de 
mand  a  volume.  The  whole  history  of  the 
new  States  and  Territories  beyond  the  val 
ley  of  the  Mississippi  is  little  else  than  that 
of  the  opening  and  the  working  of  their  rich 
mines  of  gold  and  silver  since  1849.  But 
this  region  was  not  a  part  of  the  national 
territory  at  the  time  when  our  survey  com 
mences.  While  the  Spaniards,  greedy  for 
that  wealth  which  proved  their  ruin,  plant 
ed  their  colonies  from  Mexico  to  Chili  along 
the  western  portion  of  the  continent,  rich 
in  precious  metals,  our  English  ancestors 
fixed  their  homes  in  a  portion  which,  though 
not  destitute  of  mineral  resources,  offered 
no  tempting  prizes  to  the  miners  of  that 
early  day.  The  records  of  our  colonial  peri 
od  have  little  to  tell  beyond  the  working  of 
some  iron  ores  along  the  sea-board,  and  at 
tempts  on  a  small  scale  to  mine  ores  of  cop 
per  and  of  lead.  The  first  half  century  of 
our  national  existence  does  not  add  much 
to  this  record,  and  the  history  of  the  mar 
velous  developments  in  the  working  of  the 
coal,  petroleum,  irou,  and  copper  in  our  East 
ern  regions,  and  in  the  mining  of  gold  and 
silver  in  the  West,  belongs  to  the  present 
generation. 

It  will  be  found  convenient  in  our  inquiry 
to  follow,  with  a  few  exceptions,  the  geo 
graphical  division  just  indicated,  and  to 
point  out  for  each  of  these  regions  separate 
ly  the  general  results  already  obtained  in 
the  development  of  its  mineral  wealth,  con 
sidering  in  the  first  place  the  territory 
which  stretches  from  the  eastern  base  of 
the  Kocky  Mountains  to  the  Atlantic.  It 
Is  in  this  division  of  our  territory  that  are 
found  the  great  stores  of  coal  and  iron,  be 
sides  vast  supplies  of  petroleum,  salt,  cop 
per,  and  other  minerals  of  less  importance. 
Geologically  described,  this  eastern  half  of 
the  United  States  is  essentially  a  great  ba 
sin  of  paleozoic  strata  nearly  encircled  with 
azoic  crystalline  rocks,  and  has  been  aptly 
described  as  a  great  bowl  filled  with  miner 


al  treasure,  the  outer  rim  of  which  is  form 
ed  by  the  mountains  of  Northern  New  York, 
the  hills  of  New  England,  the  Highlands 
of  the  Hudson,  and  their  southward  con 
tinuation  in  the  Blue  Eidge  nearly  to  the 
Gulf  of  Mexico.  Thence,  passing  to  the  east 
ern  base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  it  extends 
northward,  and  by  the  Great  Lakes  around 
the  northern  rim  of  the  bowl  to  the  point 
of  departure.  Within  the  area  thus  inclosed 
lies  the  vast  Appalachian  coal-field,  with  its 
dependent  areas  of  anthracite  and  semi-bi 
tuminous  coal,  the  lesser  coal-fields  of  Mich 
igan  and  Illinois,  and  the  still  more  western 
one  to  which  the  coals  of  Iowa,  Missouri, 
and  Arkansas  belong.  It  includes,  more 
over,  formations  containing  petroleum,  salt, 
and  lead,  besides  much  iron,  though  not  less 
abundant  stores  of  the  latter  metal  are  found 
in  the  surrounding  crystalline  rocks. 

The  coal  deposits  of  the  great  paleozoic 
basin  furnish  the  mainspring  of  our  princi 
pal  mechanical  and  commercial  enterprises, 
the  great  source  of  motive  power,  and  the 
chief  means  of  reducing  and  manufacturing 
our  iron.  If  to  this  we  add  that  the  value 
of  the  coal  now  mined  in  the  United  States 
is  equal  to  that  of  all  the  iron,  gold,  and  sil 
ver  produced  in  the  country,  we  have  said 
enough  to  justify  us  in  assigning  it  the  first 
place  in  a  survey  of  our  mineral  resources. 
The  forest  growth  supplied  the  demands  for 
fuel  of  the  early  English  colonists,  to  whom 
the  treasures  of  the  great  basin  were  little 
known,  and  the  first  attempts  at  mining 
mineral  fuel  were  in  the  coal-field  near 
Richmond,  Virginia,  one  of  several  small 
areas  which  lie  over  its  eastern  rim,  or  be 
tween  the  Blue  Ridge  and  the  sea.  This 
coal  of  Eastern  Virginia  occurs  in  what  are 
known  to  geologists  as  mesozoic  rocks,  and 
belongs  to  a  later  age  than  the  bituminous 
coal  of  Pennsylvania,  which,  however,  it  re 
sembles  in  quality.  It  was  probably  first 
mined  as  early  as  1750,  and  after  the  war 
of  the  Revolution  was  exported  to  Phila 
delphia,  New  York,  and  Boston,  until  with 
in  the  last  thirty  years.  Other  coals  have 


186 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  OUR  MINERAL  RESOURCES. 


since  replaced  it  in  these  markets,  and  it  is 
now  mined  chiefly  for  local  use. 

The  anthracite  of  Eastern  Pennsylvania 
was  first  discovered,  it  is  said,  in  1770.  In 
1775,  just  a  century  since,  a  boat-load  was 
taken  down  to  the  armory  at  Carlisle,  and 
in  1791  the  great  open  quarry  of  this  fuel 
near  Mauch  Chunk  was  made  known.  From 
its  unlikeness  to  the  Virginia  coal,  and  the 
difficulty  of  igniting  it,  the  Pennsylvania 
anthracite  encountered  much  opposition. 
Tradition  tells  us  that  a  boat -load  taken  to 
Philadelphia  in  1803  was  broken  up  and 
used  to  mend  the  roads.  But  it  slowly 
found  its  way  into  use ;  and  from  a  pam 
phlet  published  in  1815  we  learn  that  the 
coal  from  the  Lehigh  had  been  several  years 
on  trial  in  Philadelphia,  where  it  had  been 
compared  with  the  Virginia  bituminous 
coal,  and,  from  the  testimony  of  iron-work 
ers,  distillers,  and  others,  was  to  be  pre 
ferred  to  it  for  durability  and  economy. 
Oliver  Evans  had,  moreover,  at  this  time 
tried  the  anthracite  with  success  under  the 
boilers  of  his  steam-engine,  and  had  also 
insisted  upon  its  advantages  for  domestic 
purposes.  Notwithstanding  these  results, 
the  newr  fuel  found  its  way  very  slowly  into 
use,  and  in  1822  the  total  production  of  the 
anthracite  mines  was  estimated  at  3720 
tons,  against  48,000  tons  of  the  coal  from 
Richmond,  Virginia,  then  its  only  rival. 
Fifty  years  later,  or  in  1872,  the  official  re 
turns  give  for  the  exportation  of  coal  from 
the  anthracite  region  not  less  than  19,000,000 
tons,  besides  about  2,500,000  tons  for  local 
consumption,  while  that  of  the  Virginia  coal 
field  for  the  same  year  is  estimated  at  62,000 
tons.  The  late  Professor  Silliman,  who  vis 
ited  the  anthracite  region  in  1825,  and  pub 
lished  his  report  of  it  in  the  following  year, 
was  the  first  to  appreciate  the  real  value 
and  importance  of  this  deposit  of  fossil  fuel, 
which  he  then  spoke  of  as  a  great  national 
trust. 

The  small  detached  basins  of  the  anthra 
cite  region  have  together  an  area  of  only  472 
miles ;  but  the  immense  aggregate  thickness 
of  the  seams  of  coal,  varying  in  different 
parts  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  feet,  and  es 
timated  at  an  average  of  seventy  feet  for 
the  whole,  makes  this  wonderful  region  of 
greater  value  than  Western  coal-fields  whose 
extent  is  measured  by  many  thousands  of 


square  miles.  Mr.  P.  W.  Shaefter,  who  has 
calculated  the  cubic  content  of  these  an 
thracite  beds,  estimates  it  to  have  been  at 
the  time  when  mining  was  commenced 
equal  to  26,361,070,000  tons,  from  which  one- 
half  may  be  deducted  for  waste  in  mining 
and  breaking  for  market,  and  for  losses 
from  faults  and  irregularities  in  the  beds, 
giving  of  merchantable  coal  13,180,535,000 
tons.  If  from  this  we  subtract  the  amount 
produced  by  the  mines  from  1820  to  1870, 
estimated  at  206,666,325  tons,  we  had  still 
in  store  at  the  latter  date  a  supply  of 
25,000,000  tons  a  year,  or  more  than  the 
present  rate  of  consumption,  for  525  years. 
The  large  waste  in  mining  this  precious 
fuel  is  due  in  part  to  the  difficulty  in  work 
ing  seams  of  unusual  thickness,  often  in 
highly  inclined  positions.  Moreover,  the 
loss  in  breaking  and  dressing  for  the  mar 
ket,  which  demands  the  anthracite  in  regu 
larly  assorted  sizes,  is  very  great,  and  the 
waste  from  these  two  causes  amounts  to 
about  one-third  the  entire  contents  of  the 
veins,  while  in  Great  Britain  the  average 
loss  in  mining  and  marketing  ordinary  coals 
is  not  over  one-fifth.  The  great  value  of 
our  American  anthracite  is  due  in  part  to 
its  peculiar  qualities,  its  hardness,  density, 
purity,  and  smokelessness,  which  render  it 
pre-eminently  fit  for  domestic  purposes  and 
for  iron  smelting ;  but  in  part  also  to  its 
geographical  position.  Its  proximity  to  the 
Atlantic  sea-board,  which  is  almost  destitute 
of  coal,  to  our  great  cities  and  wealthy  and 
populous  districts,  and,  moreover,  to  some 
of  the  most  important  deposits  of  iron  ore 
in  the  country,  has  already  led  to  an  im 
mense  development  of  mining  in  the  an 
thracite  region.  The  New  England  States, 
Eastern  New  York,  New  Jersey,  and  East 
ern  Pennsylvania  look  to  it  for  their  chief 
supplies  of  fuel ;  great  systems  of  railways 
and  canals  have  been  called  into  existence 
by  it;  and  a  vast  iron-producing  industry 
has  grown  up,  dependent  upon  the  anthra 
cite  fields,  which  now  furnish  nearly  one- 
half  of  all  the  coal  mined  in  the  United 
States.  It  results  from  the  course  of  trade 
that  large  quantities  of  anthracite  find 
their  way  westward  by  railways,  canal- 
boats,  and  lake  steamers,  freights  in  that 
direction  being  very  low  at  certain  seasons 
of  the  year.  Thus  there  were  brought  to 


APPALACHIAN  COAL  BASIN. 


187 


Buffalo  in  1873  about  three-quarters  of  a 
million  of  tons  of  anthracite,  the  greater 
part  by  railway,  of  which  Chicago  received 
over  half  a  million,  or  nearly  one-third  of  its 
entire  coal  supply.  Smaller  quantities  of 
anthracite  find  their  way  down  the  Ohio 
Eiver  to  Cincinnati  and  beyond. 

The  chief  coal  supply  of  the  regions  to 
the  west  of  the  meridian  of  Washington 
comes,  however,  from  the  great  Appalachian 
basin,  which,  underlying  much  of  the  west 
ern  half  of  Pennsylvania  and  of  the  eastern 
third  of  Ohio,  West  Virginia,  and  a  part  of 
Eastern  Kentucky,  stretches  through  East 
ern  Tennessee  as  far  as  Alabama,  embracing 
an  area  of  coal-bearing  rocks  estimated  at 
nearly  58,000  square  miles.  Along  the  east 
ern  border  of  this  vast  field  of  bituminous 
coal  there  are  in  Pennsylvania  and  in  Mary- 
laud  several  small  areas  which  furnish  a 
semi-bituminous  coal,  intermediate  in  com 
position,  as  in  position,  between  it  and  the 
anthracite  of  the  East,  and  now  very  large 
ly  mined.  The  best  known  of  these  outlying 
basins  are  the  Blossburg,  on  the  north,  and 
the  Cumberland,  in  Maryland,  on  the  south  ; 
but  there  are  between  these  other  similar 
areas  of  considerable  importance,  such  as 
the  Broad  Top,  Johnstown,  Towauda,  and 
Ralston,  the  production  of  the  whole  being 
about  5,000,000  tons  of  coal  annually,  of 
which  nearly  one-half  comes  from  the  Cum 
berland  and  about  one-fifth  from  the  Bloss 
burg.  This  latter  was  first  opened  by  a 
railway  in  1840,  while  an  outlet  from  the 
Cumberland  field  to  the  sea-board  was  es 
tablished  by  the  Baltimore  and  Ohio  Rail 
road  in  1842,  thus  bringing  for  the  first  time 
the  bituminous  coal  of  the  interior  to  tide 
water,  and  displacing  in  Eastern  markets 
the  coal  of  Virginia.  These  semi-bitumi 
nous  coals,  very  rich  in  carbon,  and  yet  pos 
sessing  the  property  of  coking  in  the  fire, 
are  much  esteemed  for  iron- working  and  for 
generating  steam,  for  which  they  are  large 
ly  used  on  our  railways  and  ocean  steamers, 
besides  which  great  quantities  are  convert 
ed  into  coke  for  iron  smelting.  These  valu 
able  coals,  like  the  anthracite,  are  confined 
to  small  areas,  and  will  be  exhausted  in  a 
few  years,  or  at  most  a  few  generations. 
The  Cumberland  basin,  at  its  present  rate 
of  working,  will  not  last  thirty  years,  and 
the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  both  the 


anthracite  and  the  semi-bituminous  coals 
of  Pennsylvania  will  become  augmented  in 
price  from  their  rarity.  Its  geographical 
position  has  led  us  to  mine  and  consume 
first  the  most  valuable  portion  of  our  coal, 
which,  under  different  circumstances,  it 
would  have  been  wise  to  have  replaced  in 
part  by  other  and  more  abundant  varieties. 

In  this  connection  it  should  be  mentioned 
that  on  the  southeastern  border  of  the  Ap 
palachian  coal-field,  in  Montgomery  County, 
Virginia,  are  found  small  deposits  of  semi- 
bituminous  and  anthracite  coals,  both  of 
good  quality,  which  were  mined  to  a  con 
siderable  extent  during  the  late  civil  war. 
Another  area  of  anthracite  demands  our  no 
tice,  which,  like  the  coal  of  Richmond,  Vir 
ginia,  is  outside  of  the  great  basin.  It  is 
situated  in  Rhode  Island  and  Massachusetts, 
where  it  occupies  an  area  estimated  at  not 
less  than  500  square  miles,  and  includes,  in 
various  parts  already  explored,  beds  of  an 
thracite  from  ten  to  twenty  feet  in  thick 
ness.  This  coal-field  was  discovered  in  1760, 
and  attempts  at  working  it  were  made  as 
early  as  1808.  The  geological  peculiarities 
of  the  region,  the  somewhat  broken  con 
dition  of  the  coal,  and,  above  all,  the  com 
petition  of  the  anthracite  of  Pennsylvania, 
have  retarded  its  development,  so  that  the 
total  production  was  estimated  in  1872  at 
14,000  tons,  being  from  a  single  mine  at 
Portsmouth,  Rhode  Island,  where  this  coal 
is  employed  for  copper  smelting.  There  is 
no  doubt  that  this  important  field  of  an 
thracite  will  one  day  be  found  of  great  val 
ue  to  New  England. 

The  supplies  of  true  bituminous  coal 
which  are  found  in  the  great  Appalachian 
field  are  practically  inexhaustible,  and  the 
mining  of  it  is  rapidly  assuming  propor 
tions  second  only  to  those  of  the  regions 
along  its  eastern  border,  which  it  is  des 
tined  before  long  to  surpass  in  its  produc 
tion.  The  bituminous  coals  may  be  divided 
into  three  classes,  close-burning  or  coking 
coals,  free-burning  splint  or  block  coals,  and 
cannel.  Of  these  the  former  are  the  most 
abundant,  and  for  the  greater  number  of 
purposes  are  used  in  their  raw  state.  Un 
like  the  anthracite,  however,  they  are  not 
fitted  for  iron  smelting  and  for  many  other 
metallurgical  operations  unless  previously 
converted  into  coke,  for  the  production  of 


188 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  OUR  MINERAL  RESOURCES. 


which  they  are  not  all  equally  adapted. 
While  some  are  too  sulphurous,  others  con 
tain  too  much  ash,  are  too  poor  in  fixed  car 
bon,  or  yield  a  coke  deficient  in  weight  and 
in  solidity.  In  view  of  all  these  circum 
stances,  the  value  of  a  superior  coking  coal 
is  very  great,  and  a  striking  example  of 
this  appears  in  the  Pittsburg  seam,  as  it  is 
called,  of  Western  Pennsylvania.  This  re 
markable  coal  seam,  to  the  south  of  the  city 
whose  name  it  bears,  attains  near  Connels- 
ville  an  unusual  thickness,  and  yields  a 
coke  of  uusurpassed  quality,  which  is  not 
only  the  foundation  of  the  iron-smelting  in 
dustry  of  the  western  part  of  the  State,  but 
finds  its  way  in  large  quantities  to  Cleve 
land,  Chicago,  Cincinnati,  and  St.  Louis,  and 
even  as  far  as  Utah,  where  it  is  used  to 
smelt  the  silver-lead  ores  of  that  region. 

Pittsburg  is  at  present  the  great  centre 
of  the  Western  coal  trade,  and  in  addition 
to  the  large  amount  consumed  in  its  own 
manufactures,  distributes  coal  in  various 
directions  by  railway  and  river,  sending  vast 
quantities  down  the  Ohio  to  supply  the 
cities  on  its  banks,  and  even  to  the  Lower 
Mississippi.  The  amount  of  coal  received 
at  Pittsburg  in  1872,  in  great  part  by  the 
Monongahela,  was  over  115,000,000  bushels, 
which,  at  twenty-eight  bushels  to  the  ton, 
is  considerably  over  4,000,000  tons,  and  the 
annual  increase  for  three  years  up  to  that 
time  was  at  the  rate  of  thirty-five  per  cent. 
To  this  we  must  add  the  amount  of  coke  re 
ceived,  which  doubled  annually  for  the  same 
three  years,  and  equaled  in  1872  nearly 
44,000,000  bushels,  the  product  from  coking 
about  2,600,000  tons  of  coal.  The  total  esti 
mated  production  of  bituminous  coal  for 
Pennsylvania  in  1872  (including  about 
3,000,000  tons  of  semi  -  bituminous)  was 
10,442,000  tons,  and  if  to  this  we  add  the 
21,500,000  tons  of  anthracite,  we  shall  find 
that  this  State  alone  furnished  in  that  year 
more  than  two-thirds  of  all  the  coal  mined 
in  the  United  States.  The  figures  from  offi 
cial  sources  fail  to  give  the  full  amount  of 
coal  used  for  local  consumption,  but  the  en 
tire  production  of  the  United  States  for 
1873  is  estimated  by  Macfarlane  at  not  less 
than  50,000,000  tons.  The  check  which  all 
our  industries,  and  especially  the  working 
of  coal  and  iron,  sustained  throughout  the 
year  1874  has  produced  a  temporary  fall 


ing  off  in  production,  so  that  the  figures  for 
1872  and  1873  are  really  a  fairer  index  of 
our  progress  than  those  of  a  later  date. 

Next  in  importance  to  that  of  Pennsylva 
nia  is  the  coal  production  of  Ohio,  which  was 
estimated  in  1872  at  4,400,000  tons.  Owing 
to  the  want  of  proper  railway  communica 
tions  the  coal  deposits  of  this  State  have  as 
yet  been  but  little  worked.  It  is  in  Ohio 
that  the  free-burning  splint  or  block  coal 
(which  appears  to  a  limited  extent  in  the 
Cheuango  Valley,  on  the  western  frontier 
of  Pennsylvania)  finds  its  greatest  develop 
ment.  This  coal,  which  is  extensively  mined 
in  the  adjacent  parts  of  Ohio,  chiefly  in  the 
valley  of  the  Mahoning,  is  prized  not  only 
on  account  of  its  freedom  from  ash  and  sul 
phur,  but  from  the  fact  that  it  can  be  di 
rectly  used  in  the  blast-furnace  for  smelting 
iron  ores  without  previous  coking,  and  it 
has  given  rise  to  an  important  iron  indus 
try  in  its  vicinity.  The  supply  in  North 
ern  Ohio  is,  however,  limited,  and  it  is  rap 
idly  becoming  exhausted.  A  much  more 
abundant  deposit  of  a  similar  coal,  under 
very  favorable  conditions  for  mining,  has 
lately  been  made  known  farther  southward 
in  the  State,  in  the  Hocking  Valley,  where 
it  is,  moreover,  accompanied  by  large  beds 
of  coking  coal.  The  coal  of  Ohio  is  destined 
from  its  geographical  position  to  become  of 
great  importance :  lying  on  the  northwest 
border  of  the  Appalachian  field,  as  the  an 
thracite  and  semi-bituminous  coals  of  Penn 
sylvania  do  upon  its  northeast  border,  it  has 
to  the  north  and  west  of  it  a  vast,  wealthy, 
and  populous  region,  with  growing  indus 
tries,  and  demanding  large  and  increasing 
supplies  of  coal. 

The  extension  southward  of  the  Appala 
chian  coal-field  through  West  Virginia  and 
parts  of  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and  Alabama 
is  known  to  abound  in  valuable  beds  of  bi 
tuminous  coal,  which  have  lately  attracted 
considerable  attention.  Since  the  opening 
of  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Railroad  the 
coals  from  the  valley  of  the  Kanawha  are 
finding  their  way,  to  some  extent,  to  the  sea 
board  and  into  Eastern  markets,  but  with 
this  exception  the  vast  coal  deposits  of  this 
great  Southern  region  are  as  yet  mined  only 
to  supply  the  limited  local  demands. 

Among  the  important  uses  of  bituminous 
coal  is  the  manufacture  of  illuminating  gas, 


WESTERN  COAL  FIELDS. 


189 


for  which  purpose  immense  quantities  of 
coal  are  distilled.  The  annual  consumption 
for  this  purpose  in  the  cities  of  New  York 
and  Brooklyn  is  estimated  at  about  400,000 
tons.  Those  coals  which  yield  large  quan 
tities  of  pure  gas  of  high  illuminating  pow 
er  are  greatly  prized.  The  Eastern  cities 
are  in  part  furnished  with  gas  coal  from 
Cape  Breton,  hut  the  greater  part  of  the 
coals  for  this  purpose  is  got  from  Western 
Pennsylvania.  Excellent  gas  coals  are,  how 
ever,  obtained  in  Ohio  and  in  West  Virginia. 

The  State  of  Michigan  includes  a  coal  ba 
sin  with  an  area  of  not  less  than  6700  square 
miles,  but  the  beds  of  coal  which  it  contains 
are  few,  thin,  and  of  inferior  quality.  For 
this  reason,  and  from  the  fact  that  the  State 
is  cheaply  supplied  with  superior  coals  from 
Pennsylvania  and  Ohio,  the  coal  of  Michi 
gan  is  worked  only  to  a  small  extent  for  lo 
cal  consumption,  the  estimated  production 
for  1872  being  but  30,000  tons.  The  Illinois 
coal  basin,  which  underlies  the  greater  part 
of  that  State,  and  extends  into  the  western 
parts  of  Indiana  and  Kentucky,  has  an  area 
of  not  less  than  47,000  square  miles.  Along 
its  eastern  and  western  borders  in  Clay 
County,  Indiana,  and  near  St.  Louis,  are 
found  deposits  of  an  excellent  block  coal 
like  that  of  Ohio,  adapted  for  iron  smelting ; 
but  with  this  exception  the  coals  of  this 
great  basin  are  generally  sulphurous  and  in 
ferior  in  quality,  and  command  in  the  mar 
ket  of  Chicago  a  price  much  below  those  of 
Pennsylvania  and  Ohio.  Chicago  received 
in  1873  over  1,600,000  tons  of  coal,  of  which 
about  two-fifths  only  were  from  the  adja 
cent  coal-field,  the  remainder  being  brought 
from  the  two  States  just  named.  The  first 
working  of  coal  in  Illinois  dates  from  1810, 
and  the  production  of  the  State  for  1872 
was  equal  to  3,000,000  tons,  while  Indiana 
furnished  800,000,  and  that  portion  of  the 
coal-field  which  lies  in  Western  Kentucky 
300,000  tons. 

The  coals  of  the  great  field  west  of  the 
Mississippi,  which  extends  through  Iowa, 
Missouri,  Kansas,  and  Arkansas,  are  mostly 
of  inferior  quality  and  in  thin  beds,  but  are 
of  great  local  importance  in  these  sparsely 
wooded  regions.  In  the  State  of  Arkan 
sas,  moreover,  there  is  found  a  superior 
semi-bituminous  coal,  approaching  to  an 
thracite  in  its  character.  Further  west 


ward,  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  thence 
to  the  Pacific  coast,  from  the  confines  of 
Mexico  to  Canada,  are  extensive  deposits  of 
tertiary  coals  or  lignites,  which,  though  in 
ferior  in  quality  to  the  coals  of  the  Appala 
chian  basin,  are,  in  the  absence  of  better  fuel, 
employed  for  generating  steam  and  for  do 
mestic  purposes.  They  are,  however,  very 
variable  in  quality,  and  some  beds  have  of 
late  been  found  which  are  fit  for  the  manu 
facture  of  illuminating  gas,  and  are  even  ca 
pable  of  yielding  a  coke  suitable  for  met 
allurgical  processes.  These  coals  are  mined 
in  Utah,  Colorado,  and  Wyoming,  and  again 
on  the  Pacific  coast  in  California,  Oregon, 
and  Washington  Territory.  Of  the  coal 
supply  of  San  Francisco  in  1873,  which 
equaled  441,000  tons,  about  sixty  per  cent, 
came  from  these  deposits  along  the  western 
coast,  the  remainder  being  from  Australia, 
England,  and  the  Eastern  States. 

The  petroleum  industry  of  the  United 
States  was  in  its  beginning  closely  con 
nected  with  coal,  since  it  was  the  produc 
tion  of  oils  from  bituminous  coals  which  led 
the  way  to  the  utilization  of  the  native  min 
eral  oils.  It  had  long  been  known  that  tar 
and  oily  matters  could  be  extracted  from 
coals  and  from  shales  impregnated  with 
coaly  matter  by  subjecting  them  to  a  high 
temperature,  these  substances,  although  not 
existing  ready -formed  in  the  coals,  being 
generated  by  the  decomposing  action  of 
heat.  A  product  thus  obtained  was  known 
to  apothecaries  more  than  a  century  ago  by 
the  name  of  British  oil ;  and  in  1834  experi 
ments  on  a  large  scale  were  made  in  France 
by  Selligue  to  manufacture  illuminating 
oils  by  the  distillation  of  shales,  with  par 
tial  success.  In  1846  similar  results  were 
obtained  by  Gesner  in  New  Brunswick ;  and 
in  1850  Atwood,  of  Boston,  prepared  a  lubri 
cating  oil  from  coal-tar.  At  the  same  time 
Young,  of  Glasgow,  was  experimenting,  and 
in  1850  introduced  into  the  market,  under 
the  name  of  paraffine  oil,  a  product  from 
cannel-coal.  The  first  works  for  this  man 
ufacture  in  the  United  States  were  estab 
lished  on  Long  Island  in  1854,  under  Young's 
patents  for  manufacturing  oils  from  the 
Boghead  coal  brought  from  Scotland,  or 
from  American  coals.  From  this  point  the 
industry  spread  rapidly,  and  in  1855  and 
1856  works  for  the  distillation  of  oils  from 


190 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  OUE  MINERAL  RESOURCES. 


coals  were  erected  in  Kentucky,  Ohio,  and 
Pennsylvania,  as  well  as  along  the  Atlantic 
sea-board,  where  the  principal  material  em 
ployed  was  the  mineral  from  Scotland  just 
named.  In  January,  1860,  there  were  in  the 
United  States  not  less  than  forty  factories, 
the  total  daily  production  of  which  was 
about  five  hundred  barrels,  chiefly  of  burn 
ing  oil.  This  was  sold  in  the  market  with 
the  trade  name  of  kerosene,  or  simply  as 
coal  oil ;  and  lamps  suitable  for  burning  it 
having  been  devised,  it  became  widely  used. 
But  this  industry  of  the  distillation  of  coal 
was  destined  to  have  a  very  short  duration, 
for  the  oil  wells  of  Pennsylvania,  opened  in 
1859,  furnished  in  1860  not  less  than  500,000 
barrels  of  petroleum — a  production  far  ex 
ceeding  that  of  the  coal  distilleries.  It  was 
soon  found  that  from  this  mineral  oil  prod 
ucts  could  be  extracted  in  all  respects  simi 
lar  to  those  from  coal,  and  the  result  was 
that  from  this  time  the  manufacture  of  coal 
oil  was  abandoned,  and  the  works  which  had 
been  erected  for  this  purpose  were  changed 
to  petroleum  refineries. 

The  early  history  of  petroleum  is  curious. 
Known  and  employed  for  burning  from  re 
mote  antiquity  in  the  Old  World,  no  process 
for  its  purification  had  been  devised,  and  it 
was  therefore  at  best  but  an  indifferent  and 
cheaper  substitute  for  animal  and  vegetable 
oils.  The  first  attempts  to  refine  it  for  com 
mercial  purposes  are  believed  to  have  been 
made  by  Young,  of  Glasgow,  in  1847,  on  pe 
troleum  got  from  Derbyshire,  in  England, 
from  which  he  prepared  a  lubricating  oil, 
and  it  was  the  exhaustion  of  this  supply 
which  led  him  to  improve  the  methods  for 
the  extraction  of  oils  from  coal. 

Meanwhile,  in  the  United  States,  the  ex 
istence  of  sources  of  mineral  oil  had  been 
known  to  the  Indians  of  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania,  who  prized  it  as  a  medicine, 
for  which  purpose  it  became  familiar  to  the 
early  European  colonists  under  the  name  of 
Seneca-oil.  It  appears  to  have  been  an  ob 
ject  of  research  to  the  aborigines  ages  ago, 
since  in  the  oil  regions  of  Western  Pennsyl 
vania  are  found  pits  or  wells  apparently  dug 
for  the  purpose  of  collecting  the  oil,  careful 
ly  timbered,  and  affording  from  the  growth 
of  the  forest  upon  the  site  evidences  of  an 
antiquity  of  from  500  to  1000  years.  As  early 
as  1819,  in  boring  for  brine  on  the  Muskingum 


River,  in  Ohio,  from  a  depth  of  400  feet  were 
obtained  large  quantities  of  mineral  oil, 
which  was  a  source  of  great  annoyance  to 
the  salt-makers.  At  this  time  attempts  were 
made  to  use  the  oil  for  illumination,  but,  from 
the  want  of  proper  lamps,  it  was  not  found  to 
be  adapted  to  the  purpose.  In  1854  the  suc 
cessful  manufacture  of  oils  from  coal  caused 
attention  to  be  drawn  to  the  possibility  of 
utilizing  these  native  oils,  and  the  Penn 
sylvania  Oil  Company  was  formed  for  the 
purpose  of  manufacturing  the  petroleum 
found  at  Oil  Creek,  in  Venango  County, 
Pennsylvania.  The  chemical  investigation 
of  the  material  was  committed  to  Professor 
B.  Silliman,  Jun.,  and  his  report  to  the  com 
pany,  which  appeared  in  April,  1855,  has 
been  the  point  of  departure  for  the  immense 
industry  of  petroleum  which  has  grown  up 
within  the  last  twenty  years.  In  this  re 
port  was  described  the  conversion  of  the 
crude  petroleum  by  fractional  distillation 
into  products  differing  in  density  and  in  vol 
atility,  the  manufacture  from  it  of  a  burn 
ing  oil  of  great  illuminating  power,  of  an 
oil  capable  of  supporting  a  low  temperature 
and  fitted  for  lubrication,  and  also  of  paraf- 
fine.  He  farther  showed  the  importance 
of  distillation  in  a  current  of  highly  heat 
ed  steam,  and  noticed  the  breaking  up  of 
heavier  into  lighter  oils  by  continued  heat 
— processes  which  have  since  assumed  a 
great  importance  in  the  manufacture  of 
petroleum. 

Notwithstanding  these  remarkable  re 
sults,  little  was  effected  for  some  years ;  the 
supply  of  petroleum  was  limited  to  that 
which  could  be  gathered  from  the  surface 
of  the  water  in  the  locality,  and  from  its 
cost  it  could  not  compete  with  the  product 
of  the  distillation  of  coal.  At  length  an  at 
tempt  was  made  to  repeat  the  early  experi 
ment  of  the  Muskingum  salt-works,  and  a 
well  was  bored  by  Drake,  the  superintend 
ent  of  the  Pennsylvania  Oil  Company,  from 
which,  at  a  depth  of  seventy-two  feet,  a 
supply  of  oil  amounting  to  ten  barrels  or 
400  gallons  a  day  was  obtained,  which  was 
sold  for  fifty-five  cents  a  gallon.  This  was 
in  August,  1859,  and  the  successful  trial  was 
soon  followed  by  many  others  not  less  so. 
The  history  of  the  wild  excitement  and 
speculation  which  followed  this  discovery, 
and  the  great  accession  of  wealth  to  the  re- 


PETROLEUM. 


191 


gion,  is  familiar  to  all.  Wells  were  sunk 
which  yielded  from  100  to  as  much  as  2000 
barrels  of  oil  daily,  often  without  the  la 
bor  of  pumping.  Of  one  well  it  is  recorded 
that  it  afforded  450,000  barrels  of  oil  in  a 
little  over  two  years,  while  another  is  said 
to  have  given  not  less  than  500,000  barrels 
in  a  twelvemonth.  Petroleum  was  soon 
discovered  not  only  over  a  wide  district  in 
Pennsylvania,  but  in  Eastern  Ohio  and  in 
parts  of  West  Virginia  and  Kentucky,  and 
even  in  Indiana,  as  well  as  in  Western  Can 
ada.  In  1860  the  production  rose  to  500,000 
barrels  of  forty  gallons  each,  and  for  the  dec 
ade  ending  with  1870  it  amounted  to  not  less 
than  35,273,000  barrels  of  crude  oil.  Of  this 
by  far  the  greater  part  came  from  Penn 
sylvania,  for  of  the  6,500,000  barrels  pro 
duced  in  1870,  not  less  than  5,569,000  were 
from  that  State,  the  production  of  about 
3000  wells,  which  is  an  average  of  only  about 
five  barrels  daily  for  each  well. 

The  wells  in  Venango  County,  where  this 
industry  began,  were  generally  from  600  to 
800  feet  in  depth,  but  with  the  partial  ex 
haustion  of  these  the  scene  of  operations 
has  been  removed  to  more  southern  dis 
tricts,  where  the  oil  supplies  are  found  at 
greater  depths;  and  the  wells  in  Butler 
County,  now  the  great  seat  of  production, 
are  from  1200  to  1500  feet  deep.  The  crude 
oil  is  carried  from  the  wells  to  the  points 
of  refining  or  of  shipment  through  iron 
pipes.  Some  of  these  lines  are  fifteen  and 
twenty  miles  in  length,  and  one  is  in  proc 
ess  of  construction  from  Butler  County  to 
Pittsburg,  a  distance  of  about  forty  miles. 
It  has  even  been  proposed  to  convey  the 
oil  by  a  series  of  conduits  and  reservoirs 
across  the  mountains  to  Philadelphia. 

The  processes  for  refining  the  crude  pe 
troleum  and  preparing  from  it  various  com 
mercial  products  have  been  perfected  by 
much  chemical  skill.  The  loss  in  refining 
amounts  to  about  ten  per  cent.,  and  the  av 
erage  product  of  illuminating  oil  from  the 
crude  petroleum  of  Pennsylvania  is  about 
sixty-five  per  cent.  The  other  products  are 
dense  lubricating  oils,  light  naphthas,  and 
paraffine  or  mineral  wax,  of  which  a  barrel 
of  crude  oil  yields  about  five  pounds. 

The  abundance  of  the  Pennsylvania  pe 
troleum  and  the  skillful  manner  in  which 
it  is  refined  have  led  to  a  general  exporta 


tion  of  these  products  to  every  part  of  the 
civilized  world.  Already  in  1861  we  find 
the  shipments  of  petroleum  from  the  Unit 
ed  States  to  foreign  ports  equal  to  nearly 
28,000  barrels  of  forty  gallons  each,  and  for 
the  ten  years  ending  with  1870  the  expor 
tation  was  14,465,000  barrels.  By  far  the 
greater  part  of  this  was  shipped  in  the  re 
fined  state,  and  its  average  price  for  the 
term  of  ten  years  was  estimated  at  twenty- 
five  cents  a  gallon,  thus  representing  an  ag 
gregate  value  of  over  $144,000,000.  The  in 
crease  in  the  amount  exported  has  been 
regular  and  constant.  That  for  the  calen 
dar  year  1870  was  3,495,800  barrels ;  for  1872, 
3,754,060 ;  for  1873,  5,937,041 ;  and  for  1874, 
5,878,578  barrels,  of  which  about  nine-tenths 
were  refined  oil. 

This  large  increase  in  the  exports  of  1873 
and  1874  shows  the  very  considerable  aug 
mentation  in  production  which  has  fol 
lowed  late  discoveries  of  new  and  produc 
tive  oil  districts  in  Pennsylvania.  These 
have  been  attended  by  a  great  reduction  in 
price.  From  fifty-five  cents  the  gallon,  at 
which  the  first  crude  oil  from  the  wells  was 
sold,  it  soon  fell  to  twenty  cents,  and  to  six 
ty  or  seventy  cents  for  the  refined  oil.  In 
1872  its  price  in  New  York  had  fallen  below 
twenty-four  cents,  in  1873  to  below  nine 
teen,  and  in  1874  to  a  small  fraction  over 
thirteen  cents,  the  crude  oil  in  New  York 
having  fallen  in  the  same  three  years  from 
about  thirteen  to  less  than  six  cents  the 
gallon.  Of  crude  oil  forty-three  and  a  half 
gallons  are  counted  to  a  barrel,  yet  its  price 
in  Western  Pennsylvania  in  1874  was  from 
sixty  to  seventy-five  cents  a  barrel  at  the 
wells,  and  from  eighty  cents  to  a  dollar  at 
the  delivery  pipes.  Even  at  the  present  re 
duced  prices  the  annual  value  of  the  petro 
leum  product  of  the  country  is  very  great. 
The  export  for  1874,  chiefly  of  refined  oil, 
at  the  mean  price  of  13.09  cents  the  gallon, 
equals  $30,825,268.  The  present  annual  con 
sumption  of  the  United  States  is  estimated 
at-  1,500,000  barrels  of  refined  petroleum, 
which,  added  to  the  export  for  1874,  gives  a 
total  of  7,378,000  barrels  of  refined  oil.  The 
estimated  production  of  crude  oil  for  1874 
was  not  less  than  10,687,930  barrels,  or  29,282 
daily.  Already  in  1870,  when  the  produc 
tion  was  considerably  less  than  at  pres 
ent,  it  was  said  that  the  petroleum  wells 


192 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  OUR  MINERAL  RESOURCES. 


of  the  United  States  yielded  in  a  week  an 
amount  of  oil  greater  than  the  entire  annu 
al  production  of  the  whale-fisheries  of  New 
England  at  the  time  of  their  greatest  pros 
perity.  American  petroleum  has  now  al 
most  entirely  replaced  the  products  of  these 
fisheries,  and  furnished  to  the  whole  world 
a  cheap  and  admirable  means  of  illumina 
tion.  Petroleum  abounds  in  many  parts 
of  the  Old  World,  but  attempts  to  compete 
with  the  product  of  Pennsylvania  have  not 
hitherto  been  very  successful.  The  same 
remark  will  apply  to  the  petroleum  found 
in  Santa  Barbara  County,  California,  which 
is  refined  there  to  a  limited  extent  for  do 
mestic  use,  and  yields,  besides  a  good  burn 
ing  oil,  one  peculiarly  fitted  for  lubricating 
purposes. 

We  now  proceed  to  notice  the  history 
of  the  iron  industry  of  the  United  States, 
which  is  as  yet  confined  to  the  region  east 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  must  be  consid 
ered  in  connection  with  the  coal  upon  which 
it  is  to  a  great  extent  dependent.  The  great 
supplies  of  iron  ores  to  the  east  of  the  Ap 
palachian  coal-field  are,  first,  from  the  beds, 
chiefly  of  the  magnetic  species,  but  occa 
sionally  of  red  hematite,  which  abound  in  the 
Adirondack  region  of  New  York,  extending 
northward  into  Canada  (which  furnishes  a 
considerable  quantity  of  ore  to  the  Ameri 
can  market) ;  while  southward,  in  the  mount 
ain  belt  from  the  Highlands  of  the  Hudson 
to  South  Carolina,  are  great  deposits  of  sim 
ilar  ores,  extensively  mined  in  New  York, 
New  Jersey,  and  Pennsylvania.  Within  the 
eastern  rim  of  the  basin  and  parallel  with 
it  is,  in  the  second  place,  a  belt  of  iron  ores, 
chiefly  brown  hematite,  which  is  traced 
from  Vermont  along  the  western  border  of 
New  England,  and  assumes  a  great  develop 
ment  in  parts  of  Pennsylvania,  Virginia, 
Tennessee,  and  Alabama.  Further  west 
ward,  within  the  great  basin,  are  found  the 
red  fossiliferous  ores  which  lie  near  the 
summit  of  the  Silurian  series,  and  are  traced 
from  Wisconsin  eastward  through  Ontario 
and  Central  New  York,  and  thence  south 
ward,  parallel  with  the  Alleghanies  and  in 
proximity  to  the  coal,  through  Pennsylva 
nia,  as  far  as  Alabama.  Besides  these  are 
to  be  considered  the  great  deposits  of  iron 
ores  belonging  to  the  coal  measures,  in 
cluding  those  of  the  lower  carboniferous. 


These  ores,  which  are  carbonates  and  limon- 
ites,  occasionally  with  red  hematite,  abound 
in  Western  Pennsylvania,  Ohio,  and  West 
Virginia.  They  are  wanting  or  rare  in  the 
middle  and  western  coal-fields  of  the  great 
basin ;  but  between  these,  in  Missouri  and 
Arkansas,  there  rise  from  the  thinly  spread 
out  paleozoic  strata  mountains  of  crystal 
line  rocks,  which  include  immense  deposits 
of  red  hematite  and  magnetic  ores  of  great 
value.  Farther  northward  these  crystal 
line  rocks,  with  their  metallic  treasures,  are 
concealed  beneath  newer  strata,  but  they 
re-appear,  charged  with  great  quantities  of 
these  same  species  of  iron  ore,  iu  the  north 
ern  peninsula  of  Michigan,  whence,  sweep 
ing  eastward  through  Canada,  the  chain 
of  crystalline  rocks  bearing  these  ores  is 
continued  to  the  Adirondack  region  of 
New  York. 

In  the  colonial  period,  and  even  during 
the  first  years  of  the  republic,  the  smelting 
of  iron  ores  was  confined  to  the  eastern  rim 
of  the  great  basin,  and  indeed  the  first  fur 
naces  erected  were  for  the  reduction  of  the 
limonite  ores  which  occur  in  small  deposits 
along  the  Atlantic  border  and  outside  of 
the  limits  above  defined.  We  find  an  at 
tempt  to  make  iron  at  Jamestown,  in  Vir 
ginia,  as  early  as  1619,  and  a  little  later  a 
furnace  was  erected  at  Lynn,  Massachu 
setts.  As  early  as  1717  pig-iron  was  export 
ed  from  the  colonies  to  England,  and  the 
increase  of  the  iron  industry  excited  the 
jealousy  of  the  British  iron  manufacturers, 
so  that  in  1750  an  act  of  Parliament  forbade 
the  erection  of  rolling  or  slitting  mills  in 
the  colonies.  Before  the  time  of  the  Revo 
lution  we  find  numerous  blast-furnaces  from 
Virginia  as  far  as  Western  Massachusetts, 
smelting  the  limonites,  and  in  New  Jersey 
and  Pennsylvania  the  magnetic  ores  of  these 
regions. 

A  considerable  portion  of  the  iron  of  this 
early  time  was,  however,  made  in  bloom- 
ary  furnaces,  by  means  of  which  malleable 
iron  is  obtained  directly  from  the  ore,  a 
method  of  no  little  interest  in  the  history 
of  our  manufacture.  A  similar  process  be 
longs  to  the  infancy  of  the  inetallurgic  art, 
and  is  still  practiced  among  barbarous  na 
tions,  where  the  mode  of  making  pig-iron  in 
the  blast-furnace  is  unknown.  A  modifica 
tion  of  this  direct  method  survives  in  the 


ANTHRACITE  FURNACES. 


193 


Catalan  forge  of  Western  Europe,  and  in 
the  last  century  another  form  was  known  in 
Germany,  where  it  is  now  forgotten.  The 
German  bloomary  furnace  found  its  way  to 
America,  and  was  employed  in  New  Jersey 
and  Pennsylvania  at  least  as  early  as  1725. 
This  furnace  had  the  great  advantage  that 
its  construction  required  but  little  skill  and 
little  outlay.  A  small  water-fall  for  the 
blast  and  the  hammer,  a  rude  hearth  with  a 
chimney,  and  a  supply  of  charcoal  and  ore, 
enabled  the  iron-worker  to  obtain,  as  occa 
sion  required,  a  few  hundred  pounds  of  iron 
in  a  day's  time  in  a  condition  fitted  for  the 
use  of  the  blacksmith,  after  which  his  prim 
itive  forge  remained  idle  until  there  was  a 
farther  demand.  To  this  day  such  furnaces 
are  found  in  the  mountains  of  North  Caro 
lina,  .and  furnish  the  bar-iron  required  for 
the  wants  of  the  rural  population. 

An  interesting  episode  in  the  history 
of  American  iron  manufacture  is  afforded 
by  the  attempts  of  the  early  explorers  to 
utilize  the  black  iron  sand  which  is  found 
at  many  points  along  our  sea-board,  from 
the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Capes  of  the 
Chesapeake,  and  early  in  the  last  century, 
under  the  name  of  the  Virginia  sand  iron, 
was  the  subject  of  unsuccessful  attempts  to 
treat  it  for  the  extraction  of  iron.  At  length 
the  Rev.  Jared  Eliot,  of  Killingworth,  Con 
necticut,  grandson  of  John  Eliot,  the  apos 
tle  of  the  Indians,  after  many  experiments 
on  the  iron  sand  which  is  found  in  consid 
erable  quantities  on  the  south  coast  of  that 
State,  succeeded  by  the  aid  of  the  German 
bloomary  in  resolving  the  problem,  and  made 
blooms  of  malleable  iron  of  fifty  pounds 
weight,  for  which  discovery  he  was  in  1761 
awarded  a  medal  by  the  Society  of  Arts  of 
London.  He  informs  us  that  his  sou  had, 
moreover,  been  able  to  convert  this  iron  into 
steel  of  superior  quality,  and  would  have  es 
tablished  a  manufactory  of  it  but  for  the 
act  of  Parliament  passed  at  that  time  pro 
hibiting  the  production  of  steel  in  the  col 
onies.  It  is  curious  to  see  this  forgotten 
discovery  brought  up  again  in  our  day,  and 
applied  to  these  sands  on  the  southern  shore 
of  Long  Island,  and  more  successfully  at 
Moisie,  in  the  Lower  St.  Lawrence.  Still 
more  worthy  of  note  is  it  that  this  prim 
itive  bloomary  furnace,  discarded  in  Eu 
rope,  has  been  improved  by  American  in- 
13 


genuity,  enlarged,  fitted  with  a  hot  blast, 
water  tuyeres,  and  other  modern  appliances, 
so  that  in  the  hands  of  skilled  workmen  in 
Northern  New  York  it  affords  for  certain 
ores  an  economical  mode  of  making  a  supe 
rior  malleable  iron,  of  which  about  50,000 
tons  are  thus  produced  yearly.  A  large 
part  of  this  product  is  consumed  at  Pitts- 
burg  for  the  manufacture  of  cutlery  steel 
of  excellent  quality. 

The  first  half  century  of  the  republic  saw 
but  little  progress  in  the  manufacture  of 
iron,  and  the  total  amount  produced  in  1810 
is  estimated  at  only  54,000  tons,  which  is  not 
equal  to  the  present  annual  yield  of  four  or 
five  of  our  modern  blast-furnaces.  During 
this  period  charcoal  was  the  only  fuel  em 
ployed,  and  the  first  great  step  in  our  iron 
manufacture  was  the  use  of  anthracite.  At 
tempts  were  made  to  employ  a  mixture  of 
this  fuel  with  charcoal  at  Mauch  Chunk, 
Pennsylvania,  in  1820,  and  at  Kingston,  Mas 
sachusetts,  with  the  anthracite  of  Rhode 
Island,  in  1827,  but  the  way  to  the  solution 
of  the  problem  was  finally  prepared  by  the 
introduction  of  the  hot  blast  in  1831,  and  in 
1833  a  patent  was  granted  in  the  United 
States  for  the  smelting  of  iron  with  anthra 
cite  by  the  aid  of  a  blast  of  heated  air.  The 
first  successful  attempt  to  use  anthracite 
alone  in  this  country  seems  to  have  been  in 
1838,  near  Mauch  Chunk,  with  a  furnace 
twenty-one  and  a  half  feet  high,  producing 
two  tons  of  iron  daily.  From  this  the  in 
dustry  spread,  and  in  1840  there  were  six 
furnaces  employing  this  fuel,  and  making 
each  from  thirty  to  fifty  tons  weekly  of  pig- 
iron.  To-day  our  anthracite  furnaces  are 
many  of  them  sixty  and  even  eighty  feet  in 
height,  producing  from  250  to  300  tons  of 
iron  in  a  week.  Of  680  furnaces  in  the 
United  States  in  1873,  226  consumed  an 
thracite,  and  produced  nearly  one-half  of 
all  the  pig-iron  made. 

From  its  purity,  hardness,  and  ability  to 
resist  the  weight  of  the  charge,  this  fuel 
is  unrivaled  for  the  purpose  of  iron  smelt 
ing.  This  coal  supplies  the  furnaces  of  East 
ern  Pennsylvania  and  New  Jersey,  and  to  a 
great  extent  those  of  Eastern  New  York  and 
of  Maryland ;  but  as  we  approach  the  cen 
tral  region  of  Pennsylvania  its  use  is  grad 
ually  replaced  by  that  of  charcoal  and  of 
coke  from  the  semi-bituminous  coals,  while 


194 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  OUR  MINERAL  RESOURCES. 


further  westward  the  coke  of  the  true  bitu 
minous  coals,  of  which  that  of  Connelsville 
is  the  type,  is  the  principal  fuel,  until  we 
reach  the  western  border  of  the  great  Appa 
lachian  field,  where,  in  Ohio,  are  found  the 
free -burning  splint  or  block  coals,  which 
can  be  used  in  the  smelting  furnace  in  the 
raw  state  either  alone  or  with  an  admixture 
of  coke.  The  ores  of  the  coal  measures  of 
Southern  Ohio,  known  as  the  Hanging  Rock 
district,  have  hitherto  been  smelted  with 
charcoal,  which  is  now  being  replaced  by 
the  block  coal  of  the  region.  Similar  coals 
on  the  eastern  and  western  borders  of  the 
Illinois  coal-field  are  also  used  for  iron 
smelting. 

The  relations  of  the  ore  to  the  fuel  are  of 
great  importance  to  the  development  of  the 
iron  industry.  Thus  of  the  ores  of  Lake  Su 
perior  a  small  portion  only  is  smelted  with 
charcoal  in  the  region,  and  by  far  the  great 
er  part  is  brought  southward  by  the  lakes — 
some  to  Chicago  to  be  smelted  with  the  coal 
of  Indiana,  and  much  more  to  Cleveland, 
where  it  is  met  by  the  block  coal  of  Ohio, 
and  in  still  larger  quantities  is  carried  south 
ward  to  the  mines  of  this  coal,  chiefly  in  the 
Chenango  and  Mahoning  valleys,  or  as  far 
as  Pittsburg,  to  be  smelted  with  the  coke 
of  that  region.  In  like  manner  the  rich 
ores  of  Missouri  find  their  way  to  the  block 
coals  of  Indiana,  to  Southeastern  Ohio,  and 
even  to  Pittsburg,  filling  the  returning  ves 
sels  which  have  gone  down  the  Ohio  River 
laden  with  coal.  In  the  East  the  iron  fur 
naces  consuming  anthracite  are  not  direct 
ly  in  the  coal  region,  but  scattered  through 
the  eastern  part  of  Pennsylvania,  and  the 
adjacent  portions  of  Maryland,  New  Jer 
sey,  and  New  York,  sometimes,  moreover,  at 
points  more  or  less  remote  from  the  ore  beds 
which  supply  them.  In  the  valley  of  the 
Hudson  the  anthracite  comes  half-way  to 
meet  the  rich  ores  of  Lake  Champlain,  and 
even  on  the  shores  of  this  lake  may  be  seen 
large  blast-furnaces  smelting  the  ores  of  the 
vicinity  with  the  help  of  the  anthracite 
brought  as  back  freight  by  the  vessels  car 
rying  the  supplies  of  ore  southward.  The 
ores  from  the  crystalline  rocks,  on  account 
of  their  greater  richness,  can  support  the 
cost  of  a  longer  freight  than  the  poorer  ores 
found  within  the  paleozoic  basin,  and  they 
have,  moreover,  the  advantage  in  many  cases 


of  yielding  a  purer  iron.  The  early  manu 
facturers  of  Bessemer  steel  in  this  country 
were  under  the  necessity  of  bringing  their 
supplies  of  pig-iron  from  Cumberland,  in 
England,  and  ores  have  even  been  brought 
from  Spain  and  Algeria  to  be  smelted  with 
anthracite  for  the  manufacture  of  Bessemer 
pig  metal.  Recently,  however,  it  has  been 
found  that  by  careful  selection  the  crystal' 
line  ores  from  our  Eastern  regions  may  be 
made  to  yield  a  pig-iron  suitable  for  this 
purpose,  while  the  region  beyond  the  Alle- 
ghanies  gets  its  supply  of  Bessemer  metal 
from  the  ores  of  Lake  Superior  or  of  Mis 
souri.  The  iron  ore  shipped  from  the 
northern  peninsula  of  Michigan  in  1873 
amounted  to  1,178,879  gross  tons,  in  addi 
tion  to  about  100,000  tons  smelted  in  the 
region.  This,  at  an  average  of  sixty  per 
cent,  of  metal,  equals  considerably  more 
than  one-fourth  of  the  total  iron  product 
of  the  country. 

The  history  of  the  growth  of  the  iron 
manufacture  in  the  United  States  within 
the  last  fifty  years  exhibits  a  remarkable 
progress.  From  a  production  of  54,000  tons 
in  1810,  it  had  become  165,000  tons  in  1830, 
347,000  tons  in  1840,  and  600,000  tons  in  1850, 
as  near  as  can  be  estimated.  In  1860,  it  had 
reached  919,870;  in  1870,  1,865,000;  and  in 
1872,  2,880,070  tons ;  while  the  diminished 
production  of  1873,  2,695,434  tons,  shows 
already  the  effect  of  the  depression  under 
which  the  iron  interest  of  the  country  still 
suffers.  Of  the  production  of  1873,  very 
nearly  one-half  was  made  in  Pennsylvania, 
and  not  less  than  1,249,673  tons  with  anthra 
cite,  while  the  total  amount  of  charcoal- 
made  pig-iron  was  only  524,127  tons,  to  which 
is  to  be  added  50,000  tons  of  malleable  iron 
made  by  the  direct  process  in  bloomaries. 
The  importation  of  foreign  iron  and  steel 
for  1872  was  795,655  tons ;  for  1873,  371,164 
tons ;  and  for  1874,  less  than  200,000  tons. 
From  the  figures  for  1872  and  1873  we  may 
conclude  that  the  consumption  in  the  Unit 
ed  States  was  then  equal  to  about  3,500,000 
tons  of  iron  yearly. 

The  great  demand  for  iron  in  this  coun 
try  for  the  purposes  of  railway  construction, 
together  with  the  high  prices  in  Great  Brit 
ain  in  1872  and  1873,  led  to  a  large  increase 
in  the  number  of  blast-furnaces.  In  the 
two  years  just  named  eighty-three  furnaces, 


COPPER  MINES. 


195 


some  of  them  among  the  largest  in  the  coun 
try,  were  finished  and  put  into  blast,  and 
the  whole  number  in  operation  in  the  au 
tumn  of  1873  was  estimated  at  636,  hav 
ing  a  capacity  of  producing  not  less  than 
4,371,277  tons  of  pig-iron,  while  a  later  es 
timate  from  the  same  source,  the  American 
Iron  and  Steel  Association,  gives  in  July, 
1874,  a  capacity  of  4,500,000  tons,  or  about 
1,000,000  more  than  the  greatest  consump 
tion  yet  reached.  Even  at  the  previous  rate 
of  increase,  many  years  must  elapse  before 
the  country  can  consume  such  an  amount 
of  iron,  and  with  the  general  prostration  of 
business,  and  especially  of  the  iron  trade,  in 
1874,  we  are  not  surprised  to  find  that  a  very 
large  proportion  of  these  furnaces  is  now 
out  of  blast,  and  that  the  selling  price  of 
pig-iron  at  the  beginning  of  1875  was  below 
that  at  which  it  could  be  made  at  some  of 
the  furnaces.  For  the  future  the  iron  man 
ufacturers  of  our  country  must  strive  for 
progress  not  only  in  the  selection  of  ores 
and  fuels,  but  in  improvements  in  the  con 
struction  and  the  management  of  furnaces, 
in  all  of  which  directions  great  economies 
remain  to  be  effected,  as  the  results  obtain 
ed  in  late  years  by  the  skill  and  high  science 
of  British  iron-masters  abundantly  show. 
In  this  way  we  may  hope  before  long  to  ri 
val  not  only  in  quality  but  in  cheapness  the 
iron  products  of  other  countries.  With  the 
boundless  resources  of  coal  and  iron  which 
our  country  affords,  it  is  only  a  question  of 
how  soon  we  can  successfully  contend  with 
Great  Britain  in  foreign  markets.  The  en 
tire  iron  production  of  the  world  was  in 
1856  about  7,000,000  tons,  and  in  1874  it  was 
estimated  at  15,000,000  tons,  of  which,  at 
both  of  these  periods,  about  one-half  was 
furnished  by  Great  Britain.  It  is  supposed 
by  Mr.  A.  S.  Hewitt  that  at  the  end  of  the 
century  the  demand  will  amount  to  not  less 
than  25,000,000  tons.  The  present  immense 
production  is  already  taxing  heavily  the  re 
sources  of  England,  which  obtains  a  large 
proportion  of  its  purer  ores  from  foreign 
countries,  and  a  period  will  soon  be  reached 
when  she  can  no  longer  meet  the  world's 
increasing  demand,  for  the  supply  of  which 
no  other  country  offers  advantages  com 
parable  with  the  United  States.  The  day 
is  therefore  not  far  distant  when,  in  the 
words  of  Mr.  Hewitt,  all  rivalry  between 


the  two  nations  in  iron  production  must 
pass  away. 

So  long  as  the  business  of  iron  smelting 
was  prosperous,  and  the  profits  were,  as  has 
been  the  case  for  the  past  few  years  in  most 
parts  of  the  country,  very  large,  considera 
tions  of  economy  in  the  production  of  iron 
were  too  much  neglected,  but  for  the  future 
all  this  must  be  changed.  It  is  probable 
that  before  long  we  shall  see  some  of  the 
old  furnaces  and  furnace  sites  abandoned, 
and  a  transfer  of  capital  and  skilled  labor 
from  many  of  the  present  centres  of  produc 
tion  to  points  where  iron  can  be  made  at 
lower  rates.  Questions  of  freight  of  the  raw 
materials  will  be  closely  considered,  and  new 
fields  will  be  sought  where  the  associations 
of  ores  of  iron  with  coal  suitable  for  smelt 
ing  them  will  enable  pig-iron  to  be  pro 
duced  more  cheaply  than  where  both  the 
ore  and  the  fuel  are  brought  from  afar.  In 
districts  like  Fayette  County  and  the  Johns 
town  and  Broad  Top  coal-fields  in  Pennsyl 
vania,  and  along  the  western  outcrop  of  the 
great  Appalachian  coal-field  in  Eastern  Ohio, 
where  the  characteristic  iron  ores  of  the  coal 
measures  are  more  abundant  than  farther 
eastward,  and  are  accompanied  with  coals 
suitable  for  their  reduction,  these  conditions 
for  the  cheap  production  of  iron  exist.  While 
the  ores  thus  found  in  proximity  to  the  coal 
are  adapted  for  the  production  of  all  the  or 
dinary  qualities  of  iron,  the  increasing  ex 
port  of  coal  from  this  western  border  to  the 
regions  northward  and  westward  permits 
the  bringing  back  at  low  rates  of  freight 
of  the  rich  ores  of  Missouri  and  Michigan, 
which  are  adapted  to  the  making  of  Besse 
mer  steel.  The  southward  extension  of  this 
great  coal-field  into  West  Virginia,  Eastern 
Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  and  Northern  Ala 
bama  also  offers  great  facilities  for  the  cheap 
manufacture  of  iron  from  native  ores,  which 
will  at  no  distant  day  be  utilized. 

The  copper  mines  of  the  United  States 
next  claim  our  attention.  Throughout  the 
crystalline  rocks  which  form  the  eastern 
border  of  the  paleozoic  basin  ores  of  thia 
metal  are  pretty  abundantly  distributed, 
and  are  now  mined  and  treated  for  the  ex 
traction  of  the  copper  in  Vermont,  Pennsyl 
vania,  North  Carolina,  and  Eastern  Tennes 
see,  besides  which  ores  from  other  localities 
along  this  belt,  and  from  various  regions  to 


196 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  OUK  MINERAL  RESOURCES. 


the  westward  of  the  great  basin,  are  brought 
to  Baltimore  and  to  the  vicinity  of  Boston 
for  reduction.  The  total  production  from  all 
these  sources,  which  has  never  been  greater 
than  at  present,  is,  however,  estimated  at 
less  than  2500  tons — an  amount  inconsider 
able  when  compared  with  the  production 
of  the  mines  of  Lake  Superior.  In  these, 
unlike  the  mines  just  mentioned,  and,  in 
deed,  unlike  most  others  in  the  world,  the 
copper,  instead  of  being  in  the  condition  of 
an  ore — that  is  to  say,  mineralized  and  dis 
guised  by  combination  with  sulphur  or  with 
oxygen  and  other  bodies,  from  which  it  must 
be  separated  by  long  and  costly  chemical 
processes — is  found  in  the  state  of  pure  met 
al,  and  needs  only  to  be  mechanically  sepa 
rated  from  the  accompanying  rocky  matters 
previous  to  melting  into  ingot  copper.  The 
history  of  the  copper  region  on  the  south 
shore  of  Lake  Superior  is  famous  in  the  an 
nals  of  American  mining.  The  metal,  which 
in  many  cases  is  found  in  masses  of  all  sizes 
up  to  many  tons  in  weight,  was  known  and 
used  by  the  aboriginal  races,  and  the  traces 
of  their  rude  mining  operations  are  still  met 
with.  The  first  modern  attempts  at  extract 
ing  this  native  copper,  in  1771,  were  unsuc 
cessful,  and  it  was  not  until  1843  that  the 
attention  of  mining  adventurers  was  again 
turned  toward  this  region.  Numerous  mines 
were  opened,  and  a  period  of  reckless  specu 
lation  followed,  which  ended,  in  1847,  in  the 
failure  and  abandonment  of  nearly  all  the 
enterprises  which  had  been  begun.  They 
were,  however,  soon  resumed  under  wiser 
management,  and  have  been  followed  up 
with  remarkable  success.  At  first  the  op 
erations  were  chiefly  directed  to  the  ex 
traction  of  the  great  masses  of  native  cop 
per  which  were  found  distributed  in  an  ir 
regular  manner  in  veins  or  fissures  in  the 
rocks,  and  yielded  in  some  cases  large  prof 
its  ;  but  with  the  exhaustion  of  these  a  more 
abundant  and  regular  source  of  supply  has 
been  found  in  layers  of  a  soft  earthy  mate 
rial,  known  as  ash  beds,  containing  metallic 
copper  finely  disseminated,  or  in  beds  of  a 
conglomerate  of  which  pure  copper  forms 
the  cementing  material.  The  successful 
working  of  these  two  kinds  of  deposits  has 
been  arrived  at  only  by  well-directed  skill 
in  management,  and  by  mechanical  appli 
ances  which  diminish  the  costs  of  mining, 


crushing,  and  washing  the  rock,  and  reduce 
to  a  minimum  the  inevitable  loss  of  copper 
in  the  waste  material.  No  mining  industry 
illustrates  more  strikingly  than  this  the  im 
portance  of  such  economies.  A  rock  which 
may  be  made  to  yield  one  part  in  a  hundred 
of  metallic  copper  can,  under  favorable  con 
ditions,  be  treated  with  profit,  and  the  res 
idue  in  such  a  case  may  still  contain  one- 
half  as  much  more  copper,  which  is  lost.  A 
mine  in  this  region  a  few  years  since  yield 
ed  annually,  from  the  treatment  of  1,200,000 
tons  of  rock,  800  tons  of  metallic  copper,  be 
ing  at  the  rate  of  two-thirds  of  one  per  cent., 
and  this  amount,  at  the  price  of  copper  then 
prevailing,  was  just  sufficient  to  pay  all  the 
costs  of  extraction.  The  residues  showed 
by  assay  the  presence,  in  a  finely  divided 
state,  of  as  much  more  copper,  and  it  is  ev 
ident  that  a  greater  perfection  in  the  proc 
ess  of  extraction,  by  which  one-half  of  the 
copper  thus  lost  could  have  been  saved, 
would  have  yielded  400  tons  additional, 
which,  inasmuch  as  the  costs  of  mining, 
crushing,  and  washing  were  already  paid 
by  the  first  800  tons,  would  have  been  clear 
profit.  One  of  the  best-known  mines  in  the 
region,  which  has  been  worked  with  con 
tinued  success  since  its  opening,  in  1849, 
produced,  in  1872,  1138  tons  of  fine  copper, 
to  obtain  which  over  100,000  tons  of  rock 
were  mined,  and  over  60,000  tons  of  this  se 
lected  for  stamping  and  washing,  so  that 
the  copper  yielded  was  only  1.12  per  cent., 
yet  the  profits  of  the  year's  working  were 
$200,000.  It  would  be  foreign  to  our  plan 
to  describe  modes  of  treatment,  but  state 
ments  of  results  like  this  serve  to  show 
what  may  be  obtained  by  the  application 
of  skill  and  science  to  mining  industry.  At 
the  Calumet  and  Hecla  mine,  the  most  re 
markable  one  of  the  Lake  Superior  region, 
from  700  to  800  tons  of  rock  are  now  treated 
daily,  and  yield  about  four  per  cent,  of  me 
tallic  copper,  which,  when  converted  into 
ingots,  costs  about  thirteen  cents  the  pound 
— a  price  far  below  that  at  which  it  can  be 
extracted  from  the  less  rich  deposits  of  the 
region  or  from  the  ores  of  the  metal  by  the 
ordinary  process  of  smelting.  This  mine 
produced  of  ingot  copper,  in  1872,  9717  tons, 
and  in  1874,  9918  tons,  of  2000  pounds.  The 
crude  copper  from  these  mines,  as  delivered 
to  the  refiners,  who  melt  it  into  ingots,  yields 


GOLD  AND  SILVER. 


197 


on  an  average  about  eighty  per  cent,  of  met 
al — a  fact  to  be  borne  in  mind  in  consulting 
the  statements  of  production,  which  are  gen 
erally  given  for  the  unrefined  product.  The 
amount  of  copper  yielded  by  the  Lake  Supe 
rior  region  from  its  opening,  in  1845,  to  1858 
is  estimated  at  18,000  tons.  From  about 
4100  tons  in  the  latter  year  the  production 
has  shown  a  progressive  increase,  with  some 
slight  fluctuations,  to  the  present  time.  It 
equaled,  for  1873,  18,514  tons,  and  for  1874 
not  less  than  22,235  tons,  making  an  aggre 
gate  for  the  past  thirty  years  of  217,134  tons, 
which  at  eighty  per  cent,  equals  173,704  tons 
of  ingot  copper.  The  total  yield  of  ingot 
copper  for  the  lake  region  in  1874  is  esti 
mated  by  Caswell  at  17,327  tons,  to  which  he 
adds  for  the  production  from  the  ores  of  the 
metal  2375  tons,  making  a  total  production 
for  the  United  States  of  19,702  tons  of  cop 
per.  This  exceeds  considerably  the  domes 
tic  consumption,  and  accordingly  we  find 
that  there  were  exported  in  1874  not  less 
than  4500  tons  of  copper.  The  supply  of 
native  copper  from  the  mines  of  the  lake 
region  will  probably  continue  to  increase, 
and  in  years  to  come  the  working  of  the 
great  deposits  of  copper  ores  which  abound 
both  in  the  Eastern  and  Western  portions 
of  our  country  will  add  largely  to  the  pro 
duction,  so  that  henceforth  the  United  States 
is  destined  to  furnish  considerable  quanti 
ties  of  copper  to  foreign  markets.  The  price 
of  this  metal  is  subject  to  remarkable  fluc 
tuations.  Thus  from  fifty-five  cents  the 
pound  in  1864  it  gradually  fell  to  nineteen 
in  1870,  rising  again  to  forty-five  cents  in 
1872,  and,  falling  once  more  to  nineteen  in 
the  summer  of  1874,  rose  to  twenty-four  cents 
at  the  close  of  the  year. 

It  yet  remains  to  speak  of  our  mines  of 
gold  and  silver.  Although  gold  is  distrib 
uted  in  greater  or  less  quantity  throughout 
the  mountain  ranges  which  form  the  east 
ern  rim  of  the  great  basin,  its  presence  was 
not  made  kno  wn  till  1799,  when  it  was  discov 
ered  in  the  soil  in  Cabarrus  County,  North 
Carolina.  For  the  next  twenty-five  years 
small  quantities  of  gold  were  gathered  by 
washing  from  the  earth  at  various  points 
from  the  Potomac  to  Alabama ;  but  it  was 
not  until  1825  that  the  precious  metal  was 
found  in  veins  of  quartz  both  in  North  Car 
olina  and  Virginia.  The  whole  amount  of 


gold  got  from  this  Southern  region  up  to 
1827  is  estimated  at  only  $110,000  ;  but  with 
the  opening  of  the  gold-bearing  veins  a 
rapid  increase  in  production  took  place,  and 
in  1837  branch  mints  were  established  by 
the  government  in  North  Carolina  and  in 
Georgia,  where  they  existed  up  to  the  time 
of  the  late  civil  war  ;  before  which,  howev 
er,  the  gold  production  of  the  region  had 
greatly  fallen  off,  these  mines  having  been 
deserted  for  the  richer  ones  of  the  western 
coast.  The  whole  amount  of  gold  from  this 
region  for  three-quarters  of  a  century  up  to 
1873  is  estimated  at  about  $20,000,000;  but 
for  the  last  year  mentioned  it  amounted 
only  to  $160,000,  the  chief  part  of  which  was 
from  North  Carolina. 

The  great  supply  of  precious  metals  has 
come  from  the  western  half  of  our  territory. 
The  vast  region  from  the  eastern  base  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains  to  the  Pacific  presents 
geographical  features  very  different  from 
those  of  the  great  Eastern  paleozoic  basin. 
Its  numerous  nearly  parallel  mountain 
ranges,  to  which  the  collective  name  of  the 
Cordilleras  has  been  applied,  are  rich  in 
mineral  treasures,  which,  as  pointed  out 
by  Blake  and  by  King,  may  bo  described 
as  arranged  in  parallel  zones,  coinciding 
with  the  mountain  belts.  Along  the  Pa 
cific  coast  range  are  deposits  of  quicksil 
ver,  tin,  and  chrome,  while  the  belt  of  the 
Sierra  Nevada  and  the  Cascades  carries  a 
range  of  copper  mines  near  its  base,  and  a 
line  of  gold-bearing  veins  and  gold  alluvions 
on  its  western  flank.  Along  the  eastern 
slope  of  the  Sierra  lies  a  zone  of  silver 
mines  stretching  into  Mexico,  and  including 
the  great  Comstock  lode  of  Nevada,  while 
silver  ores  .abound  in  the  subordinate  ranges 
between  the  Sierra  and  the  Wahsatch.  The 
silver-lead  ores  of  New  Mexico,  Utah,  and 
Western  Montana,  and  the  still  more  east 
ern  gold  deposits  of  New  Mexico,  Colorado, 
Wyoming,  and  Montana,  follow  the  same 
general  law  of  distribution.  We  can,  with 
in  our  present  limits,  do  little  more  than 
note  some  of  the  principal  points  in  the  his 
tory  of  the  opening  of  these  mining  regions, 
and  give  some  figures  which  serve  to  show 
the  vast  mineral  wealth  of  the  Cordilleras. 

The  gold  of  California  was  noticed  by 
early  Spanish  explorers,  and  was  again  dis 
covered  on  the  Colorado  River,  just  a  centu- 


198 


THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  OUE  MINEEAL  RESOURCES. 


ry  since,  in  1775,  but  attracted  no  attention 
till  its  rediscovery  early  in  1848,  when  the 
existence  of  very  rich  gold  alluvions  was 
made  known.  A  rapid  immigration  to  the 
region  at  once  followed,  and  it  was  re 
ported  in  August  of  that  year  that  the 
daily  production  of  gold  was  from  $30,000 
to  $50,000.  It  was  not  until  1851  that  the 
gold-bearing  veins  were  discovered,  and 
the  larger  part  of  the  gold  of  California  has 
been  got  from  the  placers,  as  the  alluvions 
are  called.  It  is  from  the  partial  exhaust 
ion  of  these  that  the  production  has  of  late 
years  considerably  diminished.  In  1848  it 
was  estimated  at  $10,000,000,  and  reached 
its  maximum  of  $65,000,000  in  1853.  In 
1870  it  had  fallen  to  $25,000,000,  and  reached 
$19,000,000  in  1873,  but  rose  again  in  1874  to 
$20,300,000.  The  total  yield,  since  the  open 
ing  of  the  mines  in  1848,  amounts  to  more 
than  $1,000,000,000.  The  working  .of  the 
gold-bearing  veins  and  of  the  deeper  allu 
vions  or  placers  has  of  late  been  systema 
tized  and  greatly  improved,  and  from  the 
abundance  and  richness  of  these,  and  the 
persistence  of  the  veins  in  depth,  this  re 
gion  may  be  expected  to  produce  great 
amounts  of  gold  for  generations  to  come. 

From  California  explorations  were  soon 
carried  both  northward  and  eastward,  and 
in  addition  to  the  gold  of  Oregon,  Idaho 
and  Washington  Territories,  the  vast  silver 
deposits  of  Nevada  were  made  known.  It 
was  in  1859  that  silver  ore  was  first  discov 
ered  on  what  has  since  been  known  as  the 
Comstock  lode — a  vein  which,  viewed  in  the 
light  of  recent  developments,  is  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  known  in  the  history  of 
mining.  This  lode,  of  great  breadth,  has 
been  traced  for  a  length  of  over  five  miles, 
and  worked  for  more  than  four  miles,  in 
some  places  to  a  depth  of  1500  feet.  The 
ore  has  not  been  rich,  seldom  yielding  over 
fifty  dollars  to  the  ton,  and  often  less  than 
one-half  that  amount,  yet  such  has  been  its 
abundance  that  the  production  of  the  vein 
from  its  first  working,  in  1860,  up  to  1868  was 
$81,500,000,  and  up  to  the  close  of  1874  it  had 
yielded  a  total  amount  of  about  $180,000,000, 
with  very  large  profits  to  the  miners.  The 
bullion  extracted  from  these  ores  contains 
an  amount  of  gold  equal  to  about  one-third 
of  the  entire  value.  Other  silver  producing 
districts,  second  only  in  importance  to  that 


of  Virginia  City,  which  is  the  site  of  the 
Comstock  lode,  have  since  been  discovered 
in  Nevada,  and  the  value  of  the  bullion 
from  the  State  in  1872  amounted  to  not  less 
than  $25,000,000,  of  which  $13,500,000  were 
from  this  lode.  For  the  calendar  year  1873 
it  equaled  $31,666,000,  of  which  $21.756,000 
were  from  Virginia  City;  and  the  returns 
for  the  first  half  of  1874  showed  a  still  in 
creasing  production.  During  the  latter 
months  of  that  year  remarkable  discov 
eries  were  announced  in  the  Comstock  lode, 
which  surpassed  all  previous  developments 
in  that  region.  An  enormous  mass  of  ore, 
in  great  part  below  a  depth  of  1500  feet, 
was  exposed,  far  richer  than  any  thing 
hitherto  found  in  the  lode,  and  said  to 
yield  an  average  of  many  hundred  dollars 
to  the  ton.  Some  of  the  published  esti 
mates  of  the  value  of  this  discovery  were 
probably  exaggerated,  but  there  seems  lit 
tle  doubt  that  the  amount  of  treasure  re 
vealed  exceeded  the  whole  production  of 
the  lode  up  to  that  time. 

The  existence  of  silver-bearing  lead  ores 
in  Utah  was  known  as  early  as  1863,  but 
the  first  attempt  to  develop  them  was 
made  in  1870,  when  a  few  thousand  tons  of 
ore  were  shipped  from  the  Emma  mine 
eastward  over  the  Union  Pacific  Railroad. 
In  1872,  however,  the  production  of  this 
region  had  reached  a  value  of  $3,250,000 ; 
in  1873,  of  $3,750,000;  and  in  1874,  very 
nearly  $6,000,000.  The  ores  are  in  great 
abundance,  but  are  often  not  rich  enough 
to  support  the  cost  of  transportation,  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  rarity  and  high  price 
of  fuel  render  their  treatment  on  the  spot 
very  costly.  The  average  value  of  the  ores 
exported,  chiefly  to  the  eastern  and  west 
ern  sea-boards,  in  1873  was  $115  a  ton,  be 
sides  which  a  large  quantity  was  reduced 
in  the  region,  yielding  what  is  called  base 
bullion,  that  is,  lead  carrying  silver  and 
some  gold,  and  valued  at  from  $200  to 
$250,  the  lead  being  there  estimated  at 
about  $50  the  ton.  In  some  establishments 
in  Utah  the  precious  metals  are  extracted 
from  the  lead  before  shipment.  The  fuel 
there  used  is  in  part  charcoal  and  in  part 
coke  sent  from  Pennsylvania.  The  lead 
furnished  to  the  United  States  markets 
from  the  silver-lead  ores  of  Utah  and  Ne-  • 
vada  in  1874  is  estimated  at  26,000  tons, 


THE  GOLD  SUPPLY. 


199 


•while  the  lead  production  of  Missouri  was 
15,000,  and  that  of  Iowa,  Illinois,  and  Wis 
consin  only  5500  tons. 

The  silver  production  of  the  United 
States  was  altogether  insignificant  until 
1861,  when  the  Comstock  lode  gave  $2,000,000 
of  silver,  since  which  time  there  has  been  a 
steady  increase  to  $36,500,000  in  1873,  giving 
a  total  production  of  $189,000,000.  It  is 
probable  that  for  some  years  to  come  the 
supply  of  silver  from  the  mines  of  the  Cor 
dilleras  will  be  much  greater  than  in  the 
past.  Already  within  the  last  four  years 
the  immense  production  of  silver  in  this 
country  has  considerably  reduced  its  price 
in  the  markets  of  the  world,  and  the  effect 
of  recent  discoveries  can  not  fail  to  be  a 
still  farther  depreciation  of  its  value. 

The  history  of  the  mining  of  our  gold  and 
silver  would  be  imperfect  without  a  notice 
of  the  quicksilver  of  California,  as  it  is  by 
its  aid  that  nearly  the  whole  of  these  pre 
cious  metals,  with  the  exception  of  the  sil 
ver  of  the  lead  ores,  is  extracted.  Quick 
silver  ore  was  discovered  in  California  as 
early  as  1849,  and  the  mines  opened  soon 
after  have  not  only  continued  to  supply  the 
wants  of  the  immense  gold  and  silver  indus 
try  of  the  West,  but  since  1852  have  furnish 
ed  large  quantities  for  exportation  to  Mex 
ico,  South  America,  China,  and  Australia. 
This  amounted  in  1865  to  44,000  flasks  of 
seventy -six  and  a  half  pounds  each,  or 
3,366,000  pounds  of  quicksilver.  The  in 
creased  demand  for  this  metal  for  the  treat 
ment  of  our  silver  ores,  and  the  diminished 
production  of  the  mines,  have  since  reduced 
considerably  the  exportation.  In  no  other 
region  of  the  globe,  however,  is  the  ore  of 
quicksilver  so  widely  distributed  as  in  Cali 
fornia,  and  there  is  reason  to  believe  that 
from  the  opening  and  working  of  new  de 
posits  the  production  will  soon  be  much 
increased — a  result  which  will  bo  stimula 
ted  by  the  present  high  price  of  quicksilver 
and  its  scarcity  in  foreign  markets. 

We  have  noticed  the  falling  off  in  the 
yield  of  gold  from  California  which  began 


in  1853.  It  was  not  until  1860  that  sup 
plies  of  this  metal  from  other  districts  ap 
peared,  rising  from  $1,000,000  in  that  year 
to  $28,000,000  in  1866,  since  which  time  there 
has  been  a  gradual  falling  off  from  these  also, 
so  that  while  for  1873  the  gold  of  California 
equaled  $19,000,000,  that  from  other  sources 
in  the  Western  United  States  was  $17,000,000, 
making  a  production  of  $36,000,000,  that 
of  the  entire  world  being  estimated  at 
$100,000,000.  Dr.  E.  W.  Eaymond,  to  whom 
we  are  indebted  for  these  figures,  gives  the 
entire  gold  product  of  the  country  from  1847 
to  1873  inclusive  at  $1,240,750,000;  and  if  to 
that  we  add  his  calculation  of  the  silver  pro 
duced  up  to  that  date,  equal  to  $189,000,000, 
we  shall  have  $1,429,750,000.  Adding  to  this 
the  figures  for  1874,  which  exceed  a  little 
those  of  1873,  we  have  a  grand  total  of  over 
$1,500,000,000  of  gold  and  silver  as  the  pro 
duction  of  the  territory  between  the  eastern 
base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  and  the  Pacific 
since  the  opening  of  the  mines  of  California 
in  1847. 

There  are  many  mineral  resources  in  the 
United  States  besides  those  already  men 
tioned  which  might  justly  claim  a  place  in 
a  sketch  like  the  present.  Among  them  are 
the  ores  of  chrome,  zinc,  lead,  and  nickel, 
now  extensively  mined ;  the  extensive  salt 
deposits  in  New  York,  Michigan,  Pennsylva 
nia,  Ohio,  Virginia,  and  West  Virginia,  which 
now  supply  to  a  great  extent  the  markets 
of  the  country ;  the  mineral  phosphates  of 
the  vicinity  of  Charleston,  South  Carolina, 
which  are  not  only  manufactured  into  fer 
tilizers  for  domestic  consumption,  but  large 
ly  exported  to  Great  Britain  ;  and  the  gran 
ites,  marbles,  sandstones,  roofing  slates,  and 
other  materials  of  construction,  which  are 
now  the  objects  of  large  and  profitable  in 
dustries.  We  have,  however,  selected,  in 
preference  to  any  of  these,  coal,  petroleum, 
iron,  copper,  silver,  and  gold,  which,  from 
their  great  pecuniary  value  and  their  di 
rect  connection  with  material  progress,  have 
been  among  the  most  important  elements  in 
our  national  growth  and  prosperity. 


VI. 


COMMERCIAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


WHOEVER  desires  to  understand  the 
commerce  of  this  and  other  lands, 
and  to  perceive  its  true  order  and  mean 
ing,  must  first  consider  what  words  stand 
for — what  commerce  and  manufactures  real 
ly  are  in  their  simplest  form.  One  to  whom 
the  word  "manufactures"  brings  only  the 
conception  of  vast  factories  for  the  working 
of  cotton,  wool,  or  iron  has  but  the  faint 
est  idea  of  what  constitute  the  true  man 
ufactures  of  the  nation ;  and  one  to  whom 
the  word  "commerce"  brings  up  only  the 
image  of  an  ocean  steam-ship  laden  with 
goods  and  wares  from  distant  ports,  or  a 
train  of  cars  drawn  by  a  powerful  engine 
bearing  many  tons  of  merchandise  to  far 
away  places,  has  an  equally  faint  impres 
sion  of  the  vast  scope  even  of  our  inland 
traffic. 

Commerce  is  an  occupation  in  which  men 
serve  each  other ;  it  is  an  exchange  in 
which  both  parties  in  the  transaction  gain 
something  which  they  desire  more  than  the 
thing  they  part  with.  It  may  sometimes  be 
that  the  desire  which  is  satisfied  on  the  one 
part  or  the  other  is  one  that  had  better  not 
be  served  :  that  is  a  question  of  morals  with 
which  we  are  not  now  dealing.  Such  ex 
changes  are,  however,  the  exception.  The 
traffic  in  commodities  that  work  permanent 
injury  constitutes  but  an  insignificant  pro 
portion  of  the  vast  exchanges  of  the  world; 
true  commerce  in  useful  things  lies  at  the 
very  foundation  of  human  welfare.  Unless 
a  good  and  wholesome  subsistence  is  possi 
ble  there  can  be  neither  spiritual,  intellect 
ual,  nor  aesthetic  culture,  and  such  a  subsist 
ence  is  only  possible  to  the  mass  of  men  by 
means  of  an  exchange  of  products.  All  com 
merce  is  the  aggregate  of  small  transactions. 
The  milkman  who  brings  the  daily  portion 
of  milk  to  him  who  dwells  in  city  or  town 
represents  a  commerce  of  vast  proportion, 
almost  equal  in  this  country,  in  its  aggre 
gate  value,  to  the  whole  sum  of  our  foreign 
importations.  The  value  of  dairy  products 
consumed  in  the  United  States  or  exported 
in  the  form  of  cheese  and  butter  is  more 


than  four  hundred  million  dollars.  The 
milkman  is  the  representative  of  one  of  the 
branches  of  commerce  which  has  grown  to 
this  vast  proportion  during  the  century,  and 
in  which  the  people  of  the  United  States 
have  shown  the  greatest  originality.  The 
cheese  factory  represents  a  manufacture 
born  of  thrift  and  enterprise  only,  and  our 
exports  of  cheese  exceed  ninety  million 
pounds  a  year. 

How  little  the  true  function  of  commerce 
has  been  understood  may  be  proved  by  the 
fact  that  only  within  the  century  has  it 
been  admitted  among  English-speaking  peo 
ple  that  there  can  be  any  mutual  service  in 
the  matter.  In  this  country  even  to  this 
day  this  truth  is  but  obscurely  perceived, 
and  hence  the  nation  with  which  we  have 
our  largest  transactions,  our  mother  coun 
try,  is  often  called  our  natural  enemy  by 
otherwise  intelligent  persons,  because  she 
tries  to  supply  some  of  our  needs  at  a  low 
cost  to  us ;  yet  had  the  true  nature  of  com 
merce  been  comprehended  a  hundred  years 
ago,  war  between  us  and  England  would 
have  been  as  impossible  then  as  it  would 
now  be  infamous  and  absurd.  It  was  a 
want  of  knowledge  as  to  the  true  function 
of  trade  that  caused  the  Revolution. 

The  year  1776  witnessed  the  publication 
of  two  documents  of  very  great  importance 
to  the  welfare  of  humanity,  one  of  a  purely 
public  character — the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence  of  the  United  States  of  America  ; 
the  other,  the  work  of  a  single  man,  a  poor 
Scotch  professor,  a  treatise  on  the  causes  of 
the  wealth  of  nations,  by  Adam  Smith.  It 
may  be  affirmed  almost  with  certainty  that 
had  the  book  been  printed  fifty  years  ear 
lier,  the  Declaration  of  Independence  would 
never  have  been  issued,  because  the  wrongs 
which  made  it  necessary  would  have  been 
remedied  without  resort  to  war.  Had  the 
simple  principle  of  mutuality  of  service  been 
accepted,  had  it  only  become  a  part  of  the 
common  knowledge  of  the  English  and  the 
colonists  that  all  commerce,  whether  among 
the  people  of  the  same  state  or  between  dif- 


ADAM  SMITH'S  "WEALTH  OF  NATIONS.' 


201 


ferent  states  and  nations,  only  exists  and  can 
only  be  maintained  because  it  is  profitable 
and  beneficial  to  both  parties,  no  English 
ministry  could  have  been  supported  in  the 
measures  which  were  undertaken  to  prevent 
the  establishment  of  manufactures  and  to 
restrict  the  commerce  of  America.  It  was 
the  enforcement  of  these  measures  through 
a  long  series  of  years  that  gradually  sapped 
the  allegiance  of  the  people  of  America,  and 
finally  led  to  the  violent  resistance  of  acts 
of  minor  importance,  which  in  themselves 
would  have  been  insufficient  to  provoke  re 
bellion.  The  colonists  were  ready  to  pay 
money,  but  resisted  the  perversion  of  the 
power  of  taxation. 

Viewed  from  a  commercial  stand-point, 
the  war  of  the  Revolution,  therefore,  was  a 
terrible  blunder,  caused  by  a  series  of  erro 
neous  theories  as  to  the  true  nature  and 
function  of  trade  on  the  part  of  the  English 
statesmen  who  had  controlled  the  govern 
ment  of  Great  Britain  during  the  previous 
century. 

They  were  imbued  with  the  false  idea 
that  in  commerce  what  one  nation  gained 
another  must  lose,  and  their  policy  in  deal 
ing  with  their  colonies  was  controlled  by 
the  same  false  assumption.  Their  great 
navigators  had  been  many  of  them  only 
buccaneers  under  another  name,  their  mer 
chants  and  ship-owners  found  no  infamy  in 
the  slave-trade,  and  their  conquests  in  the 
East  had  begun  in  motives  of  personal  and 
selfish  aggrandizement.  Throughout  their 
history  it  had  become  apparent  only  to  a 
few  obscure  students  or  to  one  or  two  en 
lightened  merchants  that  there  could  be 
greater  gain  in  liberty  than  in  restriction 
or  slavery.  How  much  of  the  true  spirit 
of  liberty  our  Puritan  ancestors  gained  from 
the  Dutch  among  whom  they  dwelt  so  many 
yeai's  might  be  a  question  well  worth  inves 
tigating.  The  policy  of  the  rulers  of  En 
gland  in  regard  to  their  own  people  was  of 
the  same  character  as  toward  us,  and  it  may 
not  be  charged  against  them  that  they  en 
forced  upon  us  anymore  injurious  or  unjust 
measures  than  they  inflicted  upon  them 
selves.  To  the  student  of  political  science 
no  lesson  is  more  clearly  indicated  by  the 
acts  of  Great  Britain  during  the  eighteenth 
century  than  the  extreme  danger  and  unfit- 
ness  of  restricting  the  control  of  government 


and  the  right  of  suffrage  to  the  possessors 
of  property  only.  Through  a  long  series  of 
years  England  was  governed  by  those  whose 
claim  to  rule  was  based  mainly  upon  the 
possession  of  property ;  during  this  period 
war  was  chronic,  the  profession  of  arms  the 
one  that  gave  the  most  influence  and  dis 
tinction,  and  the  theory  of  government  was 
the  rule  of  the  few  for  the  alleged  protec 
tion  of  the  many,  but  the  result  was  the 
privation  of  the  many  and  the  aggran 
dizement  of  the  few. 

The  profession  of  the  merchant  and  the 
tradesman  was  considered  ignoble,  and  many 
of  the  great  commercial  and  manufacturing 
cities  were  not  represented  in  the  govern 
ment.  Even  the  rude  lesson  imposed  upon 
England  by  the  success  of  the  American  col 
onies  in  achieving  their  independence  was 
not  at  once  comprehended,  and  for  fifty 
years  more  she  struggled  with  economic  er 
ror,  and  under  a  false  system  of  social  phi 
losophy  sought  to  regulate  and  control  the 
commerce  of  the  world  by  restrictive  stat 
utes,  carrying  on  gigantic  wars,  and  burden 
ing  the  English  nation  with  the  larger  part 
of  that  enormous  debt  which  even  to  this 
day  retards  its  progress,  and  is  one  of  the 
main  causes  of  the  poverty  of  so  large  a  por 
tion  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  British  Isles. 
Not  until  1824,  or  nearly  fifty  years  after  the 
publication  of  the  Wealth  of  Nations,  did  its 
truths  become  so  well  understood  as  to  cause 
even  the  beginning  of  reform ;  at  that  date, 
under  the  lead  of  Huskisson,  began  the  se 
ries  of  changes  which  have  relieved  English 
commerce  from  the  shackles  of  meddlesome 
legislation,  but  only  within  ten  years  has 
even  her  commerce  been  truly  free  and  pros 
perous.  In  1820  there  were  over  two  thou 
sand  acts  on  the  statute-book  of  Great  Brit 
ain  unrepealed,  which  had  been  enacted  at 
various  dates  for  the  regulation  of  commerce. 

It  seems  passing  strange  that  England 
should  have  maintained  her  false  theories 
in  the  face  of  such  evidence  as  was  present 
ed  in  the  history  of  the  Dutch  Republic.  A 
century  before  Adam  Smith's  work  was  pub 
lished  the  great  merchant  of  London,  Sir 
Josiah  Child,  gave  his  list  of  reasons  why 
the  Dutch  were  more  prosperous  than  the 
English.  His  reasons  sound  strangely  mod 
ern,  and  are  even  in  advance  of  our  thought. 
He  gave  them  in  the  following  order : 


202 


COMMERCIAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


Firstly.  "  They,"  the  Dutch,  "  have  in  their 
greatest  councils  of  state  trading  merchants 
that  have  lived  abroad  in  most  parts  of  tho 
world,  by  whom  laws  and  orders  are  con 
trived  and  peaces  projected,  to  the  great 
advantage  of  all  men." 

Have  the  United  States  yet  learned  this 
first  rule  of  prosperity  during  our  first  cen 
tury  of  life  as  a  nation  ? 

Secondly.  "  Their  law  of  gavelkind,  where 
by  all  the  children  possess  an  equal  share 
of  their  father's  estate." 

Thirdly.  "  Their  exact  making  of  all  their 
native  commodities,  and  packing  of  their 
herrings,  cod-fish,  and  all  other  commodi 
ties." 

Fourthly.  "  Their  giving  great  encourage 
ment  and  immunities  to  the  inventors  of 
new  manufactures  and  the  discoverers  of 
new  mysteries  of  trade,  and  to  those  that 
shall  bring  the  commodities  of  other  nations 
first  in  use  and  practice  among  them." 

Fifthly.  "  Their  contriving  and  building 
of  great  ships  to  sail  with  small  charges." 

Sixthly.  "Their  parsimonious  and  thrifty 
living." 

Seventhly.  "The  education  of  their  chil 
dren,  as  well  daughters  as  sons  ;  all  which, 
be  they  of  never  so  great  quality  or  estate, 
they  always  take  care  to  bring  up  with  per 
fect  good  hands,  and  to  have  the  full  knowl 
edge  of  arithmetic  and  merchants'  accounts ; 
and  in  regard  the  women  are  as  knowing 
therein  as  the  men,  it  doth  encourage  their 
husbands  to  hold  on  to  their  trades  to  their 
dying  days,  knowing  the  capacity  of  their 
wives  to  get  in  their  estates  or  carry  on 
their  trades  after  their  death." 

Eighthly.  "  The  lowness  of  their  customs 
and  the  height  of  their  excise,  which  last  is 
certainly  the  most  equal  and  indifferent  tax 
in  the  world." 

Ninthly.  "The  careful  providing  for  and 
employing  the  poor." 

Tenthly.  "Their  use  of  banks,  which  are 
of  so  immense  advantage." 

Eleventhly.  "  Their  toleration  of  different 
opinions  in  matters  of  religion." 

Ttvelfthly.  "Their  law-merchant,  by  which 
all  controversies  between  merchant  and 
tradesman  are  decided  in  three  or  four  days." 

Thirteenthly.  "  Their  law  for  the  transfer 
ence  of  bills  of  debt  from  one  man  to  an 
other." 


Fourteenthly.  "Their  keeping  of  public  reg 
isters  of  all  lands  and  houses  sold  and  mort 
gaged." 

Lastly.  "  The  lowness  of  interest  on  money 
with  them." 

The  jealousy  on  the  part  of  England  of 
the  prosperity  of  the  Dutch  had,  prior  to 
the  date  of  the  last  publication  by  Sir  Jo- 
siah  Child  in  1691,  caused  them  to  enact 
the  navigation  laws,  and  these  laws  had 
then  already  caused  two  wars,  as  the  result 
of  which  the  first  funded  debt  of  Great 
Britain  took  form.  The  same  jealousy  con 
tinued,  and  the  same  ignorance  of  the  true 
theory  of  trade  led  to  the  enforcement  of 
the  navigation  acts  and  the  restrictions  upon 
the  trade  of  the  American  colonies.  Resist 
ance  ensued,  and  the  colonies  became  a  na 
tion.  But  the  people  of  the  mother  country 
failed  yet  to  see  the  error  of  their  system, 
and  again  attempted  to  enforce  the  same 
bad  laws  against  us,  thus  leading  again  to 
the  last  war  with  Great  Britain.  At  last, 
slowly  and  surely,  the  English  people  learn 
ed  the  lesson  that  the  malign  effect  of  such 
restriction  was  as  injurious  to  themselves 
as  to  the  people  whom  these  acts  had  made 
their  enemies.  One  by  one  they  were  re 
pealed,  and  with  each  repeal  England  went 
onward  toward  the  end  she  had  failed  to 
compass  before.  In  liberty  she  has  suprem 
acy  over  every  sea. 

We  also  have  succeeded  in  what  we  aim 
ed  at ;  we  have  maintained  our  navigation 
laws ;  but  our  ships  are  few  and  scattered, 
our  steam  marine  has  mainly  existed  through 
subsidies,  and  our  flag  is  unknown  in  har 
bors  and  cities  where  the  flag  of  other  na 
tions  daily  comes  and  goes  at  the  mast-head 
of  a  gallant  ship  or  a  noble  steamer. 

We  have  the  lesson  yot  to  learn.  A  hun 
dred  years  hence,  by  which  time  it  is  to  be 
hoped  the  people  of  this  nation  will  have 
intelligently  grasped  the  simple  theory  of 
trade,  it  is  not  to  be  doubted  that  the  dec 
laration  of  principles  by  Adam  Smith  will 
be  recognized  as  of  supreme  importance  to 
the  human  race,  while  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  will  be  looked  upon  even  by 
the  citizens  of  this  country  only  as  an  im 
portant  incident  in  the  history  of  the  An 
glo-Saxon  people,  and  the  war  which  then 
ensued  will  be  proved  and  acknowledged 
to  have  been  caused  mainly  by  a  want  of 


INTERSTATE  COMMERCE. 


203 


knowledge  of  that  economic  science  of  which 
Adam  Smith  was  the  first  great  expounder. 
If  the  people  of  this  nation  could  but  now 
respond  to  the  grand  forecasting  of  that 
true  and  humane  statesman  W.  E.  Forster, 
who  lately  visited  us,  and  form  an  Anglo- 
Saxon  alliance  for  the  liherty  of  commerce, 
for  the  repression  of  slavery,  for  the  doing 
away  of  privateering  or  piracy  upon  the 
seas,  the  end  of  all  war  among  civilized 
people  would  be  at  hand,  and  the  grand 
vision  of  the  prophet  would  be  realized — 
"They  shall  beat  their  swords  into  plow 
shares,  and  their  spears  into  priming-hooks." 

To  him  who  shall  among  us  succeed  in 
making  this  vision  a  grand  and  living  truth 
•will  come  deserved  fame  as  great  as  ever 
yet  belonged  to  any  one  among  us ;  but  that 
good  time  has  not  yet  come,  and  will  not 
come  until  the  simplest  principles  of  polit 
ical  science  are  made  a  part  of  common  ed 
ucation. 

We  do  not  undervalue  the  Declaration  of 
Independence  when  we  recognize  the  fact 
that  the  vast  material  progress  in  this  coun 
try  during  the  century  now  about  ending 
has  ensued  from  only  a  partial  realization 
of  the  principles  of  liberty  therein  contained. 
Our  fathers  threw  off  the  fetters  of  British 
domination,  but  continued  the  restrictions 
of  English  thought,  and  they  thus  hamper 
ed  themselves  and  us  from  within  with  the 
very  trammels  they  had  resisted  from  with 
out. 

It  was  not  until  the  framing  of  the  Con 
stitution  in  1787,  and  the  adoption  of  the 
provision  that  no  State  should  enact  any  law 
restricting  commerce  between  the  States, 
that  even  a  true  union  was  established. 

Never  before  that  time  had  commerce  upon 
a  grand  scale,  and  through  vast  regions  dif 
fering  widely  in  soil,  climate,  and  condition, 
been  freed  from  restriction.  And  because 
of  this  partial  liberty  has  the  material  wel 
fare  of  the  people  of  this  country  been  so 
well  assured  as  to  blind  them  to  the  evils 
of  the  system  that  has  prevented  an  exten 
sion  of  our  foreign  commerce  on  an  equally 
grand  and  profitable  scale.  Although  the 
framers  of  the  Constitution  itself  may  not 
have  fully  comprehended  the  importance 
of  this  act,  or  the  truly  scientific  basis  on 
which  they  built,  they  did  so  organize  and 
assure  a  system  of  absolute  free  trade  be 


tween  the  States  that  even  the  corruption 
of  slavery  failed  to  break  the  union. 

The  Union  exists  to-day  partly  because 
the  people  of  the  West  would  not  permit 
the  traffic  of  the  great  Southern  water-way 
of  the  continent  to  be  under  the  control  of 
a  foreign  nation,  lest  it  should  be  obstruct 
ed  by  custom-houses.  When  they  present 
ly  realize  the  other  fact  that  it  is  as  impor 
tant  to  them  to  have  the  traffic  of  the  great 
Northern  water-way  through  Canada  as  free 
from  obstruction  as  the  Southern  water-way 
now  is,  another  onward  step  will  be  taken, 
and  another  barrier  to  our  full  prosperity 
will  fall — not  this  time,  however,  by  violent 
means. 

In  treating  the  subject  of  our  commercial 
progress  during  the  past  century,  it  is  not 
worth  while  to  waste  time  and  space  upon 
mere  commercial  statistics  which  any  one 
may  compile,  but  rather  to  note  the  changes 
in  policy  and  method  that  have  occurred, 
and  to  see  how  far  we  are  behind  the  posi 
tion  we  might  have  held  had  we  not  been 
in  some  measure  blinded  to  our  opportu 
nity  by  the  very  ease  with  which  we  have 
achieved  great  though  but  partial  success. 

As  was  once  said  of  the  policy  of  Austria 
in  its  treatment  of  Hungary,  the  bad  line 
of  custom-houses  with  which  we  have  sur 
rounded  ourselves  has  caused  us  "to  be 
smothered  in  our  own  grease."  Long  an 
terior  to  the  year  1776  the  infant  manufac 
tures  of  America  had  come  into  existence, 
and  had  obtained  such  a  vigorous  growth 
as  to  cause  the  utmost  jealousy  in  the  moth 
er  country.  In  1750  the  production  of  iron 
and  steel  and  the  manufacture  of  steel  tools 
and  iron  wares  had  become  so  well  estab 
lished  in  America  as  to  induce  hostile  legis 
lation,  and  England  prohibited  the  erection 
of  rolling-mills  and  steel  furnaces,  and  at 
tempted  to  stop  the  domestic  commerce  in 
and  the  export  of  their  products.  This  was 
one  of  the  many  acts  which  culminated  in 
the  separation  of  the  colonies  from  England. 
The  records  of  the  owners  of  the  Cornwall 
Iron  Mountain,  in  Pennsylvania,  prove  the 
working  of  the  ores  long  anterior  to  the 
Revolution,  and  one  of  the  carefully  treas 
ured  documents  now  preserved  in  the  office 
of  the  mine  is  the  account  current  between 
the  former  owners  and  the  commissary-gen 
eral  of  the  patriot  army,  wherein  they  are 


204 


COMMERCIAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


credited  by  the  government  with  shot  and 
shell,  and  charged  with  Hessian  prisoners 
at  thirty  pounds  a  head,  whose  services  they 
bought  for  the  term  of  their  being  held  as 
prisoners  of  war. 

Our  ancestors  were  clothed  in  homespun, 
and  the  endeavor  to  stop  commerce  in  wool 
and  woolen  cards  was  one  of  the  most  vex 
atious  restrictions  imposed  by  the  mother 
country. 

Our  forefathers  established  a  prosperous 
traffic  among  themselves,  and  sent  commer 
cial  ventures  in  their  small  vessels  to  vari 
ous  ports  of  the  world.  But  this  was  not 
to  be  permitted.  The  laws  of  England  for 
bade  her  colonies  to  trade  with  the  colonies 
of  France  and  Spain.  The  power  of  taxa 
tion  was  invoked  to  prevent  it.  Naval  offi 
cers  were  made  custom-house  officers,  not 
so  much  to  collect  revenue  as  to  stop  traffic 
altogether,  just  as  the  civil  officers  had  pre 
viously  attempted  to  stop  our  manufactures. 

What  we  have  failed  to  perceive  is  that 
the  measures  which  only  provoked  animos 
ity  when  imposed  from  without  are  equally 
mischievous  when  enacted  within. 

We  have  not  yet  learned  that  restrictions 
upon  commerce  are  most  injurious  to  those 
who  enforce  them,  and  by  continuing  the 
same  navigation  acts  we  have  compassed 
the  very  result  that  Great  Britain  failed  to 
accomplish  by  war.  In  one  century  we 
have  reduced  ourselves  from  the  position 
of  a  dreaded  maritime  people  to  a  position 
of  comparative  insignificance  upon  the  sea. 
At  the  end  of  a  century  of  vigorous  life  and 
effort  we  remain  but  a  province,  unable  to 
keep  our  own  flag  at  the  mast-head  of  any 
fleet  of  modern  vessels. 

But  let  us  turn  from  this  sorry  picture  of 
perverted  force  and  ignorant  striving  to  im 
itate  the  long  since  discarded  methods  of 
England,  to  the  far  more  satisfactory  con 
sideration  of  the  result  of  our  domestic  com 
merce  and  the  prosperity  that  has  ensued 
from  its  unrestricted  character.  It  has  been 
fortunate  for  us  that  within  our  own  limits 
we  possess  such  diversity  of  soil,  climate, 
and  condition  as  to  have  prevented  the  re 
strictions  upon  foreign  commerce  from  pro 
ducing  the  same  bad  results  as  the  restrict 
ive  policy  caused  and  culminated  in  in  Great 
Britain  in  1841.  At  that  time  "the  system 
which  was  supported  with  the  view  of  ren 


dering  the  country  independent  of  foreign 
sources  of  supply,  and  thus,  it  was  hoped, 
fostering  the  growth  of  home  trade,  had 
most  effectually  destroyed  that  trade  by  re 
ducing  the  entire  population  to  beggary, 
destitution,  and  want.  In  the  manufac 
turing  districts  mills  and  workshops  were 
closed,  and  property  daily  depreciated  in 
value;  in  the  sea-ports  shipping  was  laid 
up  useless  in  the  harbor;  agricultural  la 
borers  were  eking  out  a  miserable  existence 
upon  starvation  wages  and  parochial  relief, 
and  the  country  was  brought  to  the  verge 
of  national  and  universal  bankruptcy." 

As  we  are  now  about  to  enter  upon  the 
hundredth  year  of  our  existence  as  a  na 
tion,  this  dark  picture  will  only  partially 
apply  to  those  identical  branches  of  indus 
try  which  the  government  has  especially 
attempted  to  promote  by  restrictive  stat 
utes.  Depression  rules  the  hour  among  the 
mills,  the  mines,  and  the  iron-works ;  strikes 
prevail  in  the  factories ;  bloodshed  is  com 
mon  at  the  mines ;  but  the  stove-maker,  the 
wood-worker,  the  tinsmith,  the  wagon-build 
er,  the  blacksmith,  the  plow-maker,  the  mill 
wright,  the  harness-maker,  and  their  com 
panions  are  busy  and  tolerably  well  employ 
ed,  and  these  are  the  ones  who  constitute 
the  vast  army  of  manufacturers  who  must 
exist  in  every  civilized  community. 

It  is  true  that  the  depression  in  a  few 
great  branches  of  industry  more  or  less  af 
fects  all  others,  but  it  is  also  true  that  those 
special  branches  of  industry  are  now  the 
most  depressed  that  have  been  most  pro 
tected,  as  it  is  called,  by  the  government 
during  the  last  half  of  the  century  just 
ending. 

We  have  only  to  glance  at  the  vast  force 
of  free  and  industrious  manufacturers  and 
artisans,  who  are  to  be  found  in  every  cor 
ner  of  our  fair  land,  to  perceive  how  a  free 
inland  commerce  thrives  and  how  true  man 
ufactures  flourish  in  spite  of  and  not  because 
of  the  restrictive  statutes. 

The  great  centres  of  manufacture  and  of 
agriculture  are  not  to  be  found  where  they 
are  usually  sought,  and  the  true  and  great 
diversity  of  our  industry  and  the  extent  of 
our  commerce  may  be  most  fully  realized 
by  tracing  them  out.  The  census  of  1870 
gives  iis  the  data,  and  by  it  we  find  that 
the  centre  of  manufacturing  industry  is  in 


TRANSPORTATION. 


205 


the  city  and  county  of  New  York,  whose 
product  of  manufactures  in  the  year  1870 
exceeded  $332,000,000  in  value ;  next  comes 
Philadelphia,  $322,000,000 ;  next,  St.  Louis, 
$158,000,000  (in  1870,  since  increased  to  $239,- 
000,000  in  1875) ;  and  then  follow  Middlesex 
County,  Massachusetts,  $113,000,000 ;  Suffolk 
County,  Massachusetts,  $112,000,000 ;  Prov 
idence  County,  Rhode  Island,  $85,000,000; 
Hamilton  County,  Ohio,  $79,000,000 ;  Balti 
more  County,  Maryland,  $59,000,000 ;  Essex 
County,  New  Jersey,  $52,000,000 ;  San  Fran 
cisco,  California,  $37,000,000 ;  and  in  smaller 
sums  we  find  the  manufacturing  arts  wher 
ever  cities,  towns,  or  villages  exist. 

Again,  in  agriculture  the  pre-eminence  is 
not  to  be  found  in  the  West,  where  it  would 
usually  be  sought,  but  in  the  list  of  coun 
ties  producing  the  largest  aggregate  value 
each  in  its  own  State  we  find  that  Pennsyl 
vania  is  at  the  head,  while  others  follow  in 
the  following  order : 

Lancaster  Co.,Penn 950  eq.  miles..  .$11,815,008 

St  Lawrence  Co.,  N.  Y. . . .  2900  '  ...  9,508,071 

Worcester  Co.,  Mass 1500  '  ...  6,351,411 

Hartford  Co.,  Conn 807'  ...  6,220,911 

LaSalleCo.,111 1050'  ...  5,502,502 

Oakland  Co.,  Mich 900  '  ...  5,154,231 

Burlington  Co.,  N.  J 600  '  ...  4,908,839 

Then  follow  the  rest  of  the  champion  coun 
ties  in  agriculture,  indicating  as  little  of  the 
commonly  assumed  order  as  to  position  and 
section  as  the  manufacturing  and  mechanic 
arts. 

The  exchanges  of  the  products  of  these 
counties  and  States  constitute  our  national 
commerce.  It  has  been  estimated  that  the 
aggregate  of  values  moved  over  our  seventy 
thousand  miles  of  railroad  in  a  year  is  over 
ten  thousand  million  dollars,  and  for  this 
service  and  for  the  transportation  of  passen 
gers  the  sum  of  five  Imndred  and  twenty- 
six  million  dollars  was  paid  in  the  year  just 
ended.  Yet  all  this  vast  movement  is  but 
for  the  supply  of  the  simplest  wants,  and 
the  utter  futility  of  attempting  to  regulate 
or  direct  it  by  statute  can  be  fully  realized 
when  we  consider  that  it  only  exists  because 
men  choose  to  exchange  bread  for  boots, 
beef  for  hats,  pork  for  clothing,  timber  for 
dwellings,  or  the  like.  Thus  commerce  be 
tween  States  differing  as  widely  as  almost 
any  section  of  the  earth's  surface  in  soil, 
climate,  and  condition,  also  differing  widely 
in  the  rate  of  interest,  in  the  incidence  of 


local  taxation,  and  in  the  wages  of  labor, 
has  yet  called  into  existence  our  seventy 
thousand  miles  of  railway,  costing  nearly 
four  thousand  million  dollars,  by  means  of 
which  exchanges  of  goods  were  made  last 
year  estimated  at  two  hundred  million  tons. 
Free  commerce  between  the  states  of  a  great 
continent  has  induced  this  diversity  of  em 
ployment,  and  this  establishment  of  manu 
factures  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of 
agriculture  which  assures  prosperity  to  the 
mechanic,  the  manufacturer,  and  the  farmer 
alike,  while  at  the  same  time  progress  in  the 
method  of  transportation  has  caused  neigh 
borhood  to  consist  not  so  much  in  proximi 
ty  as  in  the  elimination  of  time.  This  free 
dom  of  commerce,  and  the  division  of  labor 
that  ensues  from  it,  have  led  to  certain  re 
sults  in  the  distribution  of  population  which 
call  for  a  passing  notice.  The  production 
of  the  cereal  crops  upon  which  our  whole 
prosperity  now  depends  has  ceased  to  be  a 
matter  of  manual  labor  to  any  great  extent, 
but  is  carried  on  by  means  of  machines  of 
complex  character  requiring  few  hands  to 
tend  them  in  proportion  to  their  product. 
Had  it  not  been  for  these  new  methods 
the  war  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union 
would  have  been  almost  impracticable,  be 
cause  the  million  of  men  who  were  at  one 
time  in  the  loyal  army  could  not  have  been 
spared  without  risk  of  famine  ;  but  in  fact 
such  had  been  the  increased  power  of  pro 
duction  and  transportation  that  during  the 
war,  had  the  crops  alone  been  considered,  it 
would  not  have  appeared  that  a  single  man 
had  left  his  home  upon  the  fields. 

A  further  result  has  come  in  this,  that  as 
a  less  number  of  hands  are  needed  in  the 
field,  a  greater  number  may  be  employed  in 
the  arts,  and  herein  is  an  explanation  of  the 
greater  relative  increase  in  the  manufactures 
of  the  country  than  in  the  products  of  agri 
culture.  This,  again,  has  led  to  a  far  great 
er  concentration  in  towns  and  cities.  The 
tendency  to  concentration  has  been  to  some 
extent  counteracted  by  the  homestead  and 
land-grant  system  under  which  the  public 
lands  have  been  distributed,  but  it  is  to  be 
doubted  if  even  this  cheap  land  has  caused 
any  great  increase  in  the  relative  number 
of  the  agricultural  population  ;  the  new 
lands  have  been  settled  by  a  portion  only 
of  the  immigrants  from  abroad,  and  by 


206 


COMMEKCIAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


the  farmers  from  the  East,  who  have  only 
changed  their  place  and  their  method  of 
work. 

Men  who  have  once  been  engaged  in  the 
arts  or  manufactures  seldom  return  to  the 
field,  but  the  country  lad  does  seek  the 
town  or  city.  It  can  not  be  doubted  that 
this  concentration  in  cities  and  towns  will 
continue,  and  that  population  will  be 
more  and  more  condensed  in  narrow  spaces, 
drawing  their  subsistence  from  long  dis 
tances,  and  exchanging,  in  ever-increasing 
abundance,  the  comforts  and  luxuries  which 
they  produce,  for  the  food  and  fuel  they 
consume ;  and  with  this  condensation  will 
come  the  more  pressing  need  of  solving 
the  method  of  governing  and  administer 
ing  great  cities ;  of  draining  and  ventila 
ting,  and  of  providing  for  the  imperative 
necessity  of  parks,  play-grounds,  commons, 
and  other  wide,  open  areas,  in  order  that, 
with  these  vast  material  gains  that  accom 
pany  free  commerce  and  the  division  of  la 
bor,  there  may  not  be  a  grave  loss  in  the 
moral  welfare  and  in  the  physical  vigor  of 
the  race. 

The  interdependence  of  our  States  and 
the  service  which  each  renders  to  the  other 
find  most  homely  illustration  in  a  subject 
not  fitted  for  poetic  treatment,  nor  likely  to 
appeal  to  the  imagination — commerce  in  hogs. 

The  great  prairies  of  the  West  grow  corn 
in  such  abundance  that  even  now,  with  all 
our  means  of  intercommunication,  it  can  not 
all  be  used  as  food,  and  some  of  it  is  con 
sumed  as  fuel. 

It  often  happens  that  the  farmer  upon 
new  land,  remote  from  railroads,  can  get 
only  from  fifteen  to  twenty  cents  per  bushel 
for  Indian  corn,  at  which  price,  while  it  is 
the  best,  it  is  also  the  cheapest  fuel  that  he 
can  have,  and  its  use  is  an  evidence  of  good 
economy,  not  of  waste.  Upon  the  fat  prai 
rie  lands  of  the  West  the  hog  is  wholesome 
ly  fed  only  upon  corn  in  the  milk  or  corn  in 
the  ear;  thence  he  is  carried  to  the  colder 
climate  of  Massachusetts,  where  by  the  use 
of  that  one  crop  in  which  New  England  ex 
cels  all  others — ice — the  meat  can  be  pack 
ed  at  all  seasons  of  the  year ;  there  it  is  pre 
pared  to  serve  as  food  for  the  workman  of 
the  North,  the  freedman  of  the  South,  or  the 
artisan  of  Europe ;  while  the  blood,  dried  in 
a  few  hours  to  a  fine  powder,  and  sent  to 


the  cotton  fields  of  South  Carolina  and  Geor 
gia  to  be  mixed  with  the  phosphatic  rocks 
that  underlie  their  coast  lands,  serves  to 
produce  the  cotton  fibre  which  furnishes  the 
cheapest  and  fittest  clothing  for  the  larger 
portion  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  world. 

Here,  then,  is  commerce,  or  men  serving 
each  other  on  a  grand  scale,  all  developed 
within  the  century,  and  undreamed  of  by 
our  ancestors.  The  vast  plains  of  the  West, 
enriched  by  countless  myriads  of  buffalo, 
can  spare  for  years  to  come  a  portion  of 
their  productive  force.  Commerce  sets  in 
motion  her  thousand  wheels,  food  is  borne 
to  those  who  need  it  most,  and  they  are 
spared  the  effort  to  obtain  it  on  the  more 
sterile  soil  of  the  cold  North.  Commerce 
turns  that  very  cold  to  use.  The  refuse  is 
saved,  and  commerce  has  discovered  that  its 
use  is  to  clothe  the  naked  in  distant  lands. 
Borne  to  the  sandy  but  healthy  soils  of  Geor 
gia  and  South  Carolina,  it  renovates  them 
with  the  fertility  thus  transferred  from  the 
prairies  of  Illinois  and  Indiana,  and  pres 
ently  there  comes  back  to  Massachusetts  the 
cotton  of  the  farmer,  the  well-saved,  clean, 
strong,  and  even  staple  which  commerce 
again  has  discovered  to  be  worth  identify 
ing  as  the  farmer's,  not  the  planter's,  crop, 
made  by  his  own  labor  and  picked  by  his 
wife  and  children,  to  whom  only  a  few  short 
years  since  such  labor  was  ignoble,  and  be 
cause  thus  well  saved  worth  a  higher  price. 

Had  the  custom-house  officer  stood  upon 
the  Hudson  River  and  said  to  the  farmer  of 
Illinois,  "  Your  corn  and  meat  must  not  come 
here,  lest  by  your  cheap  labor  you  ruin  our 
farmers,"  as  the  custom-house  officer  of  the 
United  States  now  says  to  the  farmer  and 
miner  of  Canada,  when  they  try  to  send  food 
and  fuel  to  New  England ;  had  the  tax- 
gatherer  watched  at  the  bar  of  the  harbors 
of  Charleston  and  Savannah  to  make  the 
obstruction  greater,  lest  the  meat  packed  in 
New  England  should  affect  the  price  of  the 
poor  freedman's  pigs,  and  lest  the  fertilizers 
made  in  Boston  and  Philadelphia  should 
stop  the  phosphate  works  of  those  cities,  as 
the  custom-house  officer  of  the  United  States 
now  attempts  to  stop  the  refuse  salt  of  for 
eign  production,  even  when  only  needed  as 
a  manure ;  had  the  revenue  official  of  Mas 
sachusetts  stood  ready  to  make  the  cotton 
more  costly,  as  the  custom-house  officer  of 


CONSUMPTION  THE  GAUGE  OF  PROSPERITY. 


207 


the  United  States  now  doubles  the  price  of 
the  wool  of  Canada — this  commerce  could 
not  have  existed,  the  men  of  the  West  could 
not  have  rendered  service  to  New  England, 
nor  they  to  their  Southern  brethren,  nor 
they  again  to  the  people  of  all  lands  and 
all  climes. 

The  century  has  witnessed  the  establish 
ment  of  the  culture  and  exchange  of  cot 
ton,  the  extension  of  civilization  over  the 
prairies  of  the  West,  and  the  infinite  and 
complex  movements  which  we  feebly  try 
to  grasp  throughout  all  their  ramifications, 
whereby  the  hungry  are  fed,  the  naked 
clothed,  and  the  soil  that  has  been  burned 
over  and  scathed  by  slavery  renewed  and 
made  more  productive  than  ever  before ; 
yet  one  of  the  chief  instruments  in  this 
vast  benefit,  by  which  the  general  struggle 
for  life  has  thus  been  made  less  arduous, 
has  been  nothing  but  a  herd  of  swine. 

Turning  a  moment  from  this  homely  phase 
of  progress,  let  us  glance  at  another  vast 
change.  Early  in  the  century  a  few  small 
ships  or  barks  sailed  from  New  England,  lad 
en  with  muskets,  beads,  tobacco,  and  bales 
of  red  flannel,  their  destination  the  North 
west  coast.  Upon  the  voyage  the  goods 
were  made  up  into  packages  containing 
each  one  musket,  a  few  yards  of  flannel, 
and  a  small  portion  of  beads  and  tobacco, 
each  package  the  price  of  a  bale  of  fur 
skins.  Arriving  at  their  destination,  the 
vessel  was  laden  with  the  furs  thus  bought, 
and  then  she  slowly  wended  her  way  to 
China,  where  teas,  purchased  at  about  the 
same  ratio  of  profit,  were  taken  on  board, 
and,  after  a  long  period  passed  without  be 
ing  heard  from,  the  ship  returned  to  Boston 
or  Salem.  Under  this  system  tea  was  the 
luxury  of  the  few ;  now  it  is  the  comfort  of 
the  million.  And  how  does  it  now  reach 
the  consumer?  A  telegram  from  St.  Pe 
tersburg  to  New  York  or  Boston  calls  for 
supplies  of  wheat  or  barley  for  the  Russian 
troops  on  the  Amoor  River,  the  merchant 
in  Boston  or  New  York  sends  the  message 
to  San  Francisco,  the  grain  is  laden  upon  a 
vessel  there,  the  banker's  credit  furnished 
by  the  Russian  government  is  transferred 
in  a  moment  to  China  or  Japan,  and  within 
a  few  weeks  the  tea  of  China  or  Japan, 
brought  over  the  Pacific  Railroad,  is  being 
consumed  in  Chicago  in  exchange  for  the 


wheat  or  barley  of  California,  of  which  the 
rations  of  the  Russian  troops  may  at  the 
same  moment  consist. 

Were  it  not  for  the  barriers  that  we  main 
tain  between  ourselves  and  other  nations, 
by  which  most  of  our  manufactures  are 
made  more  costly  than  those  of  other  coun 
tries,  orders  not  only  for  wheat  and  cotton 
and  other  crude  products  of  the  soil,  but  for 
the  finer  products  of  manufacturing  indus 
try,  would  be  telegraphed  for  in  the  same 
manner,  and  we  should  serve  the  need  of 
untold  millions  now  almost  unknown  to  us, 
receiving  back  that  abundance  of  foreign 
comforts  and  luxuries  of  which  we  are  in 
part  deprived  by  the  folly  of  economic  su 
perstition. 

We  are  deprived  of  them  under  the  pre 
tense  that  our  laborers  can  not  afford  the 
consumption  of  foreign  luxuries,  but  that  all 
such  importations  impoverish  the  country. 

The  end  of  all  commerce  is  an  abundant 
and  general  consumption  not  only  of  the  nec 
essary  articles  of  subsistence,  but  of  the 
comforts  and  luxuries  of  life ;  and  the  ma 
terial  prosperity  of  the  country  is  to  be 
gauged  by  the  amount  of  its  annual  con 
sumption  more  than  by  the  magnitude  of 
its  accumulations. 

The  figures  of  the  census,  by  which  it 
is  attempted  to  measure  the  wealth  and 
progress  of  the  people,  are  utterly  falla 
cious  if  taken  by  themselves,  the  true 
measure  of  material  prosperity  being  the 
amount  of  comfort  and  of  luxury  that  the 
wages  of  workmen,  relatively  equal  in  in 
telligence  and  skill,  will  purchase  at  dif 
ferent  dates  and  in  different  places. 

A  century  since  the  man  who  now  enjoys 
leisure  and  abundance,  and  whose  hours  of 
labor  are  not  overlong,  would  have  been 
forced  to  work  the  livelong  day  for  a  bare 
and  coarse  subsistence,  while  many  of  the  ig 
norant  emigrants  who  now  swarm  through 
out  our  land  would  have  starved  had  they 
then  attempted  to  come  into  the  colonies. 

The  great  difference  in  the  condition  of 
the  mass  of  the  people  a  century  since  and 
at  the  present  time  consisted  in  this,  that 
then  nearly  all  knew  how  to  get  moderate 
comfort  from  little  means,  partly  because 
the  labor  of  that  day  was  nearly  all  of  a 
kind  that  stimulated  intelligence ;  there  was 
much  drudgery,  but  not  the  routine  and 


208 


COMMERCIAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


monotony  which,  now  mark  the  condition 
of  those  who  do  the  commoner  sort  of  work. 
The  Irish  servant  of  to-day  can  obtain  for 
her  wages  better  clothes  and  more  of  them, 
is  furnished  with  better  food  and  more  of  it, 
and  is  better  and  more  comfortably  housed 
than  the  mistress  of  the  house  a  century 
since ;  and  these  changes  have  come  because 
the  division  of  labor,  the  extension  of  com 
merce,  and  the  improvements  in  means  of 
transport  have  brought  distant  places  near, 
and  have  increased  production.  The  work 
man  in  the  iron  furnace,  the  weaver  in  the 
mill,  the  man  who  tends  the  machine  in  the 
boot  factory,  earns  higher  wages  and  may 
be  able  to  live  far  better  than  the  black 
smith,  the  cobbler,  or  the  carpenter  of  old 
time.  But  he  earns  his  subsistence  in  a  far 
different  way,  and  the  abundance  that  he 
may  enjoy  may  not  be  an  unalloyed  benefit. 
Why  is  not  the  man  or  woman  of  to-day 
who  performs  the  drudgery  of  the  world 
equal  in  thrift  and  intelligence  to  those  who 
once  did  the  work  which  they  now  do  ? 

The  reason  is  not  difficult  to  find.  The 
cobbler  then  used  his  brain  as  well  as  his 
lapstone ;  the  blacksmith  was  an  artisan, 
a  leader  in  the  church  choir,  and  a  chief 
speaker  in  town-meetings ;  the  carpenter 
of  that  day  was  a  craftsman ;  with  poor 
tools,  unaided  by  machinery,  he  was  com 
pelled  to  hew  out  his  dwelling-place,  and 
he  built  it  firmly  and  well ;  the  house  and 
the  man  were  built  up  together,  and  each 
was  strong  and  true. 

The  housewife  spun  and  wove  the  very 
cloth  in  which  the  family  was  clad,  and  as 
the  web  was  woven,  thrift  and  intelligence 
made  part  of  the  warp  and  woof.  Each  man 
and  woman  was  the  "  builder  of  a  brain"  as 
well  as  of  a  home,  and  there  could  be  no 
comfortable  subsistence  without  true  man 
hood  and  true  womanhood. 

Commerce  has  changed  these  conditions, 
and  we  are  now  at  one  of  the  half-way 
places.  The  same  labor  and  the  same  intel 
ligence  that  then  gave  but  a  subsistence 
gained  with  arduous  toil,  but  with  much 
mental  vigor,  will  now  suffice  to  procure  an 
ample  competence  and  exemption  from  toil. 
The  craftsman  of  the  old  time  is  the  master 
of  to-day,  the  housewife  has  become  the 
mistress  of  a  mansion  ;  but  the  toiler  of 
to-day  is  not  the  equal  of  the  toiler  of  old 


time,  and  he  could  not  then  have  subsisted 
at  all.  Commerce,  invention,  and  the  divis 
ion  of  labor  have  increased  abundance,  but 
have  also,  to  a  considerable  extent,  sepa 
rated  the  functions  of  those  who  work  with 
the  head  from  those  who  work  with  the 
hand ;  they  have  raised  a  large  portion  of 
the  community  to  a  higher  plane  of  comfort 
and  luxury  than  could  have  been  even 
dreamed  of  a  century  since,  and  in  so  doing 
have  made  a  place  and  created  occupations 
for  those  who  could  not  then  have  existed  at 
all  in  regions  or  countries  which  now  have 
a  dense  population ;  but  these  occupations 
are  of  a  new  kind,  and  many  of  the  methods 
by  which  this  comfort  and  abundance  are 
obtained  tend  to  deaden  the  intelligence 
and  to  promote  a  merely  animal  existence. 
May  it  not  be  that  one  of  the  causes  of  the 
uneasiness  of  those  who  toil,  and  who  con 
stitute  the  laboring  classes  of  some  sections, 
comes  from  the  monotony  of  their  work 
rather  than  from  the  want  of  material  com 
fort  ?  Man  can  not  live  by  bread  alone, 
and  ten  or  eleven  hours  a  day  spent  in 
watching  a  machine,  while  they  may  yield 
more  bread  and  meat  than  the  hand  spin 
ner  and  weaver  of  a  century  since  ever  earn 
ed,  may  yet  be  devoid  of  that  use  of  the 
mental  faculties  that  alone  makes  existence 
tolerable. 

Where  the  operation  of  the  machine  tends 
to  relieve  the  operative  of  all  thought,  the 
man  or  woman  who  tends  it  risks  becoming 
a  machine,  well  oiled  and  cared  for,  but  in 
capable  of  independent  life.  The  culture 
of  the  past  was  more  diffused,  but  it  was 
obtained  by  means  of  the  very  toil  that  was 
needed  to  gain  subsistence,  because  the  work 
itself  called  upon  all  the  faculties,  and  was 
not  a  matter  of  routine ;  the  culture  and  re 
finements  of  to-day  come  from  leisure  and 
opportunity  more  than  from  the  develop 
ment  of  men  in  the  necessary  work  of  their 
lives.  May  it  not  be  possible  that  one  of 
the  causes  of  the  great  demand  which  exists 
for  bad  and  sensational  books  and  for  excit 
ing  amusements  comes  from  the  dreary  mo 
notony  of  many  of  the  necessary  occupations 
of  men  and  women,  and  that  one  of  the  most 
essential  developments  of  commerce  or  of 
mutual  service  in  the  future  will  be  in  the 
direction  of  more  ample  provision  for  whole 
some  amusements  ?  As  has  been  well  said 


RESTRICTIONS  UPON  EXCHANGE. 


203 


by  an  eminent  and  truly  orthodox  divine, 
"Amusement  is  a  force  in  Christian  life;" 
and  unless  this  need  is  well  served  by  the 
saints,  \ve  may  be  very  sure  that  it  will  be 
ill  served  by  those  whose  title  is  not  saintly. 
How  to  provide  cheap  and  wholesome  amuse 
ments  for  those  who  toil  is  one  of  the  great 
problems  of  commerce  which  must  be  solved. 

We  have  said  that  much  of  the  necessary 
work  of  the  laboring  people  fails  to  develop 
character.  In  a  higher  walk  of  life,  even 
the  merchants  of  former  days,  though  their 
ventures  were  small,  their  vessels  of  but  few 
tons,  and  though  their  gains  would  only  have 
been  those  of  the  small  shop-keepers  of  the 
present  time,  yet  seem  to  have  been  men  of 
a  larger  type  and  of  finer  mould  than  the 
great  tradesmen  of  our  time.  The  mer 
chant's  work  then  called  for  foresight,  en 
ergy,  and  a  wide  comprehension ;  but  steam 
and  the  telegraph  are  great  levelers,  and  the 
success  of  the  merchant  of  to-day  depends 
more  on  routine,  method,  and  capital. 

The  grander  men  of  this  time,  who  would 
once  have  been  great  merchants,  are  now 
the  builders  of  railroads  and  great  works, 
the  tool-makers  and  the  machine-builders, 
the  masters  of  the  arts  of  all  kinds. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  theory  of  Malthus 
that  population  gained  faster  than  the  means 
of  subsistence,  and  that  men  must  die  of  war, 
pestilence,  and  famine  in  an  ever-increasing 
ratio,  finds  as  yet  no  warrant  in  the  expe 
rience  of  men.  Commerce  has  eliminated 
time  and  distance,  while  invention  and  dis 
covery  have  yielded  greater  and  greater 
abundance  for  each  given  portion  of  time 
devoted  to  the  work  of  procuring  subsist 
ence  ;  and  the  one  great  fact  which  espe 
cially  indicates  the  progress  of  commerce  in 
the  century  just  ending  is  this,  that  more 
men  may  now  live,  and  need  not  die,  on  any 
given  area  in  the  civilized  world  than  was 
possible  a  century  since.  This  is  as  true  of 
parts  of  our  own  country  as  it  is  of  other 
countries. 

The  "progressive  desire"  which  distin 
guishes  men  from  brutes  has  been  met  by 
ever-increasing  power  of  satisfaction.  But 
it  is  not  sufficient  to  have  achieved  only  the 
means  of  living :  life  must  be  made  worth 
living  to  each  and  all. 

We  have  said  that  the  nation  is  at  one  of 
the  half-way  points :  division  of  labor  and 
14 


the  extension  of  commerce  have  increased 
the  supply  of  all  that  men  need  for  subsist 
ence,  while  altering  the  conditions  of  much 
of  the  work,  so  that  it  has  become  monoto 
nous  drudgery.  On  the  other  hand,  the  uses 
that  have  been  found  for  refuse  and  offen 
sive  substances  have  led  to  inventions  that 
have  removed  the  degrading  conditions 
from  many  kinds  of  necessary  labor. 

If  we  consider  society  as  a  pyramid,  the 
constant  rising  of  the  apex  has  opened  the 
way  for  a  broader  and  firmer  base  of  useful 
employment,  and  it  can  not  be  questioned 
that  the  constant  tendency  is  toward  a 
steady  reduction  of  the  necessary  hours  of 
labor,  and  a  constant  increase  of  the  oppor 
tunity  for  mental  stimulus  in  the  hours  of 
leisure ;  hence,  as  the  labor  of  production 
becomes  more  and  more  a  matter  of  machin 
ery  and  apparatus  rather  than  of  individual 
exertion  of  brain  and  muscle,  the  capability 
for  enjoyment  which  all  covet  but  few  at 
tain  will  surely  come  for  the  mass  of  men, 
but  it  must  come  from  culture  and  educa 
tion  outside  their  work,  and  not  in  the  work 
itself.  Hence  it  follows  that  the  need  of 
our  time  is  not  so  much  the  promotion  of 
greater  abundance  of  material  things,  be 
cause  the  abundance  exists  even  at  this  very 
moment  to  the  extent  of  plethora,  but  the 
removal  of  the  obstacles  which  exist  in  the 
form  of  meddlesome  statutes  and  constant 
attempts  to  hinder,  by  restrictive  methods, 
that  free  exchange  by  which  alone  can  even 
abundance  be  made  a  blessing. 

It  is  a  fact  not  to  be  gainsaid,  that  even 
at  this  moment  the  only  conditions  requisite 
to  a  comfortable  subsistence  for  man  or 
woman  in  this  country  are  prudence,  intel 
ligence,  health,  and  integrity.  The  question 
is  not  one  of  the  supply  of  the  things  needed, 
but  of  the  method  of  obtaining  them;  and 
yet  our  ever-increasing  wealth  is  accompa 
nied  by  increasing  poverty ;  the  attempt  to 
protect,  foster,  and  promote  certain  specified 
branches  of  industry  by  restricting  exchange 
has  enervated  and  emasculated  those  to 
whom  the  artificial  stimulus  has  been  given, 
and  has  obstructed  the  progress  of  those 
whose  occupations  could  not  from  their 
very  nature  bo  included  in  the  attempt  to 
protect. 

Added  to  these  removable  causes  of  harm 
we  have  another  more  subtle  and  vicious 


210 


COMMERCIAL  DEVELOPMENT. 


cause  of  a  false  and  unjust  distribution  of 
the  abundance  of  material  things  that  we 
produce.  We  shall  enter  upon  our  second 
century  of  life  as  a  nation  under  the  curse 
of  bad  money.  The  most  essential  tool  of 
our  trade,  the  medium  by  which  all  the  ex 
changes  that  constitute  our  commerce  are 
made,  is  the  dishonored  promise  of  the  na 
tion.  Issued  under  the  stress  of  war,  it 
continues  to  inflict  the  curse  of  Avar  long 
after  peace  and  plenty  have  become  assured. 
Of  it  may  be  said,  as  was  said  of  the  legal- 
tender  paper  money  of  the  Revolution,  that 
it  has  polluted  the  equity  of  our  laws,  and 
turned  them  into  engines  of  oppression  and 
wrong ;  that  it  has  corrupted  the  justice  of 
our  public  administration ;  that  it  has  en 
ervated  the  trade,  husbandry,  and  manufac 
tures  of  our  country ;  that  it  has  gone  far  to 
destroy  the  morality  of  our  people ;  and  that 
it  has  done  more  injustice  than  the  arms 
and  artifices  of  the  enemies  of  the  Union  for 
whose  subjugation  it  was  issued. 

Thus  does  it  appear  that  the  century  just 
ending,  the  first  of  the  strictly  commercial 
age,  has  been  marked  by  greatly  increased 
power  over  the  productive  forces  of  nature, 
and  that  the  promises  of  the  future  materi 
al  welfare  of  the  nation  are  grand  indeed. 
What  we  now  need  is  greater  liberty  and  a 


broader  education,  with  instruction  in  what 
constitutes  the  true  use  of  leisure,  in  order 
that  there  may  not  be  the  shadow  of  truth 
in  the  charge  sometimes  made  that  for  a 
large  portion  of  the  community  leisure  is 
now  but  another  name  for  license. 

The  legal  obstructions  to  our  true  pros 
perity  are  maintained  by  the  influence  of 
the  rich,  and  not  of  the  poor ;  not  willfully 
in  the  face  of  better  knowledge,  but  because 
they  are  still  misled  as  to  the  true  function 
of  commerce.  We  have  provided  well  for 
the  common  education  of  the  poor,  and  that 
provision  is  now  our  salvation.  When  we 
shall  have  as  fitly  provided  for  the  higher 
education  of  the  rich,  when  we  shall  have 
reversed  the  old  order,  and  it  shall  be  the 
conviction  of  every  man  born  to  fortune 
that  only  the  idle  man  is  ignoble,  then  will 
the  merchant,  the  tradesman,  and  the  man 
ufacturer  fill  their  true  places  in  the  order 
of  events.  Then  will  come  the  time  when 
peace  and  good-will  may  reign  among  the 
nations  of  the  earth,  and  when  by  means  of 
free  commerce  there  shall  be  for  the  millions 
yet  unborn  not  only  material  comfort  and 
welfare,  but  the  opportunity  fully  enjoyed 
for  general  culture  and  refinement,  coupled 
with  mental  and  spiritual  progress  never 
yet  attained. 


VII. 


GROWTH  AND  DISTRIBUTION  OF  POPULATION. 


OF  the  five  maps  which  illustrate  the 
present  paper,  the  first  exhibits  the  ac 
quisition  of  territory  by  the  United  States 
from  1776  to  the  present  time.  The  second 
shows  the  areas  actually  covered  by  popu 
lation  at  each  alternate  decennial  census 
from  1790  to  1870.  The  third  presents  the 
movement  of  the  centre  of  population,  the 
"  star  of  empire,"  if  the  reader  please,  across 
the  face  of  the  country  from  east  to  west, 
upon  the  line  of  the  thirty-ninth  degree 
north  latitude,  from  its  first  recorded  posi 
tion,  twenty- three  miles  east  of  Baltimore, 
in  1790,  to  its  resting-place  in  1870,  forty- 
eight  miles  east  by  north  of  Cincinnati.  We 
said  its  resting-place :  we  should  have  said 
its  last  recorded  position,  for  the  time  has 
not  yet  come  for  it  to  stand  in  its  place  above 
any  favored  town  or  city  in  the  land.  Its 
course  is  still  westward ;  and  while  we  write 
it  is  pressing  on  with  an  equable  motion  of 
seventy  or  seventy-five  feet  a  day  in  a  direc 
tion  generally  west,  but  also  slightly  north. 
The  fourth  map  is  illustrative  of  interstate 
migration;  showing  the  habitat  at  1870  of 
the  natives  of  New  York  and  of  South  Caro 
lina  severally.  The  fifth  exhibits  in  three 
degrees  the  density  of  population  within 
the  area  settled  at  1870  east  of  the  100th 
meridian. 

If  we  examine  the  first  of  these  maps,  we 
shall  find  ten  divisions  of  the  existing  ter 
ritory  of  the  United  States  noted  thereon  ; 
but  these,  for  our  present  purpose,  may  be 
consolidated  into  seven,  namely :  the  origi 
nal  thirteen  States;  the  original  Western 
Territory  (embracing  the  territory  north 
west  of  the  river  Ohio,  Kentucky  and  Ten 
nessee,  and  the  Mississippi  Territory) ;  the 
French  cession  of  1803  (called  Louisiana) ; 
the  Spanish  cession  of  1819  (Florida) ;  the 
Texan  annexation  of  1845 ;  the  Mexican  ces 
sions  of  1848  and  1853 ;  and  last,  though, 
perhaps  unfortunately,  not  least,  the  Eus- 
siau  cession  of  1868  (Alaska). 

Of  these  the  first  comprises  420,892  square 
miles,  and  contained  in  1870  about  eighteen 
millions  of  inhabitants ;  the  second  com 


prises  406,952  square  miles,  with  thirteen 
and  a  half  millions  of  inhabitants ;  the 
third,  1,171,931  square  miles,  with  five  and  a 
quarter  millions  of  inhabitants  ;  the  fourth, 
59,268  square  miles,  with  less  than  two  hun 
dred  thousand  inhabitants;  the  fifth, 376,133 
square  miles,  with  about  eight  hundred  and 
thirty  thousand  inhabitants ;  the  sixth, 
591,318  square  miles,  with  about  the  same 
population  as  the  fifth ;  the  seventh,  577,390 
square  miles,  with  but  four  or  five  hundred 
white  inhabitants.1 

Although  the  Spanish  and  Mexican  ces 
sions  comprise  towns  which  far  antedate 
the  earliest  settlements  within  the  original 
thirteen  States,  it  is  to  the  latter  that  we 
must  first  turn  in  any  attempt  to  broadly 
grasp  the  history  of  population  within  the 
United  States.  But  we  shall  fail  to  reach 
the  full  significance  of  the  situation  if  we 
only  give  to  ourselves,  as  reasons  for  treat 
ing  this  portion  of  territory  first  in  order, 
its  present  population,  exceeding  that  of 
any  other  section,  its  earlier  political  de 
velopment,  or  its  more  conspicuous  figure 
in  American  history.  It  is  not  more,  but 
rather  less,  on  account  of  these  than  on  ac 
count  of  the  actual  contributions  which  this 
section  has  made  to  the  population  of  each 
one  in  turn  of  the  other  geographical  divis 
ions  of  the  United  States,  early  or  recent, 
that  the  writer  on  population  must  turn 
first  to  Jamestown  and  Plymouth,  or  he 
will  read  his  theme  backward.  St.  Augus 
tine  (1565)  and  Santa  F<$  (1582)  were,  indeed, 
planted  before  English  Cavalier  or  English 
Puritan  sought  the  more  northern  lauds  for 
settlement ;  but  St.  Augustine  and  Santa  F6 
were  a  barren  stock,  and  the  populations 
that  to-day  occupy  the  regions  in  which 
these  were  planted  in  the  sixteenth  century 

1  These  statements  of  population  are  exclusive  of 
Indians,  who  are  not  embraced  in  a  census  of  the 
United  States.  On  their  account  there  should  be  add 
ed  to  No.  1  about  six  thousand  souls ;  to  No.  2  about 
twenty-six  thousand  ;  to  No.  3  about  one  hundred  and 
sixty  thousand  ;  to  No.  5  perhaps  thirty  thousand  ;  to 
No.  6  about  eighty  thousand ;  and  to  No.  7  about  sev 
enty  thousand. 


212 


GROWTH  AND  DISTRIBUTION  OF  POPULATION. 


THE  THIRTEEN  STATES. 


213 


have  poured  forth  from  States  founded  in 
penury  and  neglect  long  afterward.  When 
the  great  province  of  Louisiana  came  to  us, 
in  1803,  more  than  three  centuries  after  the 
discovery  of  the  main-land  of  America,  it 
contained,  from  the  delta  of  the  Mississippi 
to  Puget  Sound,  scarcely  twenty  thousand 
•white  inhabitants.  That  this  vast  territory 
now  contains  more  than  five  millions  of  in 
habitants,  who  will  by  1880  be  eight  millions 
or  ten,  is  not  due  to  the  robustness  of  the 
stock  which  Jefferson  annexed  with  the 
soil,  or  mainly  to  direct  immigration.1  In 
like  manner,  when  we  received  Florida  from 
Spain  by  the  treaty  of  1819,  not  consum 
mated,  however,  until  1821,  the  white  popu 
lation  was  but  twelve  or  fifteen  thousand, 
so  slight  had  been  the  fecundity  of  the 
Spanish  settlements.  And  when,  in  1822, 
Congress  directed  the  Postmaster-General 
to  make  provision  for  a  post-route  from  St. 
Augustine  to  Pensacola,  that  officer  was 
obliged  to  report  the  next  year  as  follows : 

"Diligent  inquiry  has  been  made,  and  it  does  not 
appear  that  there  is  a  road  between  these  places  on 
the  route  designated  on  which  the  mail  can  be  con 
veyed.  There  are  Indian  paths  which  pass  through 
different  Indian  settlements,  but  none,  it  is  under 
stood,  that  extend  for  any  considerable  distance  in 
the  proper  direction." 

And  so  late  as  1850,  the  first  date  for 
which  we  have  the  statistics  of  nativity 
in  the  United  States,  it  was  found  that  of 
the  free  inhabitants  of  Florida  more  had 
been  born  in  the  original  thirteen  States 
than  in  Florida  itself,  while  less  than  six 
per  cent,  of  the  free  inhabitants  were  of  for 
eign  birth.  The  Texan  annexation,  again, 
now  contains  about  830,000  souls ;  but  when 
Texas  revolted  from  Mexico,  it  contained 
probably  not  more  than  40,000,  of  whom 
by  far  the  greater  part  had  come,  in  antic 
ipation8  of  "manifest  destiny,"  from  the 
States.  In  1850,  of  the  free  inhabitants 
scarcely  more  than  one -third,  including, 
of  course,  an  undue  proportion  of  chil 
dren,  were  natives  of  Texas. 

In  the  same  way  the  first  Mexican  ces- 

1  At  the  southeastern  extremity  only  are  the  effects 
of  direct  immigration  traceable  in  any  marked  degree. 
New  Orleans  has  been  to  some  extent  supported  by 
arrivals  from  Mexico  and  the  West  Indies,  as  well  as 
from  France,  Ireland,  and  Germany. 

•  Indeed,  the  immigration  into  Texas  had  been  large 
ly  for  the  very  purpose  of  wresting  the  country  from 
Mexico. 


sion,  when  taken  possession  of  by  the  Unit 
ed  States,  embraced  but  a  small  white  pop 
ulation.  Of  this  tract  it  is  true  that,  in  the 
furious  excitement  caused  by  the  discovery 
of  gold  at  Sutter's  Mill  in  1848,  it  was  set 
tled  more  largely  than  any  other  had  been 
by  direct  immigration.  Yet  of  the  first 
eighty  thousand  eager  gold -hunters  who 
pressed  into  the  valleys  of  California,  more 
than  three-fourths  were  born  in  the  East, 
of  whom  one-half,  as  nearly  as  might  be, 
were  natives  of  the  original  thirteen  States, 
while  probably  not  less  than  two-thirds  of 
the  remainder  would  be  found  to  be  cis- 
appalachian  in  their  origin,  could  we  go 
but  thirty  years  further  back. 

Of  the  second  Mexican  cession,  the  Gads- 
den  purchase  of  1853,  embracing  tlxe  terri 
tory  south  of  the  river  Gila,  in  Arizona  and 
New  Mexico,  little  can  be  said  any  way. 
Two  or  three  hundred  whites,  insecurely 
guarded  by  perhaps  as  many  soldiers,  as  yet 
constitute  the  population  of  this  treeless, 
trackless  desert. 

Twenty-three  degrees  to  the  north,  under 
the  very  "  shadow  of  the  pole,"  lies,  securely 
frozen  up,  the  latest  purchase  of  the  United 
States,  a  region  as  large  as  Great  Britain, 
France,  Spain,  and  the  German  Empire  com 
bined,  all  the  eligible  portions  of  which  are 
now  devoted  to  the  preservation  in  theory 
and  extermination  in  fact  of  fur -bearing 
seal. 

It  is  not  so  easy  to  show  statistically  the 
derivation  of  the  people  of  the  original  ter 
ritory  of  the  United  States  from  the  original 
thirteen  States,  but  it  is,  at  the  same  time, 
less  needful.  Our  history  from  1763  onward 
is  full  of  the  migrations  from  the  Atlantic 
slope  into  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  valleys, 
at  first  through  the  passes  of  the  Allegha- 
nies,  and  later  by  the  lakes  and  around  the 
southern  extremity  of  the  great  coast  chain. 
And  even  of  the  vast  immigration  from  Eu 
rope  which  has  helped  to  build  up  these 
nine  interior  States  between  the  mountains 
and  the  river,  no  small  part,  perhaps  the 
greater  part,  has  been  received  from  the 
original  States,  not  merely  through  their 
ports,  but  after  a  period  of  residence,  accli 
mation,  and  often  even  of  naturalization  at 
the  East. 

So  incessant  had  been  the  fresh  supply 
of  Eastern  blood,  so  little  had  the  "  Great 


214 


GROWTH  AND  DISTRIBUTION  OF  POPULATION. 


West"  of  two  or  three  generations  ago  been 
left  to  the  propagation  of  the  stock  then 
planted  there,  that,  so  late  as  1850,  seventy- 
five  years  after  Kentucky  was  founded,  more 
than  one-fourth  of  the  free  inhabitants  of 
these  nine  States  had  been  born  east  of  the 
mountains,  while,  if  the  adult  inhabitants 
only  had  been  taken  into  account,  the  pro 
portion  must  have  greatly  exceeded  one- 
third,  if,  indeed,  it  did  not  reach  nearly  to 
one-half. 

If  thus  the  early  settlements  in  what  we 
shall  always  know  as  the  "  Thirteen  States" 
were  vastly  more  prolific  than  those  made 
by  the  Spaniards  and  French  at  the  south 
and  southwest,  they  also  greatly  surpassed 
in  the  vigor  of  their  growth  the  settle 
ments  to  the  north  and  northeast,  whether 
by  the  French  or  the  English.  In  1754, 
when  the  thirteen  colonies  aggregated  of 
whites  and  blacks  nearly  a  million  and  a 
half,  New  France,  though  planted  at  the 
same  time  with  Virginia,  had  scarcely  a 
hundred  thousand  people,  mainly  collected 
on  the  St.  Lawrence,  between  Quebec  and 
Montreal. 

"  At  the  time  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  death 
(1603),"  writes  the  annalist  of  America, 
"which  was  110  years  after  the  discovery 
of  America  by  Columbus,  neither  the  French, 
Dutch,  nor  English,  nor  any  other  nation 
excepting  the  Spanish,  had  made  any  per 
manent  settlement  in  this  New  World.  In 
North  America  to  the  north  of  Mexico  not  a 
single  European  family  could  be  found."1 

Between  1607  and  1733  were  founded  all 
the  original  States  of  the  American  Union. 
The  order  of  their  settlement  and  the  main 
facts  of  their  growth  in  population  while 
colonies  of  Great  Britain  are,  if  not  essen 
tial,  at  least  important  to  a  comprehension 
of  their  history  as  independent  States,  and 
still  more  to  an  understanding  of  the  origin 
of  the  twenty-four  equal  members  of  the 
Union  which  have  come  into  existence  since 

1789. 

1607-1660. 

By  a  natural  grouping  of  the  facts  of  our 
early  settlement,  one  who  chooses  to  regard 
the  growth  of  population  merely,  irrespect 
ive  of  grants,  charters,  and  political  insti- 


1  Holmes's  Annals,  i.  123. 


tutions,  may  consider  the  colonies  in  three 
classes — those  of  New  England,  the  middle 
colonies,  and  those  to  the  South,  from  and 
including  Maryland. 

The  first  permanent  settlement  within  the 
territory  of  the  original  States  was  at  James 
town,  Virginia,  on  the  James  River,  1607,  by 
a  colony  of  about  100  English.  For  twelve 
years  the  colony  grew  slowly,  so  that  but 
600  persons,  men,  women,  and  children,  were 
counted  among  the  inhabitants  at  the  be 
ginning  of  1619.  During  the  two  years 
which  followed,  however,  the  number  was 
increased  nearly  sixfold.  At  the  outbreak 
of  the  civil  war  in  England  the  population 
was  estimated  at  20,000,  which  was  probably 
in  excess  of  the  true  number. 

Mr.  Bancroft  explains  as  follows  the  lia 
bility  to  "  glaring  mistakes  in  the  enumera 
tions"  in  the  Southern  provinces :  "  The  mild 
climate  invited  emigrants  to  the  inland 
glades ;"  "  the  crown-lauds  were  often  occu 
pied  on  warrants  of  surveys  without  pat 
ents,  or  even  without  warrants ;"  "  the  peo 
ple  were  never  assembled  but  at  muster." 

The  settlement  of  Maryland  was  closely 
connected  with  that  of  Virginia.  In  1631-32 
Captain  William  Clayborne  establi  shed  small 
settlements  on  Kent  Island,  in  Chesapeake 
Bay,  and  also  near  the  mouth  of  the  Susque- 
hanua.  In  1634  a  colony  of  about  200  En 
glish  was  planted  at  St.  Mary's,  on  the  main- 
laud,  under  Leonard  Calvert,  brother  of  the 
proprietary,  Lord  Baltimore.  Virginia  and 
Maryland  were  the  only  colonies  of  the 
Southern  group  which  were  planted  prior 
to  the  restoration  of  the  Stuarts  in  1660.  At 
that  date  they  were  estimated  to  contain 
respectively  30,000  and  12,000  inhabitants. 

Passing  northeastward  to  New  England, 
we  find  the  first  settlement  made  in  1620  by 
a  body  of  about  100  English  at  Plymouth, 
within  the  present  limits  of  Massachusetts, 
constituting  what  was,  until  1692,  known  as 
the  "  Plymouth  Colony."  In  1643  this  col 
ony  had  grown  to  contain  seven  town 
ships. 

In  1628  a  colony  was  planted  at  Salem, 
on  Massachusetts  Bay ;  in  1630  and  1633 
large  accessions  were  received ;  in  1634  the 
settlements  were  reported  as  extending 
thirty  miles  from  the  capital ;  1635  was  a 
year  of  rapid  extension ;  by  1636  popula 
tion  had  reached  the  Connecticut,  and 


NEW  ENGLAND  SETTLEMENTS. 


215 


Springfield  was  settled.  There  were  now 
twenty  "  towns,"  and  the  colony  was  divided 
into  three  "regiments."  During  the  sum 
mer  of  1638  twenty  ships  arrived  with  2000 
persons.  The  colony  was  divided  into  four 
counties.  In  1640  it  was  at  its  highest  point 
of  prosperity  within  the  period  we  are  con 
sidering.  "  The  number  of  emigrants  who 
had  arrived  in  New  Euglaud  before  the  as 
sembling  of  the  Long  Parliament  is  esti 
mated  to  have  been  21,200;  198  ships  had 
borne  them  across  the  Atlantic."1  Hil- 
dreth  adds :  "  The  accessions  which  New 
England  henceforward  received  were  more 
than  counterbalanced  by  perpetual  emigra 
tion."2 

The  Puritans  iu  England,  instead  of  flee 
ing  before  Acts  of  Conformity,  were  now 
engaged  in  reforming  church  and  state  to 
suit  themselves. 

In  1660  there  were  three  towns  on  the 
Connecticut  River  within  the  jurisdiction 
of  Massachusetts. 

For  the  first  settlement  of  New  Hamp 
shire,  Mr.  Bancroft  assigns  the  date  1623, 
permanent  plantations  being  then  establish 
ed  on  the  Piscataqua.  Dover  and  Ports 
mouth  are  among  the  oldest  towns  in  New 
England.  The  province  grew  at  first  very 
slowly. 

Of  the  first  settlements  within  the  State 
of  Maine,  Bancroft  remarks  (i.  331):  "It  is 
not  possible,  perhaps,  to  ascertain  the  pre 
cise  time  when  the  rude  shelters  of  the  fish 
ermen  on  the  coast  began  to  be  tenanted  by 
permanent  inmates,  and  the  fishing  stages 
of  a  summer  to  be  transferred  into  regular 
establishments  of  trade.  The  first  settle 
ment  was  probably  made  '  on  the  Maine,'  but 
a  few  miles  from  Mouhegan,  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Pemaquid."  The  probable  date  as 
signed  is  1626. 

In  1636  Providence,  in  the  present  State 
of  Rhode  Island,  was  planted  by  Roger  Will 
iams  and  five  companions.  In  1638  the 
"Rhode  Island  Colony"  was  established  on 
the  Isle  of  Rhodes  by  William  Coddington 
and  eighteen  associates.  Six  years  later 
Rhode  Island  and  Providence  plantations 
were  united  in  self-government. 

In  1633  trading  posts  were  established 
within  the  limits  of  the  present  State  of 

1  Bancroft,  United  States,  i.  418. 
3  Hi»t,  United  States,  i.  267. 


Connecticut,  both  by  Dutch  from  New  Neth 
erlands  (New  York),  and  by  English  from 
Plymouth,  the  former  at  Hartford,  the  latter 
at  Windsor. 

During  1635  removals  took  place  from 
Massachusetts  to  Wethersfield  and  Windsor, 
and  in  1636  these  towns,  with  Hartford,  were 
occupied,  constituting  the  "Connecticut 
Colony."  In  1645  there  were  eight  taxable 
towns  within  the  colony. 

In  1633  a  settlement  was  made  at  New 
Haven,  which,  with  its  adjacent  towns,  con 
stituted  the  "New  Haven  Colony,"  until  it 
was  united  with  the  Connecticut  Colony 
by  charter  of  Charles  II.  The  consolidated 
colony  contained  nineteen  towns,  distrib 
uted  among  four  counties. 

We  have  thus  shown  the  beginnings 
east  of  the  Hudson  of  four  of  the  original 
thirteen  States,  prior  to  1660.  At  1640- 
these  contained  twelve  independent  com 
munities,  with  not  less  than  fifty  towns  or 
distinct  settlements;  but  before  the  Res 
toration  a  consolidation  had  taken  place, 
which  reduced  the  separate  jurisdictions  to 
six.1 

Of  the  central  group  of  colonies  New  York 
was  first  settled.  The  Dutch  had  for  some 
years  maintained  trade  with  the  natives  at 
Manhattan  and  up  the  Hudson  River.  In 
1623-24  "New  Netherlands"  was  planted, 
and  a  permanent  settlement,  called  New 
Amsterdam,  was  made  at  Manhattan,  the 
site  of  the  present  city  of  New  York.  By 
1656  the  village  had  been  laid  out  into  sev 
eral  small  streets ;  1660  found  the  Dutch 
still  in  possession,  as  well  as  disputing  the 
title  to  Western  Connecticut.  The  popu 
lation  at  that  date  of  New  Netherlands, 
which  in  1647  was  hardly  2000  or  3000, 
even  including  the  Swedes  on  the  Del 
aware  (Hildreth,  i.  436),  had  risen  to  about 
10,000,  of  whom  1500  resided  in  New  Am 
sterdam. 

One  part  of  the  present  State  of  New 
York,  however,  has  a  history  which  direct 
ly  connects  its  settlement  both  with  New 
England  and  with  the  central  group  of 
colonies. 

Long  Island  was  first  settled  at  its  west 
ern  end,  under  the  protection  of  the  Dutch, 
and  a  number  of  towns  were  a  little  later 


Hildreth,  United  States,  i.  26T. 


216 


GROWTH  AND  DISTRIBUTION  OF  POPULATION. 


planted  there  by  this  people.1  The  eastern 
portion  of  the  island  was  settled  about  1640 
by  Puritans  from  Lynn,  Massachusetts,  and 
from  the  New  Haven  Colony,  and  these  set 
tlements  grew  rapidly  to  meet  those  advan 
cing  from  the  west.  The  island  was  parti 
tioned  by  the  treaty  of  1650  between  the 
Dutch  and  the  English,  and  so  remained  un 
til  the  fall  of  the  Dutch  power  in  1664. 

In  1631  a  small  settlement  had  been  made 
by  the  Dutch  near  Lewistown,  within  the 
present  State  of  Delaware,  but  the  young 
colony  was  entirely  cut  off  by  Indians  a 
year  later.  In  1638  a  company  of  Swedes 
and  Finns,  under  the  then  renowned  flag  of 
Sweden,  arrived  in  Delaware,  and  built  a 
fort  near  the  mouth  of  the  creek,  which  they 
called  Christiana.  The  Swedish  settlements 
soon  extended  northward  almost  to  the  pres 
ent  site  of  Philadelphia.  In  1655,  however, 
the  fear  of  Swedish  arms  had  so  far  abated 
that  the  Dutch  from  Manhattan  accomplish 
ed  the  subjection  of  Delaware  to  the  domin 
ion  of  Holland. 

This  completes  the  tale  of  colonies  plant 
ed  within  the  limits  of  the  thirteen  States 
prior  to  the  Restoration.  Thus  at  1660  the 
only  English  colonies  were  those  of  New 
England,  Virginia,  and  Maryland,  estimated 
to  contain  in  all  not  more  than  eighty  thou 
sand  inhabitants. 

1660-1688. 

Within  a  few  years  from  the  Restoration 
the  Dutch  colonists  of  New  Netherlands 
(New  York),  as  well  as  the  Dutch,  Swedish, 
and  Finnish  residents  of  Delaware,  were 
brought  under  English  dominion,  and  the 
colonies  of  New  Jersey  and  Carolina  were 
planted. 

Settlements  had  been  made  in  what  is 
now  New  Jersey  very  early  in  the  seven 
teenth  century.  Dutch,  Swedes,  and  Finns, 
English,  Dutch  again,  and  again  English, 
had  successively  appeared  and  disappeared 
in  the  course  of  the  early  contests  for  the 
sovereignty  of  the  soil.  "  Here  and  there," 
says  Bancroft,3  "  in  the  counties  of  Glouces- 


1  Anabaptist  refugees  from  Massachusetts  settled 
Newtown  and  Gravesend,  under  Dutch  protection.    So 
numerous  were  the  English-speaking  inhabitants  of 
the  Dutch  part  of  the  island  that  an  English  secretary 
was  appointed. — Hildreth,  i.  417. 

2  Hist.  United  States,  ii.  316. 


ter  and  Burlington  a  Swedish  farmer  may 
have  preserved  his  dwelling  on  the  Jersey 
side  of  the  river,  and  before  1664  perhaps 
three  families  were  established  about  Bur 
lington;  but  as  yet  West  New  Jersey  had 

not  a  hamlet.  In  East  Jersey a  trading 

station  seems  in  1618  to  have  been  occupied 
at  Bergen.  In  December,  1651,  August  Her 
man  purchased  but  hardly  took  possession 
of  the  land  that  stretched  from  Newark 
Bay  to  the  west  of  Elizabeth/town ;  while 
in  January,  1658,  other  purchasers  obtained 
the  large  grant  called  Bergen,  where  the 
early  station  became  a  permanent  settle 
ment.  Before  the  end  of  1664  a  few  fam 
ilies  of  Quakers  appear  also  to  have  found 
a  refuge  south  of  Raritan  Bay." 

In  1664  the  settlement  of  New  Jersey  be 
gan  under  conflicting  grants.  There  were 
soon  four  towns — Elizabeth,  Newark,  Mid- 
dletown,  and  Shrewsbury.  In  1676  New 
Jersey  was  divided  as  East  and  West  New 
Jersey,  the  latter  being  purchased  by  the 
Quakers,  who  settled  Burlington  the  follow 
ing  year.  In  1682  the  towns  of  East  Jersey 
were  supposed  to  have  700  families  ;  those 
of  West  Jersey  perhaps  as  many  persons. 

In  1663  Carolina  was  granted  to  eight 
proprietors ;  but  it  would  appear  that  Al- 
bemarle  had  been  settled  already1  by  the 
growth  southward  of  the  Nansemond  set 
tlement  just  on  the  borders  of  the  Virginia 
grant. 

Two  or  three  years  prior  to  the  grant, 
moreover,  it  would  appear  that  a  settlement 
had  been  effected  by  men  from  New  En 
gland  on  the  southern  bank  of  Cape  Fear 
River.  Whatever  remained  of  this  settle 
ment  was,  however,  absorbed  by  a  colony 
planted  near  the  same  spot  in  1665  by  the 
exertions  of  the  proprietary,  and  which  so 
prospered  that  in  1666  it  embraced  800  per 
sons. 

In  1670  a  company,  brought  out  in  three 


1  "Perhaps  a  few  vagrant  families  were  planted 
within  the  limits  of  Carolina  before  the  Kestoration." 
—Bancroft,  ii.  134, 135. 

The  historian  Grahame  charged  that  scarce  any  his 
torian  at  his  day  had  correctly  given  the  facts  relating 
to  the  early  settlement  of  Carolina.  "  Even  that  labo 
rious  and  generally  accurate  writer,  Jedediah  Morse, 
has  been  so  far  misled  by  defective  materials  as  to  as 
sert  (American  Gazetteer)  that  the  first  permanent  set 
tlement  in  North  Carolina  was  formed  by  certain  Ger 
man  refugees  in  1710."— Hist.  United  States  in  North 
America,  ii.  Ill,  n. 


GEORGIA,  VIRGINIA,  AND  THE  CAROLINAS. 


217 


ships,  settled  on  the  Ashley  River,  at  "  Old 
Charlestown." 

In  1671-72  Dutch  both  from  New  York 
and  from  Holland  arrived-  at  the  Ashley 
River  settlement.  Subsequently,  it  would 
appear,  to  both  these  dates — perhaps  1679 
or  1680 — the  colonists  generally  passed  over 
to  the  west  bank  of  Cooper  River,  and  set 
tled  on  Oyster  Point,  which  became  the  city 
of  Charleston. 

In  1681  Pennsylvania  was  planted.  The 
growth  of  this  colony  was  rapid.  In  the 
first  three  years  "fifty  sail"  arrived  with 
settlers. 

Thus,  prior  to  1688,  the  period  of  the  great 
Revolution  in  England,  we  see  settlements 
made  within  the  territory  of  all  the  original 
thirteen  States  except  Georgia.  The  whole 
population  of  the  colonies  at  this  time  was 
about  200,000,  "of  whom,"  says  Bancroft,1 
"  Massachusetts,  with  Plymouth  and  Maine, 
may  have  had  44,000 ;  New  Hampshire  and 
Rhode  Island,  with  Providence,  each  6000; 
'Connecticut,  from  17,000  to  20,000— that  is, 
all  New  England,  75,000  souls ;  New  York, 
not  less  than  20,000 ;  New  Jersey,  half  as 
many;  Pennsylvania  and  Delaware,  perhaps 
12,000 ;  Maryland,  25,000 ;  Virginia,  50,000  or 
more ;  and  the  two  Carolinas,  which  then 
included  the  soil  of  Georgia,  probably  not 
less  than  8000  souls." 

1688-1754. 

In  1733  Georgia  was  settled  and  Savan 
nah  founded  by  Oglethorpe,  with  about  one 
hundred  and  twenty  persons.  In  1734  Au 
gusta  was  laid  out.  The  immigrants  of  this 
year  were  computed  at  six  hundred.  In  1835 
a  colony  of  Highlanders  planted  New  Inver 
ness,  in  Darien.  In  1736  Oglethorpe  brought 
out  three  hundred  emigrants. 

But  though  perhaps  the  most  auspicious 
ly  founded  of  all  the  colonies  except  Penn 
sylvania,  the  growth  of  Georgia  was  not 
rapid,  and  more  than  twenty  years  after 
its  settlement  we  find  the  Board  of  Trade 
estimating  its  white  inhabitants  at  but 
3000.a 

1  Hist.  United  States,  ii.  450. 

2  Grahame  (Hist.  United  States,  ii.  403,  n.),  referring 
to  the  many  inconsistent  statements  of  the  popula 
tion  of  the  colonies  at  different  dates,  says:  "Even 
writers  so  accurate  and  sagacious  as  Dwight  and 
Holmes  have  been  led  to  underrate  the  early  popula 
tion  of  North  America  by  relying  too  far  on  the  esti- 


Meanwhile  we  find  the  other  twelve  col 
onies  growing  very  unequally,  both  as  we 
compare  one  colony  with  another  and  as  we 
compare  one  epoch  with  another.1 

In  Virginia  the  number  of  "tithables"  (i.  e., 
free  males  above  sixteen  years,  and  slaves 
above  that  age  of  both  sexes)  had  been  esti 
mated  in  1691  at  14,000;  in  1703  the  number 
was  computed  at  25,023 ;  in  1754  the  "  tith 
ables"  had  increased  to  nearly  100,000. 

In  the  Carolinas  the  growth  had  been  rap 
id  in  both  the  white  and  the  black  popula 
tion.  In  1700  5500  white  inhabitants  were 
counted.  In  1723  the  white  inhabitants  of 
that  part  alone  which  became  South  Caro 
lina  were  estimated  at  14,000 ;  the  slaves 
(negroes  and  a  few  Indians)  at  18,000. s  In 
1729  the  crown,  having  bought  out  the  pro 
prietors,  formed  Carolina  into  two  distinct 
royal  provinces,  North  and  South  Carolina. 
In  1730  the  negroes  of  South  Carolina  were 
estimated  at  28,000.  This  sudden  increase 
in  the  estimate  of  their  number  may  have 
been  in  some  measure  due  to  the  alarm 


mates  which  the  provincial  governments  furnished  to 
the  British  ministry  for  the  ascertainment  of  the  num 
bers  of  men  whom  they  were  to  be  required  to  supply  for 
the  purposes  of  naval  and  military  expeditions."  The 
reason  suggested  for  the  probable  disparagement  of 
the  early  population  of  the  colonies  has  not  a  little 
force. 

1  In  his  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  iv.  p.  128, 
Mr.  Bancroft  expresses  the  opinion  that  "  he  who,  like 
H.  C.  Carey,  in  his  Principles  of  Political  Economy,  Part 
iii.  p.  25,  will  construct  retrospectively  general  tables 
from  the  rule  of  increase  in  America  since  1790,  will 
err  very  little."  The  writer  must  dissent  from  this 
opinion.  The  approximate  regularity  of  increase  from 
1T90  to  1860  was  due  to  the  fact  that  the  accession  by 
immigration  bore  a  very  small  proportion  to  the  total 
population.  Thus,  Professor  Tucker  places  the  for 
eign  arrivals  at  50,000  for  the  period  1790-1800,  70,000 
j  for  1800-10, 114,000  for  1810-20,  and  this  with  an  ag 
gregate  population  rising  meanwhile  from  four  to 
nine  and  a  half  millions.  Moreover,  that  immigration 
tended  more  and  more  to  uniformity  as  between  indi 
vidual  years.  In  the  period  before  the  Revolution, 
however,  to  which  Mr.  Bancroft  refers,  the  average 
annual  foreign  arrivals  unquestionably  bore  a  much 
higher  ratio  to  the  existing  population,  and  the  im 
migration  was  very  spasmodic  and  without  system. 
Thus  in  1750,  when  the  total  population  of  the  thir 
teen  colonies  was,  by  Mr.  Bancroft's  estimates,  a  mill 
ion  and  a  quarter,  we  have  an  account  of  5317  persons 
arriving  in  that  single  year  in  the  single  colony  of 
Pennsylvania ;  and  in  1729,  when  the  total  population 
must  have  been  about  650,000,  we  find  6208  persons  ar 
riving  in  the  same  colony.  Where  disturbing  elements 
of  such  magnitude  enter,  subject  to  no  law  that  any  one 
can  presume  to  state,  such  computations  as  Mr.  Ban 
croft  suggests  become  most  fallacious, 
a  Hewatt,  i.  308,  309. 


218 


GROWTH  AND  DISTRIBUTION  OF  POPULATION. 


aroused  by  a  plot  for  a  servile  insurrection.1 
In  1738  there  was  another  attempt  at  servile 
insurrection,  and  the  negroes  were  now  esti 
mated  at  40,000.a  Mr.  Bancroft  makes  the 
number  but  little  greater  in  1754.  Both  the 
Caroliuas  meanwhile  received  large  acces 
sions  of  Irish  and  of  French  Protestants 
from  Europe,  of  Puritans  from  New  En 
gland,  and  of  Dutch  from  New  York,  so  that 
in  1754  the  white  inhabitants  of  the  two  col 
onies  were  estimated  at  twenty- two  times 
the  number  stated  for  1700. 

If  we  follow  Mr.  Bancroft's  classification, 
and  place  Maryland  with  the  middle  colo 
nies,  Ave  find  this  group  in  1754  exceeding 
NBAV  England  in  the  ratio  nearly  of  five  to 
four.  Of  the  middle  colonies,  Pennsylvania 
had,  in  the  sixty  years  since  its  settlement, 
become  by  far  the  most  populous. 

New  England,  during  the  period  we  are 
considering,  had  increased  nearly  fivefold. 
Maine,  Rhode  Island,  and  New  Hampshire 
had  now  considerable  populations ;  and  the 
beginnings  of  a  new  State,  though  not  to  be 
reckoned  among  the  immortal  "Thirteen," 
had  been  made,  in  1724,  by  the  establish 
ment  of  Fort  Dummer,  on  the  site  of  Brat- 
tleborough,  within  the  present  State  of  Ver 
mont. 

It  is  natural  that  on  the  verge  of  the 
Seven  Years'  War,  which  broke  the  power 
of  France  on  the  American  continent,  the 
historian  should  pause  to  review  the  prog 
ress  of  settlement ;  and  accordingly  we  find 
Mr.  Bancroft  summing  up  thus,  for  the  year 
1754,  the  population  of  the  several  colonies : 

"  Of  persons  of  European  ancestry  perhaps  50,000 
dwelt  in  New  Hampshire,  207,000  in  Massachusetts, 
35,000  in  Rhode  Island,  and  133,000  in  Connecticut : 
in  New  England,  therefore,  425,000  souls. 

"  Of  the  middle  colonies,  New  York  may  have  had 
85,000 ;  New  Jersey,  73,000 ;  Pennsylvania,  with  Dela 
ware,  195,000 ;  Maryland,  104,000 :  in  all  not  far  from 

457,000 To  Virginia  may  be  assigned  168,000  white 

inhabitants;  to  North  Carolina  scarcely  more  than 
70,000 ;  to  South  Carolina,  40,000 ;  to  Georgia  not  more 
than  5000 :  to  the  whole  country  south  of  the  Potomac, 
283,000.... 

"  Of  persons  of  African  lineage  the  home  was  chief 
ly  determined  by  climate.  New  Hampshire,  Massa 
chusetts,  and  Maine,  may  have  had  3000  negroes ; 
Rhode  Island,  4500 ;  Connecticut,  3500 :  all  New  En 
gland,  therefore,  about  11,000.  New  York  alone  had 
not  far  from  11,000 ;  New  Jersey  about  half  that  num 
ber;  Pennsylvania,  with  Delaware,  11,000;  Maryland, 
44,000:  the  central  colonies  collectively,  71,000.  In 
Virginia  there  were  not  less  than  116,000 ;  in  North 


Holmes,  i.  547. 


Holmes,  ii.  10, 11. 


Carolina,  perhaps  more  than  20,000;  in  South  Car 
olina,  full  40,000;  in  Georgia,  about  2000:  so  that 
the  country  south  of  the  Potomac  may  have  had 

178,000."' 

These  estimates  yield  totals  of  1,165,000 
whites  and  260,000  negroes. 

1754-1790. 

Pitt's  war  with  France  ensued.  In  1763 
his  Most  Christian  Majesty  by  treaty  relin 
quished  to  England  all  his  rights  to  terri 
tory  east  of  the  Mississippi  and  north  of 
thirty-one  degrees  north  latitude.  Popula 
tion  had  gone  on  increasing  all  the  time  in 
spite  of  the  war,  but  the  triumphant  con 
clusion  was  instantly  followed  by  an  exten 
sion  of  settlement  in  every  direction.  The 
presence  of  the  French  military  posts  in  an 
unbroken  chain  from  the  Atlantic  through 
the  valleys  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  the 
Mississippi  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  the 
fear  of  the  Indian  allies  of  the  French,  had 
repressed  in  a  degree  even  the  adventurous 
courage  of  the  English-Americans.  When 
once  this  pressure  was  removed,  popula 
tion  bounded  forward  with  astonishing 
alacrity. 

On  the  extreme  Northeast,  in  Maine,  where 
settlement  had  been  retarded  by  six  succes 
sive  Indian  wars,  "  old  claims  under  ancient 
grants  began  now  to  be  revived,  and  new 
grants  to  be  solicited."3  The  counties  of 
Cumberland  and  Lincoln  were  erected  in 
the  year  following  the  peace.  Settlements 
stretched  unrestrained  along  the  coast  to 
ward  the  Penobscot,  and  population  soon 
became  almost  continuous,  even  to  Nova 
Scotia.  To  the  North,  the  New  Hampshire 
side  of  the  Upper  Connecticut  witnessed  a 
rapid  immigration;  while  the  other  bank, 
contested  then  between  New  York  and  New 
Hampshire,  became  the  scene  of  a  petty 
warfare  between  rival  patentees,  possession 
and  law  being  generally  invoked  against 
each  other.  Population  also  began  to  seek 
the  borders  of  Lake  Champlain,  and  to  force 
its  way  through  the  forests  to  the  lakes  of 
Central  New  York. 

To  the  South  again,  Georgia  and  South 
Carolina  were  now  increasing  in  population 
and  extending  their  settlements  with  unex 
ampled  rapidity.  In  1752  the  population 

1  Hist.  United  States,  iv.  127-129. 

a  Hildreth,  Hist.  United  States,  ii.  510. 


WESTWARD  EMIGRATION. 


219 


of  Georgia  had  been  computed  at  9000.  In 
1775  it  was  estimated  to  be  75,000.  About 
the  latter  date  the  colony  was  divided  into 
eight  counties — four  along  the  coast  and 
four  up  the  Savannah  River. 

But  it  was  to  the  West,  between  the  par 
allels  which  embraced  the  colonies  of  North 
Carolina  and  Virginia,  and  upon  lands  in 
cluded  within  their  charters,  that  the  great 
est  movement  in  this  period  took  place. 
Notwithstanding  the  exclusively  agricul 
tural  character  of  the  industry  of  these 
colonies,  inviting  a  wide  extension  of  pop 
ulation,  the  Blue  Ridge  had  been,  so  late  as 
1731,  the  western  boundary  of  settlement. 
From  that  time  forward,  however,  settlers 
gradually  penetrated  the  mountains  north 
of  the  James  River,  and  found  homes  in  the 
valleys  beyond,  until  in  1751-52  the  further 
most  wave  of  population  had  reached  the 
base  of  the  Alleghanies,  and  here  for  a  time 
was  stayed.  But  the  Virginians  and  North 
Carolinians  of  that  day  knew  better  what 
lay  beyond  that  mountain  barrier  than  did 
the  British  Board  of  Trade  when  they  sent 
Captain  John  Smith  up  the  Chickahominy 
to  discover  the  Pacific  Ocean.  By  the  ex 
plorations  of  Colonel  Wood  in  1654-64  sev 
eral  of  the  branches  of  the  Ohio  River  had 
been  made  known,  though  for  fifty  years 
it  still  remained  the  general  belief  that  the 
Alleghanies  themselves  were  impassable. 
In  1714,  however,  Lieutenant -Governor 
Spottiswoode,  of  Virginia,  led  in  person, 
"  with  great  parade  and  solemnity,"  an  ex 
pedition  for  the  discovery  of  a  passage 
across  the  mountains,  which  was  crowned 
with  such  complete  success  that  Spottis 
woode  was  hailed  by  the  Virginians  with 
acclamations  "  of  grateful  and,  indeed,  hy 
perbolical  praise,  which  exalted  him  to  an 
approach  te  the  glory  of  Hannibal."1 

The  statesmen  of  Virginia  early  saw  that 
the  long  French  line  might  be  thrust  through 
with  fatal  effect  if  settlements  properly  cov 
ered  with  military  force  were  pushed  across 
the  mountains.  It  was  the  attempt  of  Gov 
ernor  Diuwiddie  to  seize  the  junction  of  the 
Alleghany  and  Monongahela  in  1754  which 
brought  on  the  war  which  ended  in  the  con- 
qiiest  of  the  Ohio  Valley. 

Yet  even  after  the  peace  of  1763,  which 

i  Grahame,  iii.  C9. 


gave  all  this  country  into  the  undisputed 
possession  of  England,  subject  only  to  Indi 
an  claims  (and  curiously  enough,  and  in 
this  connection  importantly  enough,  it  hap 
pened  that  no  Indian  tribe  at  any  time  had 
title  to  the  territory  immediately  west  of 
Virginia,  which  subsequently  became  the 
State  of  Kentucky),  the  home  government 
persistently  discouraged  emigration  to  the 
West;  and  by  proclamation  of  October  7, 
1763,  "  it  was  ordered  that,  except  in  Quebec 
and  West  Florida,  no  public  lands  should  be 
taken  up  beyond  tlie  heads  of  the  rivers  which 
flow  into  the  Atlantic."  Thus  the  Alleghauies 
were  set  as  the  boundary  of  American  enter 
prise  ;  and  the  valleys  of  the  Ohio  and  the 
Mississippi  were  to  be  locked  against  the 
intrusion  of  the  pioneer. 

But  little  did  the  pioneer  reck  of  procla 
mations.  His  axe  and  rifle  were  his  patent, 
and,  looking  down  on  the  richest  soil  of  the 
world,  he  was  not  likely  to  be  long  hindered 
by  minutes  from  the  Board  of  Trade. 

Hardly  was  the  proclamation  issued  when 
the  banks  of  the  Mouongahela  were  occu 
pied  by  emigrants  from  Pennsylvania,  Mary 
land,  and  Virginia.  In  1768  James  Robert 
son  planted  his  North  Carolina  colony  on 
the  Watauga,in  the  present  State  of  Tennes 
see,  and  soon  the  Clinch  and  Holstou  valleys 
experienced  the  influx  of  emigrants  from 
across  the  mountains. 

In  1769  began  the  romantic  exploits  of 
Daniel  Boone  upon  the  "dark  and  bloody 
ground"  later  to  be  known  as  the  State  of 
Kentucky.  Boonesborough,  Harrodsburg, 
and  Lexington  appear  to  have  been  founded 
by  1776.  In  1788  the  settlement  of  Ohio 
was  begun  by  the  establishment  of  Marietta 
on  the  left  bank  of  the  Muskingum.  In  two 
years  20,000  persons  were  reported  to  have 
passed  the  Muskiugum  on  their  westward 
way.1 

The  surrender  by  France  of  the  territory 
east  of  the  Mississippi  had  brought  within 
the  jurisdiction  of  England  in  1763  not  a  few 
settlements  whose  age,  while  it  can  not  al 
ways  be  precisely  ascertained,  gives  them 
still  most  respectable  standing  among  the 
present  towns  of  the  United  States. 

There  was  Detroit,  in  the  present  State 
of  Michigan,  reported,  though  erroneously, 

>  Holmes's  Annals,  ii.  370. 


2-20 


GROWTH  AND  DISTRIBUTION  OF  POPULATION. 


to  contain  in  its  immediate  vicinity  as  many 
as  2500  Europeans,  destined  to  become  in  the 
very  year  of  the  surrender  the  prime  object 
of  the  famous  "  conspiracy  of  Poutiac." 

The  non-Indian  population  within  the 
present  State  of  Illinois  was,  according  to 
Mr.  Bancroft,  not  more  than  1358  persons, 
of  whom  more  than  300  were  Africans. 

Indiana  had  but  one  settlement,  Vin- 
cennes,  of  nearly  equal  age  with  Detroit, 
with  400  to  500  inhabitants. 

To  the  loyalty  of  the  people  thus  trans 
ferred  by  the  fortune  of  war,  Mr.  Jefferson 
bears  the  following  testimony  : 

"  Having  been  Governor  of  Virginia  when  Vincennes 
and  the  other  French  settlements  of  that  quarter  sur 
rendered  to  the  arms  of  that  State  twenty-eight  years 
ago,  I  have  had  a  particular  knowledge  of  their  char 
acter —  I  have  ever  considered  them  as  sober,  honest, 
and  orderly  citizens,  submissive  to  the  laws,  and  faith 
ful  to  the  nation  of  which  they  are  a  part. " — To  William 
M'Intosh,  January  30,  1808. 

Nor  was  the  settlement  of  the  newly  ac 
quired  territory  limited  to  the  northern  por 
tions.  President  Stiles  preserves  account 
of  extensive  migrations  in  1773  to  reinforce 
the  existing  settlements  on  the  Mississippi 
at  and  about  Natchez. 

But  while  population  was  thus  spreading 
over  the  vast  territory  opened  up  by  the 
peace  of  1763,  the  older  settlements,  espe 
cially  at  the  South,1  were  also  growing  rap 
idly,  and  even  the  war  did  not  suffice  to 
check  the  progress  of  population  in  com 
munities  where  but  a  small  proportion  of 
the  fertile  lands  was  yet  taken  up,  and  where 
every  added  man  was  added  strength  to  the 
State.2 

"  From  many  returns  and  computations," 

1  Mr.  Hildreth  calls  the  years  immediately  succeed 
ing  1763  "  the  golden  age  of  Maryland,  Virginia,  and 
South  Carolina." 

3  Our  fathers  very  early  set  themselves  to  figuring 
out  their  coming  greatness  through  this  rapid  increase 
of  population.  The  works  of  Franklin  and  Jefferson 
abound  in  allusions  to  the  growth  of  the  past  and  pre 
dictions  of  corresponding  growth  in  the  future.  Mr. 
Jefferson  especially  delighted  to  dwell  on  the  possibil 
ities  of  increase.  "A  duplication  in  little  more  thar 
twenty-two  years,"  he  writes  in  his  first  annual  mes 
sage  as  President  after  the  second  census.  "  In  fifty 
years  more  the  United  States  alone,"  he  writes  to 
Humboldt  in  1813,  "will  contain  fifty  millions  of  in 
habitants."  In  1815  he  states  it  to  Mr.  Maury  as  forty 
millions  in  forty  years,  and  in  sixty  years  eighty  mill 
ions.  The  time  is  already  up,  but  the  eighty  millions 
are  not  forth-coming.  The  truth  is  that  no  expecta 
tion  is  so  unreasonable  respecting  a  geometrical  ratio 
of  increase  as  that  it  will  continue. 


says  Mr.  Bancroft,  "I  deduce  the  annexed 
table  as  some  approximation  to  exactness :" 


Year. 

Whites. 

Blacks. 

Total. 

17.MI 
1754 
1760 
1770 
1780 

1,040,000 
1,165,000 
1,385,000 
1,850,000 
2,383,000 

220,000 
260,000 
310,000 
462,000 
562,000 

1,260,000 
1,425,000 
1,695,000 
2,312,000 
2,945,000 

At  the  first  glance  it  will  seem  incredible 
that  in  the  decade  which  bore  almost  the 
entire  brunt  of  the  Revolutionary  struggle 
against  England  population  should  have 
held  its  own  not  only,  but  have  made  an 
advance  of  nearly  thirty  per  cent.  Yet 
much  can  be  said  in  favor  of  this  estimate 
for  the  period  1770-80.  1770-73  witnessed 
a  rapid  and  continuous  immigration,  espe 
cially  from  Ireland  and  Germany,  which 
provided  a  great  resource  during  the  long- 
continued  drain  which  followed  in  the  years 
of  war.  In  1773  especially  we  have  accounts 
of  wholesale  immigration  from  Ireland  into 
Pennsylvania,  New  York,  and  the  Carolinas.1 
The  outbreak  of  the  Revolution  and  the 
union  of  the  colonies,  which,  in  1776,  declared 
themselves  States,  required  that  the  popu 
lation  of  each  should  be  at  least  approxi 
mately  ascertained  for  the  apportionment 
of  the  fiscal  burdens  of  the  war.  The  num 
bers,  as  then  settled,  "  exclusive  of  slaves  at 
the  South,"  Pitkin  gives  as  follows : 

New  Hampshire2  102,000  Delaware 37,000 

Massachusetts...  352,000  Maryland 174,000 

Rhode  Island. . . .     58,000  Virginia 300,000 

Connecticut 202,000  North  Carolina  . .  181,000 

New  York 238,000  South  Carolina  . .  93,000 

New  Jersey 138,000  Georgia 27,000 

Pennsylvania....  341,000 

Total 2,243,000 

The  slaves  being  then  estimated  at  500,000 
(ibid.),  the  total  estimated  population  at  this 
time  was  2,750,000.  In  the  Convention  of 
1787,  which  framed  the  present  Constitution 
of  the  United  States,  it  became  necessary  to 
use  the  estimated  population  of  each  State 
for  another  purpose,  namely,  that  of  deter 
mining  provisionally  its  representation  in 
Congress  pending  an  actual  enumeration. 
Mr.  Curtis,  in  his  History  of  the  Constitution3 


1  Holmes's  Annals,  ii.  183. 

a  New  Hampshire  complained  that  her  number  was 
too  high,  and  in  1782  caused  an  actual  enumeration  to 
be  made,  by  which  it  appeared  that  the  number  of  her 
inhabitants  was  only  82,000.  Congress,  however,  re 
fused  to  alter  her  proportion  of  taxes  on  that  account. 
— Pitkin's  Statistics. 

3  A  statement  differing  from  this  slightly  in  respect 
to  several  of  the  States,  and  decidedly  in  respect  to 


THE  FIRST  CENSUS. 


221 


PROGRESS  OF  SETTLEMENT 

UNITED  STATES 'E.OF100II'MERIDIAN 


(vol.  ii.  p.  168, 169),  gives  the  following  table 
as  that  "  used  by  the  Federal  Convention :" 

New  Hampshire 102,000 

Massachusetts1 360,000 

Khode  Island 58,000 

Connecticut 202,000 

New  York' 238,000 

New  Jersey 138,000 

Pennsylvania . . : 360,000 

Delaware 37,000 

Maryland,  including  three -fifths  of  80,000 

negroes  218,000 

Virginia,1  including  three-fifths   of  280,000 

negroes 420,000 

North  Carolina,1  including  three- fifths  of 

60,000  negroes 200,000 

South    Carolina,   including    three- fifths   of 

80,000  negroes 150,000 

Georgia,  including  three -fifths  of  20,000  ne 
groes  90,000 

8,678,000 

Add  for  negroes  omitted 208,000 

Total  estimated  population 2^781,000 

Gaorgia  and  New  Hampshire,  is  given  in  Elliott's  De 
bates  (i.  194),  as  found  among  the  papers  of  Mr.  Briarly, 
a  delegate  to  that  convention. 

1  Massachusetts,  it  will  be  remembered,  then  com 
prised  the  territory  which  in  1820  became  the  State 
of  Maine ;  New  York  that  which  in  1791  became  the 


1790-1870. 

The  first  censiis  of  the  United  States 
was  taken  in  1790,  fourteen  years  after  the 
Declaration  of  the  Independence  of  the 
States,  and  determined  the  population  to 
be  3,172,006  whites,  and  757,208  blacks. 

Pretty  mnch  as  a  matter  of  course,  great 
disappointment  was  felt  at  the  result,  and 
dissatisfaction  at  the  methods  of  enumera 
tion  was  loudly  expressed.  Mr.  Jefferson, 
then  Secretary  of  State,  in  sending  copies 
of  the  published  tables  to  our  representa 
tives  at  foreign  courts,  was  careful  to  im 
press  it  on  the  minds  of  his  correspondents 
that  the  returns  fell  far  short  of  the  truth, 
and  even  went  so  far  as  to  supply  the  omis 
sions  which  he  assumed  by  entries  "  in  red 
ink"  (see  letters  to  William  Carmichael,  Au 
gust  24, 1791,  and  to  William  Short,  August 

State  of  Vermont ;  Virginia  that  which  in  1792  became 
the  State  of  Kentucky ;  North  Carolina  that  which  in 
1796  became  the  State  of  Tennessee. 


222 


GROWTH  AND  DISTRIBUTION  OF  POPULATION. 


29,  1791).  The  results  of  later  censuses, 
however,  substantially  establish  the  accu 
racy  of  the  first  enumeration,  and  show  that 
the  dissatisfaction  was  due  to  overstrained 
anticipations.  The  following  table  (antici 
pating  the  formation  of  State  governments 
in  Maine,  Vermont,  Kentucky,  and  Tennes 
see)  exhibits  the  result  by  States : 

Delaware 59,096 

Maryland 319,723 

Virginia 747,610 

North  Carolina . . .  393,751 
South  Carolina  . . .  249,073 

Georgia 82,543 

Kentucky 73,677 

Tennessee 35,691 


Maine 96,540 

New  Hampshire . .  141,885 

Vermont 85,425 

Massachusetts 378,787 

Rhode  Island 68,825 

Connecticut 237,946 

New  York 340,120 

New  Jersey 184,139 

Pennsylvania 434,373 

The  second  map  which  we  present  exhib 
its  the  areas  actually  covered  by  a  popu 
lation  of  two  inhabitants  or  more  to  the 
square  mile  at  each  alternate  decennial  cen 
sus.  The  deepest  shading  (No.  5)  indicates 
the  settlements  of  1790.  The  aggregate 
area  covered  by  population  at  that  time 
was  239,935  square  miles,  Avhich,1  with  the 
population  then  returned,  would  yield  an 
average  of  16.4  inhabitants  to  the  square 
mile.  This  inhabited  area  stretched  from 
the  thirty-first  degree  north  latitude  in  the 
south  of  Georgia  to  the  forty-fifth  degree 
north  latitude  in  Maine,  while  its  extent  in 
land  was  comparatively  insignificant.  The 
following  table  shows  the  number  of  miles 
on  each  parallel  of  latitude  occupied  by 
population  at  each  alternate  decennial  cen 
sus,  measuring  from  the  Atlantic  coast  west 
ward  to  the  100th  meridian. 


Degree  of 
North 
Latitude. 

1790. 

1810. 

1830. 

1850. 

1870. 

47 

0 

0   ,    0 

79 

209 

46 

0 

0 

15 

50 

230 

45 

30 

392 

392 

437 

858 

44 

226 

279 

299 

404 

777 

43 

339 

425 

485 

816 

1137 

42 

234 

568 

691 

984 

1248 

41 

238 

471 

663 

1107 

1325 

40 

358 

584 

912 

1140 

1252 

39 

270 

565 

1038 

1043 

1224 

38 

425 

707 

871 

1032 

1193 

37 

344 

706 

797 

1018 

1134 

36 

462 

682 

878 

1057 

1057 

35 

384 

391 

961 

1030 

1030 

34 

302 

362 

707 

938 

938 

33 

175 

230 

554 

989 

1055 

32 

30 

227 

742 

929 

1003 

31 

10 

240 

634 

860 

991 

30 

0 

150 

323 

725 

785 

29 

0 

0 

0 

255 

372 

28 

0 

0 

0 

80 

140 

27 

0 

0 

0 

0 

25 

26 

0 

0 

0 

0 

65 

i  Statistical  Atlas  of  the  United  States,  1874:  article, 
"The  Progress  of  the  Nation."  We  shall,  from  this 
point  forward,  freely  use  the  statements  made  in  that 
article  without  the  affectation  of  an  acknowledgment. 


Examining  the  figures  for  1790,  we  find 
the  average  settlement  inland,  along  the  fif 
teen  degrees  of  latitude  on  which  there  was 
then  population,  to  be  but  255  miles,  while 
if  we  exclude  the  forty-fifth  and  the  thirty- 
first  and  thirty-second  degrees,  which  were 
most  scantily  populated,  we  shall  still  have 
an  extent  inland  of  but  313  miles,  one-half 
at  least  of  which,  the  writer  is  disposed  to 
believe,  had  been  covered  with  population1 
since  1763. 

Wo  have  said  little  of  charters  and  con 
stitutions,  and  have  sought  to  carry  forward 
our  account  of  the  growth  of  population  in 
the  American  colonies  without  much  regard 
to  the  greater  or  the  smaller  politics  of  the 
time.  But  one  effect,  of  a  political  charac 
ter,  due  to  the  geographical  relations  of  the 
population  just  noted,  fairly  comes  within 
the  scope  of  this  paper.  It  is  that,  by  rea 
son  of  the  location  of  settlements  coastwise, 
the  tendency  toward  a  union  of  the  colonies 
under  a  common  government  had,  from  the 
first,  been  reduced  to  a  minimum.  If,  on 
the  other  hand,  we  imagine  the  colonies  to 
have  been  originally  planted  on  the  Missis 
sippi  and  its  principal  tributaries,  the  Red, 
Arkansas,  Missouri,  and  Ohio,  we  can  not  but 
be  struck  with  the  reason,  and  almost  the 
imperative  necessity,  for  an  early  union, 
which  would  have  been  found  in  their  geo 
graphical  relations  alone.  Especially  as  we 
recall  how  quickly  the  free  navigation  of 
the  Mississippi  became  a  vital  issue  with  the 
first  few  thousands  of  pioneers  who  pushed 
across  the  Alleghanies  after  the  peace  of 
1763  to  make  their  homes  in  the  valley  of 
the  Ohio,  how  constantly  ever  after,  until 
the  final  adjustment  of  the  question,  that 
region  was  embroiled  by  contests  arising 
out  of  disputed  rights,  and  how  ready  these 
sons  of  Massachusetts,  of  Virginia,  and  of 
Carolina  were  reputed  to  be  to  fling  away 
even  their  allegiance  before  submitting  to 
be  "  cabined,  cribbed,  confined,  bound  in," 
by  the  grasp  of  another  sovereignty  upon 
their  only  outlet  to  the  sea,  it  becomes 
scarcely  possible  to  believe  that  the  thir 
teen  colonies,  had  they  been  planted  in  any 
order  within  the  great  Mississippi  system, 
could,  even  under  the  tempering  and  con- 

1  That  is,  to  the  degree  necessary  to  allow  of  its 
representation  on  this  map,  namely,  with  at  least  two 
inhabitants  to  the  square  mile. 


SEGREGATION  OF  THE  COLONIES. 


223 


trolling  supervision  of  the  crown,  have  re 
mained  for  so  much  as  one  human  genera 
tion  at  peace  with  each  other  without  some 
common  form  of  government  representing 
their  own  free  and  perennial  consent.  War 
must,  in  spite  of  all  the  restraining  influ 
ence  of  the  crown,  have  furnished  the  only 
relief  for  the  stifling  sensations  of  the  inte 
rior  colonies,  or  else,  as  with  English  good 
sense  and  good  feeling  would  have  been 
more  likely,  some  form  of  union  for  general 
purposes  would  at  an  early  date  have  been 
resorted  to. 

But  the  colonies  were  not  planted  upon 
the  Mississippi,  which  for  more  than  two  hun 
dred  years  after  the  discovery  of  the  main 
land  remained,  we  can  not  say  unkuowm,  but 
avoided  by  immigration,  its  difficult  ap 
proaches  and  its  tedious  navigation  below 
the  Isle  of  Orleans  giving  it  the  unpromis 
ing  name  of  "  Malbouchia."  It  was  on  the 
coast,  from  Georgia  to  Maine,  that  colonies 
were  planted  in  the  seventeenth  century. 
Now  the  Atlantic  slope  is  made  up  of  scores 
of  distinct  river  basins,  within  each  of  which 
colonies  might  have  been  planted  in  practi 
cal  independence  of  each  other.  As  mat 
ter  of  fact,  the  malignant  force  of  circum 
stances1  and  the  more  effectual  ignorance 
and  stupidity  of  the  home  government  com 
bined  to  involve  the  colonies  in  many  dis 
putes  ;  yet  still  it  remained  true  that  each 
colony  had  its  own  coast-line  and  harbors 
and  its  own  water-courses,  sufficient  to  en 
able  it  to  maintain  its  communication  with 
the  outer  world  without  the  leave  of  any 
other  colony.  Massachusetts  and  Connect 
icut  did,  indeed,  quarrel  for  a  while  (1647- 
50)  over  the  dues  levied  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Connecticut  River  (Saybrook)  on  goods 
destined  for  Springfield,  and  retaliatory 
measures  were  for  a  short  time  resorted  to. 
New  York,  Connecticut,  and  New  Jersey 
might  quarrel,  as,  indeed,  they  have,  in  a 
feeble  way,  even  since  the  adoption  of  the 
Constitution,2  over  the  navigation  of  the 

1  Such  as  the  cutting  into  two  of  the  Massachusetts 
and  Connecticut  grants  by  the  Dutch  occupation  of 
New  York. 

2  Over  the  matter  of  the  exclusive  right  of  certain 
patentees  of  New  York  to  navigate  the  waters  of  New 
York  with  vessels  propelled  by  steam.    Mr.  Webster 
summed  up  the  situation  as  it  existed  in  1824  as  fol 
lows:  "The  North  River  shut  up  by  a  monopoly 
from  New  York ;  the  Sound  interdicted  by  a  penal  law 


waters  of  New  York  Bay.  Virginia  and 
Maryland  had  cause  of  dispute,  traditions 
of  which  survive  even  to  our  day,  in  the 
petty  war  of  oyster-men  over  their  conflict 
ing  rights  upon  the  Chesapeake,  Potomac, 
and  Pocomoke ;  and  several  of  the  colonies 
had  reason  to  complain  that  their  neighbors 
took  advantage  of  superior  power  and  bet 
ter  geographical  location  to  tax  their  prod 
ucts.1  But  in  none  of  these,  or  other  in 
stances  that  might  be  cited,  were  the  actu 
al  or  possible  injuries  of  a  vital  character, 
tending  to  destroy  the  existence,"  or  even  in 
an  appreciable  degree  to  impair  the  growth, 
of  the  colonies  suffering  them. 

It  is  in  this  attitude  of  natural  independ 
ence  that  we  find  the  explanation  of  the 
fact  that  no  popular  sentiment  in  favor  of 
an  American  nationality  appeared  in  the 
early  days  of  our  colonial  history.  Even 
the  ever-dreaded  hostility  of  the  French 
and  their  Indian  allies  was  insufficient  to 
furnish  a  motive  to  union.  Virginians  were 
content  to  be  Virginians,  Carolinians  to  be 
Carolinians,  New  Yorkers  to  be  New  York 
ers.  None  seemed  to  aspire  to  be  Ameri 
cans.  The  partial  confederation  of  New  En 
gland  in  1643,  an  occasional  joint  expedi 
tion  or  contribution,3  and  the  abortive  con 
vention  at  Albany  in  1754  were  all  that  came 
of  the  common  needs  and  common  dangers 
of  the  colonies,  until  the  one  overwhelming 
necessity  of  a  common  resistance  to  the 
wrongs  of  the  mother  country,  which  should 
have  been  the  common  protector,  assembled 
the  Continental  Congress  of  1774. 

THE  EXTENSION  OF  SETTLEMENT  SINCE  1790. 

Group  No.  4  on  the  map  already  referred 

of  Connecticut;  reprisals  authorized  by  New  Jersey 
against  citizens  of  New  York."— Argument  in  "  Gib 
bons  and  Ogden." 

1  Virginia  had  taxed  the  tobacco  of  North  Carolina ; 
Pennsylvania  had  taxed  the  products  of  Maryland,  of 
New  Jersey,  and  of  Delaware. — Curtis,  Hist.  Const.,  i. 
290. 

a  Delaware  would  seem  to  afford  an  instance  in  con 
tradiction  of  this  remark.  But  Delaware  originally 
formed  a  part  of  Pennsylvania,  being  known  as  "  the 
lower  counties  on  the  Delaware."  From  1703  it  en 
joyed  a  separate  Legislature;  but  it  continued  to  have 
the  same  Governor  as  Pennsylvania— a  fact  which 
generally  sufficed  to  prevent  that  antagonism  of  in 
terests  which  otherwise  might  have  arisen  from  the 
geographical  relations  of  the  two  colonies. 

3  Maryland  was  the  most  southern  colony  which 
contributed  to  the  defense  of  New  York  in  1695.— 
Bancroft,  iii.  34. 


224 


GEOWTH  AND  DISTRIBUTION  OF  POPULATION. 


to  exhibits  the  settlements  of  1810 ;  group 
No.  3,  those  of  1830  ;  group  No.  2,  those  of 
1850 ;  and  group  No.  1,  those  of  1870.  The 
following  table  shows  the  areas  which  are 
thus  represented  on  the  map,  reduced  to 
figures,  in  square  miles.  For  1850  and  1870 
we  have,  however,  for  convenience  of  com 
parison,  added  the  settled  areas  west  of  the 
100th  meridian,  which  are  not  on  the  map. 


Yea, 

Total  Area  of 
Settlement. 

Population. 

Average  Density  o£ 
Settlement.    Persona 
to  a  square  mile. 

1790 
1810 
1830 
1850 

1STO 

•.iii'V.Kif) 

407,945 
632,717 
979,249 
1,272,239 

3,929,214 
7,239,881 
12,866,020 
23,191,876 
38,558,371 

16.4 
17.7 
20.3 
23.T 
30.2 

This  table  excludes  the  nearly  eighteen 
hundred  thousand  square  miles  of  territory 
belonging  to  the  United  States  (without 
reckoning  the  area  of  Alaska),  which  have 
either  no  population  at  all,  or  else  are  so 
sparsely  populated  that  the  settlements  can 
not  be  exhibited  on  the  scale  taken  for  our 
map.  The  following  table  shows  the  degrees 
of  latitude  and  longitude  within  which  the 
solid  body  of  settlement  was  at  each  period 
comprised,  the  plan  of  constructing  it  being 
to  exclude  all  patches  of  settlement,  or  even 
considerable  tracts,  which  were  separated 
from  the  main  body  by  vacant  spaces,  leav 
ing  thus  only  the  solid  mass  of  continuous 
settlement  reaching  from  the  Atlantic  west 
ward  to  the  frontier  for  the  time  being. 


Year. 

EXTENT  OF  CONTINUOUS  SETTLEMENT. 

North  Latitude. 

West  Longitude. 

1790 
1810 
1830 
1850 
1870 

310        _^j5o 
29°  30'—  45°  15' 
29°  15'—  46°  15' 
28°  30'—  46°  30' 
27°  15'—  47°  30' 

67°—  83° 
67°—  88°  30' 
67°—  95° 
67°—  99° 
67°—  99°  45' 

The  population  of  1790  was  very  largely 
rural.  Of  the  226,085  square  miles  which 
were  covered  with  population,  166,782  had 
between  2  and  18  inhabitants  to  the  square 
mile;  59,282  had  between  18  and  45;  and 
but  13,871  had  over  45. 

Of  cities  of  8000  or  more  inhabitants,  there 
were  at  this  date  but  six :  Philadelphia,  with 
a  population  of  42,520 ;  New  York,  with 
33,131;  Boston,  with  18,038;  Charleston, 
with  16,359  ;  Baltimore,  with  13,503 ;  Salem, 
with  (in  round  numbers)  8000. 

Of  the  six  cities  named  only  three  had 
been  the  first-chosen  seats  of  population. 
Salem  had  been  settled  in  1628  in  prefer 


ence  to  Boston ;  Calvert's  company  sought 
St. Mary's,  and  not  Baltimore ;  "Old  Charles- 
town"  had  to  be  abandoned  to  found  modern 
Charleston. 

Of  the  six,  Philadelphia,  though  founded 
nearly  sixty  years  after  New  York,  early  took 
the  lead,  remaining  the  chief  city  until  near 
ly  1810.  As  early  as  1696  it  is  described  as 
containing  1000  houses,  mostly  of  brick,  and 
doubtless  all  then  as  decorous  in  aspect,  and 
appearing  as  incapable  of  being  out  of  the 
way,  as  their  successors  at  the  present  time. 
At  1750  the  population  of  the  city  is  put  at 
13,000.' 

New  York,  which  had  grown  out  of  a  few 
trading  huts  on  Manhattan  Island,  had  come 
in  1677  to  be  a  smart  village  of  350  houses, 
Avith  perhaps  3000  inhabitants.  In  1696  the 
number  of  houses  had  increased  to  594.  In 
1759  there  were  2000  houses,  with  perhaps 
12,000  inhabitants.  By  the  colonial  census 
of  1773  the  population  was  determined  to 
be  21,363. 

Boston  had  a  rapid  growth  at  first,  which 
was  checked  by  the  almost  entire  cessation 
of  immigration  about  1670.  In  1700  1000 
houses  are  reported ;  in  1765  the  number 
had  increased  only  to  1676,  the  number  of 
inhabitants  being  15,520. 

Baltimore  had  not  been  laid  out  until 
1729.  It  was  incorporated  1745.  It  re 
mained,  says  Hildreth,  but  a  petty  village 
for  twenty  years  afterward  (ii.  414). 

Of  cities  now  noted,  Providence,  Portland, 
Albany,  and  Richmond  were  then  smart 
towns.  Newport,  though  past  its  greatest 
prosperity,  was  still  a  considerable  place. 
Norfolk  was  coming  to  be  known  for  its  ex 
port  trade.  Savannah  was  as  yet  of  little 
account.  It  was  described  in  1754  as  con 
taining  "  about  150  houses,  all  wooden  ones, 
very  small,  and  mostly  old."2  The  begin 
nings  of  Detroit  have  already  been  spoken 
of.  Mobile,  New  Orleans,  and  St.  Louis 
were  as  yet  foreign  territory.  Mobile  was 
little  more  than  a  Spanish  garrison.  The 
site  of  New  Orleans,  a  pestilential  swamp, 
had  been  cleared  in  1718  by  the  Mississip 
pi  Company,  under  "  the  reign  of  Law"  in 
France.  In  1769,  after  the  transfer  of  Lou 
isiana  to  Spain,  New  Orleans  was  found  to 


European  Settlements  in  America,  ii.  264. 
Hildreth,  ii.  454. 


GROWTH  OF  CITIES. 


225 


contain  1801  whites,  99  free  colored,  60  doin- 
iciliated  Indians,  1225  slaves.1  St.  Louis 
had  been  founded  in  1764  as  the  emporium 
for  the  fur  trade  of  the  Missouri  and  Mis 
sissippi  valleys.  President  Jefterson,  writ 
ing  of  it  to  Colonel  (afterward  President) 
Monroe,  May  4,  1806,  says,  "  St.  Louis,  where 
there  is  good  society,  both  French  and  Amer 
ican,  a  healthy  climate,  and  the  finest  field 
in  the  United  States  for  acquiring  prop 
erty." 

The  aggregate  population  of  the  six  cities 
at  1790  was  131,472,  being  3.4  per  cent,  of 
the  total  population  of  the  country.  There 
are  now  twenty-nine  cities  which  have  a 
larger  population  than  the  largest  at  1790 ; 
226  cities  and  towns  as  large  as  Salem  then 
was ;  the  aggregate  city  population  of  to 
day  is  8,071,875,  being  20.9  per  cent,  of  the 
total  population. 

The  following  table  shows  the  growth  of 
the  city  system  from  1790  to  1870 : 


THE  CENTRE   OK  POPULATION. 

It  has  been  said  that  the  average  extent 
inland  of  population  at  1790  was  313  miles, 
if  we  exclude  the  three  parallels  then  most 
scantily  populated.  If  the  density  of  popu 
lation  over  the  settled  area  had  been  every 
where  uniform,  the  centre  of  population1 
would  have  been  easily  found.  But,  in  fact, 
so  irregular  was  the  settlement  of  the  At 
lantic  slope,  so  far  as  it  was  occupied  at  all, 
that  very  elaborate  calculations  require  to 
be  made  in  order  to  ascertain  even  approxi 
mately  the  point  at  which  the  population 
would,  so  to  speak,  have  balanced.  Entering 
into  these  calculations,  we  find  the  denser 
settlements  immediately  on  the  coast,  and 
especially  the  sea-port  cities,  drawing  the 
centre  of  population  far  to  the  east  of  the 
geographical  centre  of  the  then  populated 
tract,  and  fixing  it  about  twenty-three  miles 
east  of  Baltimore.  Since  that  date  the  cen 
tre  of  population  has  moved  a  total  distance 
of  399  miles,  being,  as  nearly  as  possible,  an 


Year. 

CITIES   BY   CLASSES,  ACCORDING   TO   RIZB. 

bouu 
to 

Iv.uuu 
to 

ill,UUU 

to 

40,C!00 

75,000 
to 

H/5,000 
to 

250,000 
to 

500,000 

Total. 

12,000. 

S0,of:0. 

40.0110. 

75,000. 

125,000. 

250,000. 

500,000. 

and  over. 

1790 

1 

3 

1 

1 

6 

1810 

4 

2 

3 

2 

11 

1830 

12 

7 

3 

1 

1 

2 

26 

law 

36 

20 

14 

7 

3 

3 

1 

1 

85 

1870 

9ii 

63 

39 

14 

8 

3 

5 

2 

226 

The  next  table  exhibits  the  aggregate 
city  population  at  each  specified  date,  in 
comparison  with  the  total  population  of  the 
country : 


Year 

Population  of 
United  States. 

Population  of 
Cities. 

Inhabitants  of  Cities 
in  each  100  of  the  total 

1790 
1810 
1830 
1850 
1870 

3,929,214 
7,239,881 
12,866,020 
23,191,876 
38,558,371 

131,472 
356,920 
864,509 
2,897,586 
8,071,875 

3.4 
4.9' 
6.7 
12.5 
20.9 

average  of  fifty  miles  every  ten  years.  The 
following  table  exhibits  the  position,  by 
latitude  and  longitude,  of  the  centre  of  pop 
ulation  at  the  beginning  of  each  decennial 
period,  with  its  location  approximately  by 
reference  to  important  towns,  and  indicates 
the  number  of  miles  which  had  been  trav 
ersed  in  the  westward  movement  of  the 
preceding  decade : 


Westward  Movement 

Year. 

during  preceding 

North  Latitude. 

West  Longitude. 

App  oxitnate  Location  by  important  Towns. 

Decade. 

1790 

39°  16.5' 

76°  11.2' 

23  m  les  E.  of  Baltimore. 

1800 

39°  16.1' 

76°  56.5' 

18            W.  of  Baltimore. 

41  miles. 

1810 

39°  11.5' 

77°  37.2' 

40            N.W.  by  W.  of  Washington. 

36     ' 

1820 

39°  05.7' 

78°  33' 

16            N.  of  Woodstock. 

50      ' 

1830 

38°  57.9' 

79°  16.9' 

19            W.  8.  W.  of  M  oorefleld. 

39      ' 

1840 

39°  02' 

80°  18' 

16            S.  of  Clarksburg. 

55     ' 

1850 

38°  59' 

81°  19' 

23             S.E.  of  Parkcrsburg. 

55      ' 

1860 

39°  00.4' 

82°  48.8' 

20            S.  of  Chillicothe. 

81      ' 

1870 

39°  12' 

83°  35.7' 

48            E.  by  N.  of  Cincinnati. 

42      ' 

Total..  399     " 

Speaking  roundly,  it  may  be  said  that  at 
1790  one-thirtieth  of  the  population  was  in 
cities ;  at  1810,  one-twentieth ;  at  1830,  one- 
sixteenth  ;  at  1860,  one-eighth ;  at  1870,  one- 
fifth  and  more. 


1  Bancroft,  vi.  296. 
15 


1  By  the  phrase  "centre  of  population"  is  common 
ly  intended  the  point  at  which  equilibrium  would  he- 
reached  were  the  country  taken  as  a  plane  surface,  it 
self  without  weight,  but  capable  of  sustaining  weight, 
and  loaded  with  its  inhabitants,  in  number  and  posi 
tion  such  as  they  are  found  at  the  period  under  con 
sideration,  the  individuals  being  of  equal  gravity,  and 
each  consequently  exerting  pressure  on  the  pivotal 
point  proportioned  to  his  distance  therefrom. 


226 


GROWTH  AND  DISTRIBUTION  OF  POPULATION. 


The  tremendous  leap  from  1850  to  1860, 
eighty-one  miles,  is  due  to  the  sudden  trans 
fer  of  a  considerable  body  of  population 
from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  coast,  con 
sequent  on  the  gold  discoveries,  twelve  in 
dividuals  in  San  Francisco  exerting  as 
much  pressure  at  the  pivotal  point,  say,  the 
crossing  of  the  83d  meridian  and  the  39th 
parallel,  as  forty  individuals  in  Boston. 

The  third  map  exhibits  to  the  eye  the 
movement  of  population  which  is  stated  in 
figures  in  the  foregoing  table. 

THE  ARITHMETICAL  PROCESS  OF  THE 
NATIONAL  GROWTH. 

The  arithmetical  process  of  the  national 
growth  has  been  so  fully  set  forth  by  a 
score  of  writers  on  population  that  we  shall 
give  but  little  space  to  its  exposition  here. 
The  table  following  exhibits  the  ratio  of 
increase,  by  ten,  twenty,  and  thirty  year 
periods,  from  1790  to  1870 : 


Year. 

INCREASE   PER  CENT. 

In  Ten  Years. 

In  Twenty  Ye'ir^ 

In  Thirty  Years. 

1800 
1810 
1820 
1830 
1840 
1850 
1860 
1870 

35.1 
36.3 
33.1 
33.5 
32.6 
35.8 
35.6 
22.6 

84i2 
81.5 
77.7 
77.2 
80.2 
84.2 
06.2 

145.1 
142.3 
135.8 
140.7 
14-1.4 
125.9 

THE   GEOGRAPHICAL  PROCESS  OF  THE 
NATIONAL  GROWTH. 

We  find  in  a  recent  review  so  good  a  gen 
eralization  of  the  process  of  our  national 
growth  geographically  that  we  can  not  do 
better  than  quote  it,  premising  that  the  de 
scription  has  reference  to  a  series  of  maps 
like  No.  5  of  the  present  series  (following), 
one  for  each  census  of  the  United  States, 
showing  the  location  and  density  of  popu 
lation  at  each  date  by  shades  of  the  same 
color.  The  writer  says : 

"  The  feature  which  this  series  of  plates  brings  to 
view  most  strikingly  is  the  constant  tendency  to  the 
formation  beyond  the  general  frontier  line  of  detached 
patches  of  color  in  localities  favorable  to  population, 
at  first  of  insignificant  proportions,  but  increasing 
during  each  decade ;  the  subsequent  projection  of 
branches  toward  the  main  body,  which  itself  seems  to 
develop  sympathetically  in  the  direction  of  these  out 
lying  masses ;  the  formation  of  a  broad  connecting 
band  ;  and  finally  the  complete  absorption  of  the  out 
lying  groups  by  the  advancing  main  body,  which  in 
the  mean  time  has  been  deepening  in  tint  simultane 
ously  with  the  extension  of  its  area.  The  foregoing 
process,  in  continuous  action,  seems  to  be  the  normal 
law  of  growth  of  our  population,  and  its  operation 


can  be  distinctly  discerned  to-day  in  the  feelers  cau 
tiously  thrown  out  from  the  east  along  the  lines  of 
the  Missouri,  the  Platte,  and  the  Arkansas  rivers  to 
ward  the  Rocky  Mountain  settlements  in  Colorado 
and  New  Mexico."1 

The  process  may  perhaps  be  illustrated  by 
supposing  an  overflow  from  one  of  the  banks 
of  a  lake  of  a  definite  volume  of  water,  the 
overflow  then  to  cease.  The  ground  beyond 
the  bank  may  seem  to  be  level,  but  the  wa 
ter  quickly  discovers  a  slight  depression 
through  the  middle  of  the  plain,  and  flows 
out  along  this  as  a  channel  until,  sooner  or 
later,  it  finds  a  shallow  basin,  into  which  it 
drains,  leaving  perhaps  here  and  there  a 
small  pool  along  its  former  channel. 

Now  let  us  suppose  a  second  overflow  to 
take  place :  the  water  pours  as  before  into 
the  interior  basin,  but  that  basin  now  be 
gins  to  lose  its  original  shape.  By  little 
and  little,  broad  shallow  tracts  upon  one 
side  of  it  are  covered  with  water,  while  on 
all  the  other  sides  narrow  arms  are  stretch 
ed  out,  marking  certain  natural  channels 
whose  depression  below  the  general  surface 
the  eye  perhaps  could  not  detect ;  and  as 
we  pass  back  along  the  path  of  the  overflow 
to  the  lake  we  find  the  few  pools  become 
many.  Now  let  a  third  overflow  take  place : 
new  shallow  expanses  will  be  added  to  the 
original  basin ;  some  of  the  arms  will  be 
extended  around  to  meet  each  other,  em 
bracing  spaces  which  still  remain  dry ;  new 
arms  will  be  stretched  out  in  new  directions, 
and  the  channel  by  which  the  water  over 
flows  from  the  lake  will  now  stand  full,  and 
even  begin  to  overflow  its  banks  in  turn, 
send  out  its  arms,  and  annex  broad  shallow 
expanses  of  water  on  either  hand.  Still  an 
other  overflow,  and  the  whole  land  would 
lie  under  water,  and  the  margin  of  the  lake 
be  carried  clear  across  the  plain  and  estab 
lished,  for  the  time  at  least,  on  the  other 
side. 

Such  we  conceive  to  be  the  process  by 
which  the  geographical  extension  of  our 
population  has  taken  place,  and  had  a  cen 
sus  been  taken  every  two  or  three  years, 
and  the  results  carefully  noted  down,  we 
do  not  doubt  that  this  process  would  be 
shown  in  almost  uninterrupted  action  from 
1776,  or  even  from  1660,  to  the  present 
time. 

i  International  Review,  Jan.-Feb.,  1875,  p.  133. 


GEOGRAPHICAL  EXTENSION. 


227 


228 


GROWTH  AND  DISTRIBUTION  OF  POPULATION. 


THE  PACIFIC   COAST  SETTLEMENTS. 

But  while  the  description  thus  given  of 
the  formation  of  bodies  of  population  out 
side  the  general  frontier  and  their  ultimate 
absorption  in  the  mass  of  settlement  ap 
plies  with  substantial  accuracy  even  in  such 
extreme  cases  as  the  Tennessee  and  Ken 
tucky  groups  of  1790  and  the  Mobile  and 
New  Orleans  groups  of  1810,  the  settlements 
on  the  Pacific  coast  followed  another  course, 
and  have  never  come  within  the  scope  of 
this  law. 

The  "Louisiana"  which  Jefferson  pur 
chased  in  1803  embraced,  as  appears  on  our 
first  map,  not  only  a  vast  extent  of  territory 
on  this  side  of  the  Rocky,  or,  as  they  were 
then  known,  the  Stony,  Mountains,  but  also 
the  present  Territories  of  Washington  and 
Idaho  and  the  State  of  Oregon  beyond. 
There  were  then  no  white  settlements  in 
Oregon  outside  of  the  trading  stations,  nor 
was  there  any  population  worth  regarding 
until  the  gold  discoveries  of  1848. 

In  1824-25,  however,  a  strong  effort  was 
made  in  Congress  to  secure  this  territory 
as  against  the  conflicting  claims  of  Great 
Britain  by  both  a  military  occupation  and 
a  political  organization,  settlement  to  be 
encouraged  by  grants  of  public  lands.  It 
is  not  our  purpose  to  trace  the  history  of 
this  bill,  which  was  lost  iu  the  Senate,  but 
the  course  of  debate  elicited  expressions  of 
opinion  from  honorable  members  which  are 
not  without  interest  and  instruction  to  us 
to-day. 

In  the  House,  Mr.  Smyth,  of  Virginia,  com 
bated  the  notion  that  the  limits  of  "  the  fed 
eration"  could  ever  be  safely  extended  be 
yond  the  Stony  Mountains.  He  conceived 
that  the  principle  of  union  from  mutual  in 
terests  might  bind  together  all  those  who 
should  inhabit  the  Mississippi  Valley,  as 
their  produce  would  all  seek  the  same  out 
let.  Ho  would  concede  that  the  federation 
might  ultimately  be  made  to  embrace  "  one 
or  two  tiers  of  States  beyond  the  Mississip 
pi,"  but,  in  his  judgment,  the  federative  sys 
tem  ought  not  to  be  extended  further. 

In  the  Senate,  Mr.  Dickerson,  of  New  Jer 
sey,  offered  a  slashing  opposition  to  the  bill. 
The  project  of  a  State  upon  the  Pacific  was 
an  absurdity.  "  The  distance  that  a  mem 
ber  of  Congress  from  this  State  of  Oregon 
would  be  obliged  to  travel  in  coming  ^to 


the  seat  of  government  and  returning  homo 

would  be  9200  miles If  ho  should  travel 

at  the  rate  of  thirty  miles  per  day,  it  would 
require  306  days ;  allow  for  Sundays,  forty- 
four,  it  would  amount  to  350  days.  This 
would  allow  the  member  a  fortnight  to  rest 
himself  at  Washington  before  he  should 

commence  his  journey  home It  would  be 

more  expeditious,  however,  to  come  by  wa 
ter  round  Cape  Horn,  or  to  pass  througli 
Behring  Straits,  round  the  north  coast  of 
this  continent  to  Baffin  Bay,  thence  through 
Davis  Strait  to  the  Atlantic,  and  so  on  to 
Washington.  It  is  true,  this  passage  is 
not  yet  discovered,  except  upon  our  maps, 
~but  it  will  l)e  as  soon  as  Oregon  shall  be  a 
State." 

Mr.  Dickerson's  geographical  eloquence 
was  too  much  for  the  friends  of  the  bill, 
which,  on  his  motion,  was  laid  upon  the 
table. 

About  1850,  however,  the  United  States 
government  was  brought  to  provide  for  four 
longitudinal  bodies  of  settlement  west  of  the 
100th  meridian.  But  though  these  groups 
of  population  came  at  about  the  same  time 
under  the  control  of  the  United  States,  they 
were  of  widely  different  age  and  history. 
The  easternmost  (in  the  present  Territories 
of  New  Mexico  and  Colorado,  between  the 
103d  and  105th  meridians)  represented  the 
old  Spanish  settlements  on  the  Rio  Grande, 
extending  to  its  source  in  the  Rocky  Mount 
ains,  and  containing  about  50,000  whites, 
of  very  various  degrees  of  whiteness,  now 
brought  by  cession,  as  the  result  of  the  Mex 
ican  war,  under  the  flag  of  the  United  States. 
The  second  line  of  settlement  (in  the  present 
Territory  of  Utah,  along  the  112th  meridian) 
was  the  result  of  the  flight  of  the  Mormons 
across  the  plains  in  1847-48.  The  remain 
ing  two  lines  of  settlement  were  drawn  west 
of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  close  by  each  other, 
being  scarcely  distant  a  degree  in  longitude, 
the  one  at  the  foot  of  the  Sierra,  the  other 
at  the  base  of  the  coast  range.  These  set 
tlements  were  the  result  of  the  gold  discov 
eries  in  California  in  1848.  Two  years  suf 
ficed  to  fill  the  valleys  of  the  Sacramento 
and  San  Joaquin  and  the  Willamette  with 
a  population  of  100,000  of  all  races  and  con 
ditions  of  men.  Though  these  two  lines  of 
settlement  were  in  their  general  course  dis 
tinct,  they  were  yet  united  by  one  broad 


THE  POST-OFFICE. 


229 


baud  of  population  reaching  from  San  Fran 
cisco  to  Sacramento  and  Stockton. 

Such  were  the  settlements  west  of  the 
100th  meridian  in  1850.  They  then  com 
prised  about  33,600  square  miles,  occupied 
by  a  population  of  an  appreciable  degree  of 
density.  Ten  years  later  their  population 
had  risen  to  about  620,000,  covering  about 
100,000  square  miles.  In  1870  the  popula 
tion  west  of  the  100th  meridian  had  risen  to 
a  full  million,  covering  about  120,000  square 
miles.  Each  of  the  four  lines  of  settlement 
still  remains  distinct,  though  each  has  grown 
greatly  since  1850.  The  easternmost  now 
stretches  from  the  Mexican  border,  across 
the  whole  extent  of  New  Mexico  and  Colo 
rado,  into  Wyoming,  in  a  narrow,  irregular 
fashion,  embracing  in  all  about  140,000  souls. 
The  Utah  group  now  extends  from  the  north 
ern  border  of  Arizona,  a  little  way  across 
the  northern  boundary  of  Utah,  into  Idaho. 
The  population,  Saints  and  Gentiles,  has  now 
risen  to  90,000.  The  two  California  groups 
have  extended  themselves  longitudinally — 
the  westernmost  from  the  thirty-ninth  de 
gree  of  latitude  south  to  the  thirty-third ; 
the  other  from  the  thirty-fifth  parallel,  with 
but  slight  interruption,  northward  to  Pu- 
get  Sound. 

In  addition  to  these  four  longitudinal 
belts  of  population  there  are  at  the  present 
time  perhaps  150  patches  of  settlements, 
comprising  each  from  100  to  300  souls,  with 
a  few  of  even  greater  importance,  scattered 
over  the  face  of  the  vast  region  west  of  the 
100th  meridian.  A  little  ingenuity  and  the 
use  of  a  somewhat  heroic  method  of  treat 
ment  would  undoubtedly  suffice  to  refer 
nearly  all  of  these  to  one  or  another  of  the 
seven  longitudinal  zones  or  chains  of  min 
eral  deposits1  which  are  recognized  by  our 
explorers  and  geologists. 


>  This  generalization  was  first  made  by  Professor 
Blake,  and  has  been  more  minutely  brought  out  by 
Mr.  Clarence  King,  as  follows : 

"  The  Pacific  coast  ranges  upon  the  west  carry  quick 
silver,  tin,  and  chromic  iron.  The  next  belt  is  that  of 
the  Sierra  Nevada  and  Oregon  Cascades,  which  upon 
their  west  slope  bear  two  zones— a  foot-hill  chain  of 
copper  mines  and  a  middle  line  of  gold  deposits. 
These  gold  veins  and  the  resultant  placer  mines  ex 
tend  far  into  Alaska,  characterized  by  the  occurrence 
of  gold  in  quartz,  by  a  small  amount  of  that  metal 
which  is  entangled  in  iron  sulphurets,  and  by  occupy 
ing  splits  in  the  upturned  metamorphic  strata  of  the 
Jurassic  nge.  Lying  to  the  east  of  this  zone,  along 


THK   POST-OFFICE. 

Perhaps  no  better  illustration  could  be 
found  of  the  increase  of  population  and  the 
extension  of  settlements  than  is  afforded  by 
the  history  of  the  Post-office  in  the  United 
States. 

In  1692  a  royal  patent  constituted  Thomas 
Neale  Postmaster-General  of  Virginia  and 
other  parts  of  North  America.  Holmes  says 
that  under  Neale's  patent  nothing  whatever 
resulted,  on  account  of  the  "dispersed  situ 
ations  of  the  inhabitants."1  Hildreth  says, 
"  A  colonial  Post-office  system,  though  of  a 
very  limited  and  imperfect  character,  was 
presently  established  under  this  patent."3 
In  1695,  says  Bancroft,  letters  might  be  for 
warded  eight  times  a  year  from  the  Potomac 
to  Philadelphia.3 

In  1710  Parliament  passed  "  an  act  for  es 
tablishing  a  General  Post-office  for  all  her 
Majesty's  dominions."  The  Postmaster-Gen 
eral  was  authorized  to  keep  "one  chief  let 
ter  office  in  New  York,  and  other  chief  of 
fices  at  some  convenient  place  or  places  in 
each  of  her  Majesty's  provinces  or  colonies 
in  America."  A  line  of  posts  was  estab 
lished  from  the  Piscataqua  to  Philadelphia, 
"  irregularly  extended  a  few  years  after  to 
Williamsburg,  in  Virginia,  the  post  leaving 
Philadelphia  for  the  South  as  often  as  letters 
enough  were  lodged  to  pay  the  expense.  The 
postal  communication  subsequently  estab 
lished  with  the  Carolinas  was  still  more  ir 
regular."* 

In  1753  Dr.  Franklin  was  appointed  Post 
master-General5  for  America,  and  held  the 
office  till  1774.  Of  his  administration  of  the 
office  he  writes  in  his  autobiography : 

"  The  American  office  had  hitherto  never  paid  any 
thing  to  that  of  Britain Before  I  was  displaced  by  a 

the  east  base  of  the  Sierras,  and  stretching  southward 
into  Mexico,  is  a  chain  of  silver  mines,  containing  com 
paratively  little  base  metal,  and  frequently  included 
in  volcanic  rocks.  Through  Middle  Mexico,  Arizona, 
Middle  Nevada,  and  Central  Idaho  is  another  line  of 
silver  mines,  mineralized  with  complicated  association 
of  the  base  metals,  and  more  often  occurring  in  older 
rocks.  Through  New  Mexico,  Utah,  and  Western 
Montana  lies  another  zone,  of  argentiferous  galena 
lodes.  To  the  east,  again,  the  New  Mexico,  Colora 
do,  Wyoming,  and  Montana  gold  belt  is  an  extremely 
well  defined  and  continuous  chain  of  deposits." 

1  Annals,  i.  444. 

»  Hist.  United  States,  ii.  181, 182. 

3  Hist.  United  States,  iii.  34. 

«  Hildreth,  ii.  263. 

s  At  first  jointly  with  William  Hunter. 


230 


GROWTH  AND  DISTRIBUTION  OF  POPULATION. 


freak  of  the  ministers,  we  had  brought  it  to  yield  three 
times  as  much  clear  revenue  to  the  crown  as  the  Post- 
office  of  Ireland." 

In  1774  William  Goddard,  a  printer,  of  Bal 
timore,  proposed  a  plan  for  a  "  Constitution 
al  American  Post-office,"  and,  after  much 
agitation  of  the  subject,  a  service  was  act 
ually  inaugurated  under  Goddard's  manage 
ment  ;  but  it  had  brief  continuance. 

After  the  outbreak  in  1775  the  colonies 
were  for  a  time  driven  to  their  own  individ 
ual  efforts  for  maintaining  the  Post-office.1 
On  the  26th  of  July,  1775,  however,  the  Con 
tinental  Congress  resolved  that  a  Postmas 
ter-General  be  appointed  for  the  "United 
Colonies,"  who  should  hold  his  office  at  Phil 
adelphia,  where  the  Congress  was  sitting. 
We  ask  special  attention  to  the  phraseol 
ogy  of  the  resolution  fixing  the  general 
scope  of  the  postal  service : 

"  That  a  line  of  posts  be  appointed,  under  the  direc 
tion  of  the  PoBtmaster-General,/rom  Falmouth,  in  New 
England,  to  Savannah,  in  Georgia,  with  as  many  cross 
posts  as  he  shall  think  fit." 

The  expression  shows  the  situation  of  the 
population  as  stretched  along  the  coast, 
with  but  little  extent  inland. 

In  1790  the  number  of  post-offices  in  the 
United  States  was  seventy-five ;  the  aggre 
gate  length  of  the  post-roads,  1875  miles; 
the  amount  paid  for  transportation  of  the 
mails,  $22,081 ;  the  gross  postal  revenues 
were  $37,935,  and  the  expenditures  $32,140. 
Mails  were  conveyed  but  three  times  per 
week  between  New  York  and  Boston  in 
summer,  and  twice  in  winter,  occupying  five 
days  in  transit.2  Only  five  mails  per  week 
were  exchanged  between  New  York  and 
Philadelphia,  requiring  two  days  in  each 
direction,  the  weight  rarely,  if  ever,  exceed 
ing  the  capacity  of  horseback  mails.  The 
number  of  letters  transported  during  1790 
probably  did  not  exceed  300,000,  and  the 

1  The  Provincial  Congress  of  Massachusetts,  May 
13,  established  a  postal  system,  with  routes  from  Cam 
bridge  to  Georgetown,  in  Lincoln  County,  Maine ;  to 
Haverhill;  to  Providence;  to  Woodstock  (Connecti 
cut)  by  way  of  Worcester ;  and  from  Worcester,  by 
way  of  Springfield,  to  Great  Barrington ;  and  to  Pal- 
mouth,  in  Barnstable  County.    Fourteen  post-offices 
were  set  up.    New  Hampshire,  May  18,  established  an 
office  at  Portsmouth.    In  June,  Rhode  Island  estab 
lished  post-routes  and  post-offices. 

2  In  1792  we  find  Mr.  Jefferson,  as  Secretary  of  State, 
writing  to  Colonel  Pickering  respecting  the  practica 
bility  of  sending  the  mails  100  miles  a  day.   Op. ,  iii.  344. 


annual  transportation  (counting  every  trip) 
was  about  350,000  miles.  In  1870  there  were 
28,492  post-offices ;  the  length  of  post-roads 
was  231,232  miles ;  the  amount  paid  for 
transportation  was  $10,884,653;  the  postal 
revenue  was  $19,772,220;  the  expenditures, 
$23,948,837.  In  1870  the  number  of  let 
ters  carried  in  the  mails  was  not  less  than 
590,000,000,  and  the  aggregate  of  distances 
traveled  amounted  to  97,024,996  miles.1  In 
1870  the  letter-carriers  of  Manchester,  New 
Hampshire,  delivered  more  letters  than  con 
stituted  the  whole  burden  of  the  postal  serv 
ice  in  1790. 

In  1835  the  total  steamboat  transpor 
tation  of  the  mails  aggregated  906,959 
miles,  the  railroad  transportation,  270,504 
miles.3  In  1850  the  steamboat  transporta 
tion  was  2,659,656  miles,  the  railroad  trans 
portation,  604,396.  In  1870  the  steamboat 
transportation  had  risen  to  4,122,385  miles, 
the  railroad  transportation3  to  47,551,970 
miles. 

The  following  table  exhibits  the  growth 
of  the  postal  system,  by  five-year  intervals, 
from  1790  to  1870 : 


Year. 

Number 
of  Post- 
offices. 

Length  of 
Post-routes 
in  Miles. 

Year. 

Number 
of  Post- 

Length  of 
Post-routes 
in  Miles. 

1790 
1795 
1800 
1805 
1810 
1815 
1820 
1825 
1830 

75 
453 
903 
1558 
2300* 
3000 
4500 
5677 
8450 

1,875 

13,207 
20,817 
31,070 
36,406 
43,748 
72,492    ; 
94.052 
112,774 

1835 
1840 
1845 
1850 
1855 
I860 
1865 
1870 

10,770 

13,468 
14,183 
18,417 
24,410 
28,498 
20,550* 
28,492 

115,176 
155,739 
143,940 
178.672 
227,906 
240,594 
142,340 
231,232 

1  Postmaster-General's  Report,  1870. 

2  Transportation  by  four -horse  post-coaches  and 
two-horse  stages,  16,874,050  miles ;  on  horseback  and 
in  sulkies,  7,817,973  miles. 

3  We  find  General  Jackson's  Postmaster-Genera!, 
Amos  Kendall,  engaged  in  1835  in  the  same  warfare 
with  the  railroads  which  so  enlisted  the  passions  and 
the  energies  of  Mr.  Creswell.    Mr.  Kendall,  in  his  re 
port  of  that  year,  informs  Congress  that  he  does  not 
propose  to  pay  the  exorbitant  rates  demanded  by  the 
companies.    "He  will  sooner  put  post-coaches  or 
mail-wagons  on  the  old  roads,  and  run  them  there 
until  public  opinion  or  the  force  of  superior  authority 
induces  the  associations  which  have  been  permitted  to 
monopolize  the  means  of  speedy  conveyance  on  their 
routes  to  abate  their  terms." 

*  This  and  the  two  following  entries  have  much  the 
appearance  of  guess-work,  and  are  perhaps  explained 
by  the  following  somewhat  remarkable  expression  oc 
curring  in  the  report  of  the  Postmaster-General  for 
1823:  "As  near  as  can  be  known  from  the  records  of 
this  department,  there  are  about  5142  post-offices  es 
tablished.  Means  have  been  takeii  to  ascertain  the 
exact  number." 

J  The  reduction  is  explained  by  the  war  of  secession. 


CONSTITUENTS  OF  OUR  POPULATION. 


231 


THE   CONSTITUENTS  OF  OUR  POPULATION. 

It  will  have  been  noted  that  the  result  of 
the  national  enumeration  at  1790  showed  the 
proportion  of  whites  to  blacks  to  be  a  little 
more  than  five  to  one.  The  following  table 
shows  the  number  of  parts  in  each  100  of 
the  total  population  sustained  by  the  col 
ored  element  at  each  successive  census  un 
der  the  Constitution,  and,  secondly,  the  de 
cennial  rate  of  increase  within  the  colored 
element  itself: 


Year. 

COLORED. 

Percentage  of 
total  Population. 

Percentaceof 
preceding  Decade. 

1T90 

19.3 

1800 

18.9 

32.32 

1810 

19 

3T.05 

1820 

18.4 

28.58 

1830 

18.2 

31.44 

1840 

16.8 

23.40 

1850 

13.3 

26.60 

1860 

14.1 

22.0T 

18TO 

12.7 

9.21 

The  rapid  falling  off  in  the  rate  of  increase 
from  1860  to  1870  is  the  feature  of  this  table 
which  will  at  once  arrest  attention.  Un 
fortunately  we  can  not  know  how  much  of 
this  is  due  to  the  effects  of  war  from  I860 
to  1865,  when  a  violent  and  unprepared 
emancipation  was  wrought,  not  so  much  by 
the  proclamation  of  the  Executive  as  by  the 
operations  of  armies,  drawing  after  them 
vast  bodies  of  the  blacks  to  be  crowded  into 
camps  and  cities,  uninstructed  and  unpro 
vided,  to  perish  by  disease  and  privations 
in  uncounted  thousands ;  how  much  to  the 
effects  of  emancipation  upon  habits  of  life, 
occupation,  diet,  and  location  during  the  pe 
riod  following  the  return  of  peace.  Had 
Congress  in  a  proper  view  of  the  prodigious 
change  which  had  passed  upon  the  United 
States,  and  of  the  especial  need  of  statis 
tical  information  for  directing  the  recon 
struction,  social,  political,  and  industrial,  of 
the  South,  provided  for  a  census  in  1865,  we 
should  have  been  able  to  see  just  where  and 
in  what  condition  the  war  left  this  race, 
and  where  and  how  the  state  of  peace  took 
them  up.  But  that  opportunity  has  gone  by. 
The  number  of  colored  persons  counted 
in  the  census  of  1870  was  4,880,009.  Few 
of  these  were  found  north  of  the  forty-first 
degree  of  latitude. 

OUR  FOREIGN  ELEMENTS. 

The  statistics  of  the  foreign  elements  in 
the  United  States  are  historically  very  in 


complete.  For  only  three  censuses,  1800-70, 
has  the  "  place  of  birth"  been  returned  with 
enumeration.  From  the  former  of  these 
dates  backward  to  1820  we  have  only  the 
tables  compiled  from  the  passenger  lists  of 
vessels  bringing  immigrants — data  notori 
ously  imperfect.  Before  1820  we  have  only 
scraps  of  evidence  on  the  subject. 

In  one  sense,  substantially  all  the  white 
inhabitants  within  the  present  United  States 
were  at  one  time  foreigners.  But  in  the 
days  when  the  population  was  mainly  re 
cruited  by  immigration  the  word  "  foreign 
er"  was  never  applied  to  an  Englishman, 
nor  generally  to  a  Scot  or  Welshman,  nor 
always  to  an  Irishman.  Thus  we  find  it  re 
corded  of  the  Rhode  Island  Colony  in  1680 : 
"We  have  lately  had  few  or  no  new-comers, 
either  of  English,  Scotch,  Irish,  orforeignefs."1 

The  population  of  the  thirteen  States  was 
mainly  composed  of  Englishmen.  Mr.  Ban 
croft  (vol.  vii.  355)  speaks  of  the  colonies  in 
1775  as  inhabited  by  persons  "  one-fifth  of 
whom  had  for  their  mother-tongue  some 
other  language  than  the  English."  The  or 
der  in  which  other  nationalities  contributed 
to  the  numbers  of  that  population  the  same 
writer  indicates  as  follows :  "  Intermixed 
with  French,  still  more  with  Swedes,  and 
yet  more  with  Dutch  and  Germans." 

The  French  were  mainly  Protestant  refu 
gees.  After  the  revocation  of  the  Edict  of 
Nantes,  William  III.  dispatched  to  the  colo 
nies  large  numbers  of  those  who  had  sought 
a  home  in  England.  A  few  of  these  came 
to  Massachusetts,2  where  some  of  the  most 
illustrious  names  of  subsequent  history  speak 
of  the  virtues  of  the  Huguenots.  In  1690  a 
large  number  of  these  refugees  were  sent 
out  to  Virginia,  and  in  the  same  year  many 
arrived  in  Carolina.  In  1698  another  con 
siderable  body  arrived  in  Virginia.  Even 
prior  to  these  dates  the  French  had  appear 
ed  in  New  York.  "When  the  Protestant 
churches  in  Rochello  were  razed,"  says  Mr. 
Bancroft  (ii.  302),  "the  colonists  of  that  city 
were  gladly  admitted,  and  the  French  Prot- 

1  Chalmers,  i.  282-284. 

2  Holmes  cites  an  act  of  the  Legislature  of  1692  pro 
hibiting  any  of  the  French  nation  to  reside  in  any  of 
the  eea-ports  or  frontier  towns  within  the  province 
without  license,  the  reason  assigned  for  the  rule  being 
that  with  the  French  Protestants  "  many  of  a  contrary 
religion  and  interest"  had  obtruded  themselves. — An 
nals  of  America,  i.  441. 


232 


GROWTH  AND  DISTRIBUTION  OF  POPULATION. 


estauts  came  in  such  numbers  that  the 
public  documents  were  sometimes  issued  in 
French  as  well  as  in  Dutch  and  English." 

The  persons  of  Swedish  stock  referred  to 
by  Mr.  Bancroft  as  found  in  the  colonies  in 
1775  were  largely  the  descendants  of  those 
who  settled  Delaware.  Of  these  Mr.  Ban 
croft  says,  in  another  part  of  his  history 
(ii.  297,  298) :  "The  descendants  of  the  col 
onists,  in  the  course  of  generations  widely 
scattered  and  blended  with  emigrants  of 
other  lineage,  constitute  probably  more  than 
one  part  in  two  hundred  of  the  present  pop 
ulation  of  our  country.  At  the  time  of  the 
surrender  they  did  not  much  exceed  seven 
hundred  souls."  The  fecundity  which  Mr. 
Bancroft  thus  assigns  these  Swedes  is  only 
surpassed  by  that  which  Mr.Hildreth  (i.267) 
assigns  to  the  twenty-five  thousand,  or  few 
er,  original  emigrants  into  New  England  pri 
or  to  1640 — "  a  primitive  stock  from  which 
has  been  derived  not  less,  perhaps,  than  a 
fourth  part  of  the  present  population  of  the 
United  States."  Mr.  Hildreth  must  have 
formed  his  notions  of  the  average  capabili 
ties  of  the  early  New  Englanders  from  the 
contemplation  of  exceptional  cases  like  that 
of  Obadiah  Holmes,  the  Anabaptist,  who  was 
publicly  flogged  about  1651,  and  is  reputed  to 
have  had  five  thousand  descendants  in  1790. 

But  of  all  the  European  nations  outside 
the  British  Isles,  "the  chief  migration,"  says 
Mr.  Bancroft  (i.  450),  "was  from  that  Ger 
manic  race  most  famed  for  love  of  personal 
independence." 

The  commercial  enterprise  of  Holland  had 
already  planted  many  thousands  of  her  sub 
jects  in  the  "New  Netherlands"  when  the 
dominion  of  the  last  of  the  colonies  passed 
to  England ;  nor  did  Dutch  or  German  emi 
gration  cease,  but  it  rather  increased,  when 
New  York  lost  scout,  burgomaster,  and  sche- 
pens,  to  gain  mayor,  aldermen,  and  sheriff. 

We  have  said  that  South  Carolina,  in  its 
earliest  settlement,  received  accessions  of 
Dutch  both  from  New  York  and  from  Hol 
land.  Before  the  downfall  of  the  power  of 
Holland  on  the  Continent  the  Dutch  had 
also  appeared  in  Connecticut,  and  for  a  time 
disputed  with  the  English  the  sovereignty 
of  the  soil  even  to  the  Connecticut  River, 
but  their  few  colonists  were  overwhelmed 
by  the  rapid  invasion  of  the  English. 

To  Pennsylvania  the  Germans  resorted, 


until,  in  1764,  Duraud,  in  a  report  to  Choi- 
seul,  wrote  that  "  Germans  weary  of  subor 
dination  to  England,  and  unwilling  to  serve 
under  English  officers,  openly  declared  that 
Pennsylvania  would  one  day  be  called  Lit 
tle  Germany."  "  Like  Pennsylvania  and  the 
Carolinas,"  says  Mr.  Hildreth  of  New  York 
in  1749,  "it  contained  a  great  admixture, 
but  those  of  Dutch  origin  still  constituted 
a  majority." 

Of  all  the  German  states,  the  misfortunes 
of  the  Palatinate  made  it  the  largest  con 
tributor  to  the  population  of  the  New  World. 
When  Hunter  came  out  in  1710  as  Governor 
of  New  York,  we  find  notice  of  his  bringing 
with  him  2700  of  this  unfortunate  people. 
Large  numbers  of  the  Palatines  settled  also 
in  Carolina,  upon  the  Roanoke  and  Pamlico, 
and  many  were  cut  off  by  the  Tuscaroras  in 
the  savage  rising  of  1712.  "  We  shall  soon 
have  a  German  colony,"  wrote  Logan  of 
Pennsylvania  in  1726,  "  so  many  thousands 
of  Palatines  are  already  in  the  country." 

Even  after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  and  the  removal  of  the  seat  of  govern 
ment  to  the  banks  of  the  Potomac,  we  find  a 
proposition  seriously  entertained  for  bring 
ing  over  Germans  to  furnish  the  labor  ijr 
building  up  Washington  city.1 

The  Swiss  also  appeared  in  considerable 
force  among  the  early  settlers  of  America. 
Newbern  (as  we  now  write  it),  on  the  Neuse, 
speaks  of  old  Bern,  on  the  Aar.  In  1730 
Swiss  immigrants  founded  Purysburg,  the 
first  town  on  the  Savannah ;  and  Grahame 
speaks  of  considerable  accessions  to  the 
same  State  from  the  same  source  in  1733. 

"Asylum  for  the  oppressed,"  of  all  nations 
and  all  religions,  as  America  had  become, 
the  Moravians  found  their  way  in  large 
numbers  to  our  shores.  Of  Oglethorpe's 
300  recruits  in  1736  more  than  one-half  were 
of  this  faith,  to  which  their  brethren  who 
preceded  them  had  already  witnessed  by 
raising  their  "Ebenezer"  on  the  banks  of 
the  Savannah.  Pennsylvania,  however,  was 
their  chosen  country  of  refuge  during  the 
eighteenth  century. 

It  will  readily  be  believed  that  help  in 
building  up  so  many  youthful  colonies,  from 
whatever  quarter  it  came,  was  eagerly  wel 
comed  by  the  English  population,  and  that 


Washington's  works,  xii.  305,  306. 


BRITISH  IMMIGRANTS. 


233 


foreigners  were  not  long  excluded  from  the 
full  privileges  of  citizenship.  The  first  co 
lonial  naturalization  act  of  which  wre  find 
notice  was  that  of  Maryland  in  1666.  Vir 
ginia  followed  in  1671.  Pennsylvania  nat 
uralized  the  Swedes,  Finns,  and  Dutch  of 
Delaware.  Carolina  naturalized  the  French 
refugees  she  received  in  1696. 

The  English  Privy  Council  Avas  long  trou 
bled  by  the  scope  and  effect  given  to  the  co 
lonial  acts  of  naturalization,  by  which  aliens 
were  vested  with  the  power  of  exercising 
functions  which  they  were  disabled  from 
performing  by  the  Navigation  Acts.  At 
last,  by  act  of  Parliament  in  1746,  a  uniform 
system  of  naturalization  was  established,  on 
the  basis  of  seven  years'  residence,  an  oath 
of  allegiance,  and  profession  of  the  "  Prot 
estant  Christian  faith." 

Of  the  inhabitants  of  the  British  Isles  by 
far  the  largest  contribution,  next  to  that 
of  England,  was  from  Ireland.  This  immi 
gration,  though  somewhat  spasmodic,  had 
reached  a  vast  though  indeterminate  total 
before  the  Revolution.  The  Irish  settled 
all  the  way  from  New  Hampshire,  where 
Londonderry  was  founded  in  1719  by  a  col 
ony  of  about  100  families  from  Ulster,  to 
Carolina,  where  a  colony  of  500  arrived  as 
early  as  1715.1  The  author  of  European  Set 
tlements  in  America  speaks  of  the  population 
of  Virginia  in  1750-54  as  "growing  every 
day  more  numerous  by  the  migration  of  the 
Irish,  who,  not  succeeding  so  well  in  Penn 
sylvania  as  the  more  industrious  and  frugal 
Germans,  sell  their  lands  in  that  province 
to  the  latter,  and  take  up  new  ground  in 
the  remote  counties  of  Virginia,  Maryland, 
and  North  Carolina.3  These,"  he  adds,  "  are 
chiefly  Presbyterians  from  the  north  of  Ire 
land,  who  in  America  are  generally  called 
the  Scotch-Irish"  (ii.  216).  It  is  probably 
to  some  colony  thus  planted  that  Jefferson 
referred  when  he  wrote  (Op.,  vi.  485)  of 
"  the  wild  Irish  who  had  gotten  possession 
of  the  valley  between  the  Blue  Ridge  and 
the  North  Mountains,  forming  a  barrier  over 
which  none  ventured  to  leap,  and  could  still 
less  venture  to  settle  among." 


1  A  small  colony  under  Fergnsson  had  preceded 
them,  arriving  as  early  as  1683. — Bancroft's  Hist. 
United  States,  ii.  ITS. 

3  Especiallyin  the  northwestern  counties.—  Hihlroth, 
ii.  416. 


But  Pennsylvania  was  still  the  especial 
centre  of  attraction  to  the  Irish  before  the 
Revolution.  In  1729  there  was  a  large 
Irish  migration  to  Pennsylvania.  The  years 
1771-73  appear  also  to  have  witnessed  a 
wholesale  movement  of  population  from  Ire 
land,  especially  the  northern  counties,  into 
this  province.  Of  these  large  numbers  found 
their  way  to  the  region  of  the  Monongahela 
and  the  Alleghany,  and  formed  the  pioneers 
of  a  vast  population  in  Western  and  South 
western  Pennsylvania.  We  get  a  lively  im 
pression  of  the  importance  of  this  element  a 
little  later,  when  we  find  in  the  letters  of 
that  vehement  Federalist,  Oliver  Wolcott, 
Juu.,  the  formidable  "  whisky  insurrection" 
of  1794  attributed  almost  wholly  to  the  Irish 
of  Pittsburg  and  vicinity.  Thus:  "The 
Irishmen  in  that  quarter  have  at  length  pro 
ceeded  to  great  extremities  ;"1  "  Pennsyl 
vania  need  not  be  envied  her  Irishmen,"3 
etc.  They  might  be  in  a  strange  land, 
but  in  making  war  upon  the  excise  they 
found  no  unfamiliar  or  uncongenial  occu 
pation. 

The  Scotch  were  then,  as  they  are  now, 
every  where,  though  not  largely  in  New 
England,  nor  generally  in  colonies  any 
where. 

In  New  Jersey,3  Georgia,  and  North  Caro 
lina  we  find,  perhaps,  the  most  prominent 
mention  of  the  Scotch  as  a  distinct  element 
of  the  population.  One  exception  to  the 
rule  that  the  Scotch  did  not  tend  to  settle 
in  colonies  was  found  in  the  case  of  High- 
laud  soldiers  of  the  British  army  discharged 
from  service  in  America. 

New  York,  as  the  only  considerable  State 
of  the  thirteen  which  was  originally  formed 
under  any  other  flag  than  that  of  England, 
might  be  supposed  to  have  possessed  the  lar 
gest  foreign  element,  proportionally,  of  all ; 
and,  indeed,  from  the  first,  not  only  was  New 
York  "  a  city  of  the  world,"  with  a  citizen 
ship  "  chosen  from  the  Belgic  provinces  and 
England,  from  France  and  Bohemia,  from 
Germany  and  Switzerland,  from  Piedmont 
and  the  Italian  Alps,"*  but  the  Hudson,  from 

1  Gibbs,  Adm.  Washington  and  Adams,  \.  156. 

2  Gibbs,  i.  157. 

3  In  1686,  in  defending  their  charter,  the  proprietors 
of  East  Jersey  urged  that  they  had  sent  out  several 
hundreds  of  persons  from  Scotland. 

*  Bancroft,  ii.  301.  The  Bohemians  survive  nnto 
this  day. 


234 


GROWTH  AND  DISTRIBUTION  OF  POPULATION. 


the  bay  to  Albany,  was  settled  with  a  most 
motley  population. 

But  Pennsylvania  long  disputed  with  New 
York  the  honor  of  having  the  most  curious 
ly  and  variously  composed  population,  and 
at  the  date  of  the  Revolution  indisputably 
carried  off  the  palm.  Chalmers  says  that 
Penn  found  the  banks  of  the  Delaware  in 
habited  by  3000  persons,  Swedes,  Dutch,  Fin- 
landers,  and  English.  Those  he  brought 
with  him  and  drew  after  him  were  only 
more  widely  assorted.  "  The  diversity  of 
people,  religions,  nations,  and  languages," 
says  the  author  of  European  Settlements,  "  here 
is  prodigious.  Upward  of  250,000  people,"  is 
his  summary  for  1750,  "half  of  whom  are 
Germans,  Swedes,  or  Dutch." 

At  a  little  later  date  within  the  century 
General  Washington  wrote :  "  Pennsylvania 
is  a  large  State,  and  from  the  policy  of  its 
founder,  and  especially  from  the  great  ce 
lebrity  of  Philadelphia,  has  become  the  gen 
eral  receptacle  of  foreigners  from  all  coun 
tries  and  of  all  descriptions"  (Op.,  xii.  324). 

The  large  accessions  from  other  countries 
than  England,  received  by  the  Southern 
colonies  from  Maryland  to  Georgia,  have  al 
ready  been  sufficiently  noticed.  The  States 
which  now  represent  these  colonies  are  those 
which  have  fewest  foreigners. 

On  the  other  hand,  of  all  the  colonies, 
those  of  New  England  received  the  smallest 
proportional  accessions  from  nationalities 
other  than  pure  English,  and  earliest  expe 
rienced  the  cessation  of  immigration,  even 
from  England. 

"The  policy  of  encouraging  immigration 
from  abroad,"  says  Hildreth  (ii.  312,  313), 
"which  contributed  so  much  to  the  rapid 
advancement  of  Pennsylvania  and  Carolina, 
never  found  favor  in  New  England.  Even 
the  few  Irish  settlers  at  Londonderry  be 
came  objects  of  jealousy." 

In  1796  we  find  Washington  writing  to  Sir 
John  Sinclair  as  follows  (Op.,  xii.  323,  324) : 

"  Their  numbers  are  not  augmented  by  foreign  em 
igrants;  yet  from  their  circumscribed  limits,  compact 
situation,  and  natural  population,  they  are  filling  the 
western  parts  of  the  State  of  New  York  and  the  coun 
try  on  the  Ohio  with  their  own  surplusage." 

It  is  to  this  long  cessation  of  immigration 
into  New  England  that  Madison  refers  when, 
writing  after  the  fourth  census  (1820),  he 
says: 


"It  is  worth  remarking  that  New  England,  which 
has  sent  out  such  a  continued  swarm  to  other  parts  of 
the  Union  for  a  number  of  years,  has  continued  at  the 
same  time,  as  the  census  shows,  to  increase  in  popula 
tion,  although  it  is  well  known  that  it  has  received  but 
comparatively  few  emigrants  from  any  quarter"  (Op., 
iii.  213). 

Of  the  immigration  between  1790  and  1820 
we  know  little  precisely.  Dr.  Seybert  esti 
mates  the  total  arrivals  at  250,000,  but  the 
very  form  of  the  estimate  reveals  the  in 
adequacy  of  the  data  from  which  it  was 
constructed.  With  1820  begins  the  record 
of  arrivals  at  our  ports.  The  following  ta 
ble  shows  the  immigration  for  the  period 
1820-50 : 


Year. 

Total. 

Germany. 

From 
British  Isles. 

1820-30 
1830-40 
1840-50 

151,000 
599,000 
1,713,000 

8,000 
152,000 
435,000 

82,000 
283,000 
1,048,000 

With  the  seventh  census  begins  our  exact 
account  of  foreigners  in  the  United  States. 
From  this  it  appears  that  of  the  total  pop 
ulation  at  1850  nine  and  a  half  per  cent,  were 
of  foreign  birth,  at  1860  thirteen  per  cent., 
at  1870  fourteen  per  cent.  At  the  several 
dates  named  the  several  specified  nationali 
ties  contributed  as  follows  to  the  total  for 
eign  population : 


Nationality. 

1850. 

1860. 

1870. 

Irish  

1'er  cent. 
43.5 

38.9 

33.3 

26.4 

30.8 

30.4 

.English  and  Welsh  

13.9 

11.5 

11.2 

6.T 

6.0 

8.9 

Swedes,   Norwegians,   and 
Danes  

0.81 

l.T 

4.4 

The  foreign  immigrants  to  the  United  States 
have  placed  themselves  mainly  between  the 
thirty-eighth  and  the  forty-sixth  degrees  of 
latitude.1  The  meridian  of  the  western 
boundary  of  Pennsylvania  divides  this  for 
eign  population  into  an  eastern  and  a  west 
ern  half. 


i  The  geographical  relation  of  the  foreign  and  col 
ored  elements  of  the  population  is  complemental  in  a 
high  degree.  Taking  the  States  of  Delaware,  Mary 
land,  West  Virginia,  Kentucky,  and  Missouri  as  consti 
tuting  a  central  zone  neutral  to  the  two  elements,  we 
have  the  following  numerical  proportions  for  each 
1000  of  the  population : 

Colored.  Foreign. 

Northern  and  Northwestern  States —    14  ...  197 

Central  States 132  ...    91 

Southern  and  Southwestern  States 415  ...    22 

Some  of  the  foreign  elements  are  themselves  in  turn 
complemental  in  their  location.  Thus  two-thirds  of 
the  Germans  are  found  west  of  Buffalo,  two-thirds  of 
the  Irish  east  of  it ;  the  Scandinavians  are  mainly  west 
of  Lake  Michigan,  the  British  Americans  east  of  it 


FECUNDITY  OF  FOKEIGN  ELEMENTS. 


235 


It         M         a         B          70          T)  75  73          71  6»          87  8» 


NATIVES  OF  SOUTH-CAROLINA 

WHERE  FOUND J870. 


THE  FECUNDITY  OF  THE  FOREIGN  ELEMENTS. 

In  addition  to  the  5,500,000  foreigners 
residing  in  the  United  States,  there  are 
4,167,616  both  of  whose  parents  were  foreign, 
786,388  more  who  had  a  foreign  father  and 
a  native  mother,  370,782  who  had  a  native 
father  and  a  foreign  mother,  and  by  conse 
quence  there  are  5,324,786  who  have  one  or 
both  parents  foreign. 

Very  grave  statistical  blunders  have  been 
committed  by  some  very  pretentious  writers 
on  population,  who  have  sought  to  establish 
the  comparative  sterility  of  the  native  white 
population  of  North  America.  The  follow 
ing  sentence,  quoted  from  a  paper  read  be 
fore  the  British  Association  in  1856,  contains 
in  substance  a  doctrine  which  was  for  a  long 
time  generally  accepted  in  Europe,  and  has 
even  been  repeated  on  this  side  the  Atlantic : 

"  From  the  general  unfitness  of  the  climate  to  the 
European  constitution,  coupled  with  the  occasional 


pestilential  visitations  which  occur  in  the  healthier 
localities,  on  the  whole,  on  an  average  of  three  or  four 
generations,  extinction  of  the  European  races  in  North 
America  would  be  almost  certain,  if  the  communica 
tion  with  Europe  were  entirely  cut  off." 

Our  space  would  not  serve  for  the  discus 
sion  of  this  question  did  it  require  to  be  ar 
gued  at  length ;  but  Dr.  Edward  Jarvis,  of 
Massachusetts,  has  so  completely  exposed1 
the  successive  mistakes  in  figures  and  falla 
cies  in  reasoning  by  which  this  most  dis 
paraging  conclusion*  was  reached,  that  it  is 
only  necessary  to  refer  to  the  subject  here 

»  The  Atlantic  Monthly,  April,  1872 . 

2  Mr.  Frederick  Kapp,  formerly  of  New  York,  now 
of  Germany,  who  has  perhaps  done  more  than  any  one 
else  to  give  currency  to  these  views  in  Europe,  reached 
the  conclusion  that  of  the  free  population  of  1850  hut 
thirty-six  per  cent.,  and  of  that  of  1860  but  twenty- 
nine  per  cent,  was  American  in  the  sense  of  being  de 
rived  from  inhabitants  of  the  country  at  1790.  No  re 
sult  on  this  subject  has  been  too  monstrous  to  receive 
credence  from  the  press  of  Europe. 


23(j 


GROWTH  AND  DISTRIBUTION  OF  POPULATION. 


in  order  to  assure  our  readers,  who  are  liable 
at  any  time  to  meet  statements  of  this  char 
acter  floating  through  the  press  or  stranded 
iu  the  proceedings  of  scientific  associations, 
that  there  is  not  the  shadow  of  a  statistical 
reason  for  attributing  to  the  native  Ameri 
can  population  prior  to  the  war  of  secession 
a  deficiency  in  reproductive  vigor  compared 
with  any  people  that  ever  lived  upon  the 
face  of  the  earth. 

INTERSTATE   MIGRATION. 

It  will  have  been  observed  that  the  early 
colonists  did  not  wait  for  a  common  form 
of  government  before  inaugurating  that 
system  of  internal  migration  which  has 
been  one  of  the  most  marked  features  of 
our  national  history.  Almost  as  if  from 
love  of  change,  they  moved  up  and  down 
the  coast  by  turns,  or  from  a  half-settled 
East  to  a  wholly  unsettled  West.  WTe  have 
already  had  so  many  occasions  to  notice 
these  movements  of  population  that  under 
the  present  title  we  will  speak  only  of  those 
wholesale  migrations  which  are  revealed  by 
the  census  since  1850,  when  the  "place  of 
birth"  came  first  to  be  recorded.  The  Edin 
burgh  Review  of  July,  1854,  so  well  sum 
marizes  the  results  of  the  seventh  census  in 
this  respect  that  we  condense  the  statement 
for  insertion  here. 

1.  In  the  Free  States  the  movement  was 
generally   due   west — from   New  York,  for 
instance,  to  Michigan   and  Wisconsin,  and 
from  Pennsylvania  to  Ohio.     And  so  strong 
was  this  passion  that  the  West  itself  sup 
plied   a   population   to   the   further  West. 
Ohio  had  sent  215,000  to  the  three  States 
beyond  her ;  Indiana  had  retained  120,000 
from  Ohio,  but  had  sent  on  50,000  of  her 
own ;  Illinois  had  taken  95,000  from  Ohio 
and  Indiana,  and  given  7000  to  Iowa. 

2.  The  migration  from  the  central  Slave 
States  had  followed  the  same  general  law 
of  a  westerly  movement ;  but  it  had  taken 
also  a  partial  northwest  direction  into  the 
Free  States. 

3.  In    the    planting    States    the    move 
ment  had  been  mostly  within  themselves, 
taking  a   southwesterly   and  westerly   di 
rection. 

4.  The  American-born  population  of  Tex 
as  had   come   principally   from   the    Slave 
States ;  that  of  California  from  the   Free 


States ;  that  of  the  Territories  more  from 
the  Free  than  from  the  Slave. 

The  census  of  1870  shows  the  internal 
movements  of  population  to  be  not  less  but 
more  wholesale  and  incessant  than  at  1850. 
Our  fourth  map  shows  where  the  natives  of 
New  York  and  of  South  Carolina  severally 
were  found  within  the  United  States  at  the 
date  of  enumeration.  The  reader  will  be 
struck  by  the  conformity  to  the  rules  laid 
down  by  the  Edinburgh  reviewer  in  his 
Nos.  1  and  3.  A  map  showing  the  lial)itat  of 
the  Kentucky-born  population,  which  our 
space  does  not  allow  us  to  introduce,  shows 
that  this  one  of  the  former  "  central  Slave 
States"  still  conforms  in  its  emigrations  to 
the  rule  laid  down  in  No.  2. 

The  following  table  shows  by  even  thou 
sands  for  each  State  at  1870  (1)  the  number 
of  persons  residing  in  the  State  who  were 
born  therein ;  (2)  the  number  residing  in 
the  State  who  were  born  in  other  States 
and  Territories  of  the  Union  ;  (3)  the  num 
ber  born  in  the  State  who  were  residing  in 
other  States  or  Territories.  The  figures  on 
the  left  indicate  the  rank  of  the  States  in 
population. 


State. 

(i) 

W 

(3) 

16 

Alabama  

744,000 

243,000 

230,000 

26 
24 
25 
34 
33 

Arkansas  
California  
Connecticut.  .  .  . 
Delaware  
Florida  

233,000 
170,000 
350,000 
95,000 
110,000 

247,000 
181,000 
73,000 
21,000 
73,000 

55,000 
12,000 
137,000 
39,000 
15,000 

12 

1,034,000 

139,000 

274,000 

4 

Illinois  

1,190,000 

835,000 

290,000 

6 

Indiana  

1,049,000 

491,000 

321,000 

11 

429,000 

561,000 

89,000 

29 

63,000 

253,000 

11,000 

8 
21 
23 

Kentucky  
Louisiana  
Maine  

1,081,000 
502,000 
551  ,000 

177,000 
163,000 
27,000 

403,000 
63,000 
149,000 

20 
7 
111 
28 
18 
g 

Maryland  
Massachusetts.. 
Michigan  
Minnesota  
Mississippi  

630,000 
903,000 
507,000 
126,000 
564,000 
874,000 

68,000 
201,000 
409,000 
153,000 
253,000 
625,000 

176,000 
244,000 
66,000 
13,000 
139,000 
171,000 

35 
37 

Nebraska  

19,000 
3,000 

74,000 
20,000 

5,000 
2,000 

31 
17 
1 
14 
3 

New  Hampshire 
New  Jersey  .... 
New  York  
North  Carolina. 
Ohio  

242,000 
575,000 
2,988,000 
1,029,000 
1,842,000 

46,000 
142,000 
257,000 
40,000 
450,000 

125,000 
149,000 
1,074,000 
307,000 
807,000 

36 

37  000 

42,000 

6,000 

2 

32 
22 
9 
19 

Pennsylvania  .  . 
Rhode  Island  .  . 
South  Carolina. 
Tennessee  
Texas  

2,727,000 
125,000 
679,000 
1,028,000 
389,000 

250,000 
37,000 
19,000 
212,000 
368,000 

675,000 
45,000 
246,000 
404,000 
26,000 

30 

Vermont  

244,000 

40,000 

177,000 

10 
27 
15 

Virginia  ) 
West  Virginia) 
Wisconsin  

1,545,000 
450,000 

91,000 
240,000 

584,000 
97,000 

THE  POPULATION   OP   1870. 

The  situs  of  the  thirty-seven  and  a  half 
millions  of  our  people  who  at  1870  were 
west  of  the  100th  meridian  is  shoAvn  sep- 


DENSITY  OF  POPULATION. 


237 


un      101       00        07         95      93        91       69       t>7        K>       B3        81        73         77          fj        73         n          OP         «7          lij 


Inhabitants  to 
tfu Square  HHf 


DENSITY  OF 

POPULATION 

1870. 


1<H          99  97  95          93  91  89          87  85          Ki  !» 


arately  in  our  fifth  map.  The  solid  mass  of 
continuous  settlement  here  represented  cov 
ers  more  than  1,150,000  square  miles,  lying 
between  27°  15'  and  47°  30'  north  latitude, 
and  between  67°  and  99°  45'  west  longi 
tude.  The  average  density  of  population 
over  this  vast  tract  is  32.7  inhabitants  to 
the  square  mile.  This  population  is,  how 
ever,  shown  not  as  an  average,  but  in  three 
degrees  of  density  of  wide  range. 

Of  the  four  great  river  systems,  the  At 
lantic  system,  with  304,538  square  miles, 
contains  14,207,453  inhabitants,  or  46.6  to 
the  square  mile  ;  the  northern  lake  system, 
with  185,339  square  miles,  4,399,604  inhabit 
ants,  an  average  of  23.7  ;  the  Mississippi  or 
Gulf  system,  with  1,683,303  square  miles, 
19,111,804  inhabitants,  an  average  of  11.3 ; 
the  Pacific  system,  an  average  of  but  0.98 
inhabitants  to  the  square  mile. 

Such  is  the  story  of  our  population,  told 


with  more  figures  of  arithmetic  than  fig 
ures  of  speech.  Speculation  on  the  future 
would  here  be  alike  impertinent  and  vain. 
Whether  the  writer  who  tells  of  the  in 
crease  and  territorial  expansion  of  our  popu 
lation  at  the  second  centennial  of  independ 
ence  shall  describe  the  settlement  of  six 
hundred  thousand,  cr  twelve  hundred  thou 
sand,  or  the  whole  of  the  vast  domain  yet 
uninhabited — whether  the  flag  of  the  Union 
shall  wave  over  fifty  States  and  a  hundred 
millions  of  people  only,  within  our  present 
borders,  or  over  a  territory  co-extensive 
with  the  continent  and  populous  as  Eu 
rope,  may  be  left  in  all  trustfuluess  with  the 
Power  that  hath  thus  far  guided  the  career 
of  this  young  nation.  As  I  write,  my  eye 
falls  on  the  motto  of  Connecticut,  lifted  up 
first  in  a  savage  wilderness,  and  lifted  up 
since  in  many  a  day  of  battle  :  Qui  transtuUt, 
sustinet.  Yea,  and  will  sustain. 


VIII 


MONETARY  DEVELOPMENT. 


EMIGRANTS  are  never  of  the  capitalist 
class,  while  the  great  need  of  settlers 
in  a  new  country  is  capital.  All  forms  of 
capital  are  required,  and  the  only  question 
is  what  make-shift  will  do  to-day,  and 
what  requirement  can  be  postponed  until 
the  morrow.  Value  money  is  that  form  of 
capital  which,  under  such  circumstances, 
seems  to  be  the  most  dispensable ;  but  it 
can  not  be  disposed  of,  any  more  than  a 
community  could  sell  all  its  wagons,  boats, 
scales,  measures,  and  other  tools  of  trans 
portation  and  exchange,  unless  some  sub 
stitute  is  provided.  Hence  various  substi 
tutes  are  adopted  whenever  they  can  be 
devised,  and  the  monetary  history  of  the 
United  States  from  the  first  colonization 
until  now  is  a  history  of  experiments  with 
cheap  substitutes  for  money. 

Barter  currency  was  adopted  very  gen 
erally  in  the  colonies  from  the  first,  rates 
at  which  goods  should  exchange  being  fixed 
by  law.  Taxes  were  collected  in  kind,  and 
fees  were  established  in  barter.  In  New 
England  the  aborigines  had  a  currency  of 
beads  made  from  clam  shells  (wampum  or 
peag,  or  wampumpeag),  which  the  whites 
adopted  and  used  among  themselves  and 
with  the  Indians,  the  rates  being  fixed  by 
prices  demanded  in  wampum  by  the  Indi 
ans  for  furs,  and  by  the  prices  which  the 
furs  would  bring  in  England.  Wampum 
became  overabundant,  depreciated,  became 
broken,  and  was  abolished  as  a  nuisance 
about  1650.  In  1652  a  mint  was  established 
at  Boston,  which  went  on  coining  "pine- 
tree"  coins  for  over  thirty  years,  although, 
as  the  mint  was  illegal,  its  coins  were  all 
dated  1652  to  conceal  the  continuance  of  its 
operations.  The  charge  for  minting  was  ex 
orbitant,  and  the  English  mint  law  of  1663 
having  made  the  importation  and  exporta 
tion  of  coin  free,  and  the  law  of  1666  hav 
ing  abolished  all  charge  for  coining,  the 
Massachusetts  mint  law  served  to  drive  the 
precious  metal  away.  The  coins  were  call 
ed  shillings,  etc.,  but  were  twenty-five  per 
cent,  below  sterling  of  the  same  denomina 


tion,  giving  par  of  silver  6s.  8d.,  New  En 
gland  currency,  per  ounce.  This  became 
the  standard,  but  the  barter  currency  being 
still  legal,  the  silver  coins  which  were  not 
exported  (and  there  was  a  severe  law  against 
exportation)  were  all  clipped.1 

In  1704  a  proclamation  of  Queen  Anne 
fixed  the  rates  of  Spanish  and  other  foreign 
coins  for  the  colonies.  The  Spanish  dollar, 
or  piece  of  eight,  was  rated  at  4s.  Gd.  Hence 
sterling  was  changed  into  dollars  at  two- 
ninths  of  a  dollar  for  a  shilling,  or  $4$  for 
£1,  which  remained  the  "par"  until  Janu 
ary  1,  1874.  New  England  currency  being 
twenty-five  per  cent,  worse,  £1  in  New  En 
gland  currency  was  $3  33.  A  Spanish  dol 
lar,  or  piece  of  eight,  in  New  England  cur 
rency  was  6s. 

In  1686  a  bank  was  proposed  in  Massa 
chusetts,  but  its  history  is  obscure.  In 
1690  paper  notes  were  first  issued  by  that 
colony  to  pay  for  an  unfortunate  expedition 
against  Canada.2  The  issue  was  moderate 
at  first,  and  canceled  year  by  year.  In  1704 
the  redemption  was  postponed  two  years, 
and  after  that  there  was  no  stopping.  Issues 
were  made  to  pay  the  expenses  of  govern 
ment,  and  other  issues  to  loan  on  mortgage, 
carrying  out  the  scheme  for  getting  rich  by 
printing  and  borrowing,  which  starts  up  ev 
ery  generation  over  again.  There  were  spe 
cial  "  hard  times"  in  Massachusetts  in  1715, 


1  A  mint  was  established  in  Maryland  in  1661,  but 
nothing  is  known  of  its  history. 

2  Among  the  authorities  on  the  colonial  currencies 
should  be   mentioned  the  following :  Hutchinson's 
History  of  Massachusetts  Bay  (very  intelligent  and  cor 
rect  on  finance) ;  Douglas's  Summary  (unequal,  but  val 
uable) ;  Ho]mes's  Annals.    Other  old  histories  are  gen 
erally  occupied  with  other  than  financial  interests. 
Arnold's  Rhode  Island  takes  full  account  of  trade  and 
finance.     A  pamphlet  published  at  Boston  in  1740, 
and  republished  in  Lord  Overstone's  tracts,  1857,  Dis 
course  concerning  the  Currencies  of  the  British  Planta 
tions,  is  of  great  value.    Special  works  are  Felt  on 
Massachusetts  currency,  Bronson  on  Connecticut  cur 
rency,  Hickox  on  New  York  currency,  and  the  collec 
tion  in  Phillips's  Colonial  and  Continental  Paper  Cur 
rencies.    These  last  all  pursue  chiefly  the  antiquarian 
interest.    Branson's  is  the  only  one  which  shows  a 
knowledge  of  financial  science. 


EARLY  CONGRESSIONAL  ACTION. 


239 


1720,  1727,  1733,  1741,  1749.  Rhode  Island, 
Connecticut,  New  York,  and  New  Jersey  first 
issued  bills  in  1709  for  the  second  expedi 
tion  to  Canada.  In  1714  New  York  issued 
£27,680  in  bills  of  credit  as  a  "  back-pay 
grab."  Pennsylvania  first  issued  paper  in 
1723.  Franklin  urged  more  issues,  and  wrote 
in  favor  of  them.1  Maryland  issued  bills  in 
1734,  to  be  redeemed  in  sterling  in  three 
payments,  at  fifteen,  thirty,  and  forty-five 
years.  These  payments  being  discounted, 
exchange  rose  to  250.  Virginia  used  to 
bacco-warehouse  receipts  as  currency  until 
1755,  when  she  issued  paper,  and  pushed  it 
to  great  excess.  North  Carolina  was  a  very 
poor  colony,  and  her  currency  was  greatly 
depreciated,  although  not  over  £52,500  in 
1740.  South  Carolina  issued  for  war  pur 
poses  in  1702.  Rice  was  a  barter  medium. 

The  only  colony  which  ever  resumed  was 
Massachusetts.  In  1745  the  New  England 
colonies  made  an  expedition  against  Cape 
Breton,  and  took  Louisbourg.  The  issues  to 
pay  for  this  rose  to  £2,466,712,  nominal  value 
in  New  England  currency,  in  Massachusetts 
alone.  Parliament  ransomed  Cape  Breton, 
and  Massachusetts  imported  her  share  of 
the  ransom  in  silver  and  copper,  redeemed 
her  notes  at  eleven  for  one,  and  became  "the 
silver  colony."  In  1751  Parliament  forbade 
legal-tender  non-interest-bearing  notes  for 
New  England,  at  the  prayer  of  Massachu 
setts,  and  in  1764  for  all  the  colonies.  Gold 
circulated  by  weight,  not  being  legal  tender 
until  1762,  when  a  law  was  passed  in  Mas 
sachusetts  making  it  a  tender  at  2^d.  silver 
per  grain.  This  was  five  per  cent,  more 
than  it  was  worth,  and  silver  being  unjust 
ly  rated,  was  exported,  and  became  scarce. 

Issues  within  the  act  of  Parliament  con 
tinued  to  be  made  in  the  older  colonies, 
and  in  1775,  when  the  representatives  of 
the  New  England  colonies  met  to  prepare 
for  war,  Massachusetts  agreed  to  allow  their 
bills  to  circulate  in  her  territory,  because 
they  had  nothing  else. 

The  First  Continental  Congress  met  at 
Philadelphia  September  5,  1774.  Its  first 
measures  were  not  military,  but  renewed 
the  commercial  war  which  the  colonies  had 
tried  before,  which  was  believed  in  long 
afterward,  but  which  always  accomplished 

1  See  vol.  ii.  of  his  works. 


harm  to  the  enemy  at  the  expense  of  ten 
fold  harm  at  home  in  local  and  class  bicker 
ings.  Trade  was  thrown  away  just  when 
wise  policy  dictated  to  keep  it,  and  even 
fight  for  it.  After  December,  1774,  nothing 
was  to  be  imported  from  any  part  of  the 
British  Empire ;  and  after  September,  1775, 
nothing  was  to  be  exported  to  the  same. 
English  goods  were  needed  for  the  army, 
and  came  by  way  of  the  European  conti 
nent  and  the  West  Indies ;  and  lumber  and 
tobacco  went  out  the  same  way. 

The  Second  Congress,  May  10,  1775,  set 
about  making  war,  but  it  had  no  power  to 
tax,  and  therefore  no  power  to  borrow.  New 
York  proposed  bills  of  credit  of  the  old  kind, 
to  be  redeemed  by  taxes,  and  this  plan  was 
adopted.  The  first  issue  was  ordered  June 
23,  1775 — promises  to  pay  2,000,000  Spanish 
dollars.  The  issues  were  apportioned  among 
the  colonies  on  an  estimate  of  population, 
and  they  were  called  upon  to  redeem  the 
quotas  assigned  them  by  taxes.  Rhode  Isl 
and,  Massachusetts,  and  New  Hampshire 
alone  did  this  entirely ;  New  York,  Pennsyl 
vania,  New  Jersey,  Maryland,  and  Virginia 
did  so  in  part.  The  issues  went  on,  how 
ever,  and  in  January,  1777,  the  depreciation 
began,  although  it  was  not  admitted  by 
Congress  until  September.1 

During  1777  all  means  of  coercion  by  pub 
lic  officers  and  private  committees  were  used 
to  enforce  the  legal-tender  character  of  the 
bills  and  to  keep  down  prices.  Some  crimes 
were  perpetrated  in  the  name  of  liberty  in 
this  connection.  In  September,  1779,  the  is 
sues  were  $160,000,000,  and  Congress  prom 
ised  that  they  should  not  exceed  $200,000,000. 
The  depreciation  was  twenty-eight  for  one 
(silver,  2800).  In  March,  1780,  silver  was  at 
6500.a  Congress  recognized  a  depreciation 
of  forty  for  one,  and  recommended  the  re 
peal  of  all  tender  laws,  and  issued  six-year 
six  per  cent,  notes.  The  Register  of  the 

1  Monographs  on  the  Continental  currency  have 
been  published  by  Henry  Phillips,  1866,  and  J.  W. 
Schuckers,  1874.    See  also  the  article  in  Harper's  Mag 
azine  for  March,  1863.    On  the  social  effects,  see  Pe- 
latiah  Webster's  Essays,  1791.    He  gives  the  deprecia 
tion  from  a  merchant's  books.    Another  table  is  given 
in  Xiles's  Register,  November  23, 1833. 

2  In  1780  and  1781  an  officer's  mess  bill  included  sug 
ar  at  $14,  $16,  and  $18  per  pound  ;  twist,  $10  per  yard ; 
three  brushes  and  a  blackball,  $95;  a  black  silk  hand 
kerchief,  $75;  eggs,  $12  per  dozen — Xiles's  Register, 
August  5, 1S26. 


240 


MONETARY  DEVELOPMENT. 


Treasury  made  a  report  to  Congress  in  1828, l 
in  which  he  put  the  sum  of  the  issues  at 
$241,000,000  of  the  first  tenor.  Jefferson 
says  $200,000,000,"  and  he  puts  the  value  at 
$36,000,000  in  specie.  He  estimated  the  cost 
of  the  war  at  $140,000,000.  Another  state 
ment  from  a  Treasury  report  of  1790  gives 
0357,400,000  old  tenor  and  $2,000,000  new 
tenor.  These  were  partly  re-issues.  The 
same  report  estimates  the  cost  of  the  war 
at  $135,100,000  in  specie.3  In  fact,  as  John 
Adams  wrote  to  Niles,*  the  history  of  the 
Revolution  [especially  of  its  finances]  is  lost 
beyond  recovery.  The  hills  went  on  depre 
ciating,  being  really  only  negotiable  paper, 
until  the  spring  of  1781,  wrhen  Morris  took 
charge  of  the  finances  on  condition  that  he 
might  conduct  them  in  specie.  Then  the 
notes  became  waste  paper.  Some  were  re 
deemed  at  one  hundred  for  one  in  Hamil 
ton's  funding  scheme.  These  notes  were  a 
greater  obstacle  to  independence  than  the 
British  arms;  so  much  so  that  the  enemy 
counterfeited  them  as  a  war  measure.  The 
French  money  was  a  greater  aid  to  inde 
pendence  than  the  French  fleets  and  forces. 
After  the  paper  money  had  exhausted  the 
patience  of  the  people,  Congress  had  to  col 
lect  taxes  in  kind  to  supply  the  army.  It 
could  not  have  been  worse  off  for  money  at 
the  outset,  and  would  have  had  enthuoiasm 
to  help.  The  miseries  of  those  days  were 
enhanced  by  the  failure  of  the  crops  of  1779 
and  1780. 

The  war  was  now  carried  on  by  loans  from 
France,  Holland,  and  Spain,  which  were  ob 
tained  on  French  credit.  Specie  brought  by 
the  French  and  English  came  into  circula 
tion  as  soon  as  the  paper  was  dropped,  and 
trade  with  the  English  was  winked  at  be 
cause  specie  was  obtained  by  it.  So  much 
for  non-intercourse. 

In  1780  a  company  of  gentlemen  in  Phila 
delphia  took  government  bills  of  exchange, 
and  issued  notes  to  purchase  supplies  for 
the  army.  December  31,  1781,  they  were 
incorporated  by  resolution  as  the  Bank  of 
North  America,  Congress  having  finally  or 
ganized,  November  1,  under  the  Articles  of 


i  Twentieth  Congress,  First  Session,  State  Paper  107. 

*  Works,  ix.  259. 

3  Pitkin,  A  Statistical  View,  etc.  (New  Haven,  1835), 
p.  27. 

*  Register,  January  18, 1817. 


Confederation.  The  validity  of  this  act  be 
ing  questioned,  the  bank  obtained  a  charter 
from  Pennsylvania  in  1783  for  ten  years, 
with  a  monopoly ;  capital,  $400,000.  In  1785 
the  State  charter  was  repealed,  on  account 
of  political  and  business  jealousy.  In  1787  it 
was  renewed,  without  the  monopoly.  This 
was  tha  first  bank  which  issued  convertible 
notes.  It  was  of  great  use  as  a  fiscal  agent 
of  the  government,  and  very  successful  in 
its  operations.  Gouge  says  that  it  put  on 
false  pretenses  of  strength,  but  its  history 
is  so  obscure  that  it  is  impossible  to  verify 
or  refute  these  charges. 

The  peace  found  the  finances  of  the  Con 
federation  and  of  the  States  in  confusion. 
The  Confederation  was  a  shadow  which  no 
longer  had  dignity.  It  could  not  collect 
revenue  or  adjust  its  accounts,  which  were 
found  in  inextricable  confusion,  showing 
recklessness  and  carelessness,  or  worse,  as  a 
result  of  the  numerous  boards  and  officers 
among  whom  the  responsibility  had  been 
divided.  The  States  were  likewise  strug 
gling  with  paper  issues,  which  they  retired 
by  taxes,  heavy  in  nominal  amount,  but 
small  in  value.  In  Massachusetts  Daniel 
Shays  led  a  body  of  armed  men  to  Worces 
ter,  and  from  there  to  Springfield,  to  pre 
vent  the  court  from  sitting.  This  body  was 
dispersed  by  force,  but  leniently  treated. 

In  the  same  year  (178G)1  Rhode  Island  is 
sued  paper,  as  a  measure  of  bankruptcy,  with 
a  stringent  tender  law.  In  1789  the  paper 
was  at  fifteen  for  one,  and  the  State  debt 
had  been  called  in,  and  either  paid  in  this 
currency  or  forfeited.  Then  the  assump 
tion  by  the  general  government  being  as 
sured,  the  State  stocks  were  returned  to  the 
holders  who  had  been  paid  off,  and  in  1791 
and  1795  they  all  participated  in  the  stocks 
allotted  to  the  State.8 

The  war-protected  industries  were  now 
prostrated.  Commerce  was  restricted  by 
the  English  navigation  laws  from  its  old 
path  to  the  British  West  Indies,  contrary  to 


1  In  a  speech  in  the  Senate,  March  24, 1838,  Judge 
White,  of  Tennessee,  described  the  currency  of  "  Frank 
lin"  (East  Tennessee  and  West  North  Carolina)  at  this 
time  as  consisting  of  raccoon-skins.     Counterfeiting 
consisted  in  attaching  raccoons'  tails  to  opossums' 
skins.     The  collectors  practiced  this  fraud  on  the 
Treasury. 

2  Arnold's  Rhode  Island,  ii.,  at  the  end.   Richmond, 
The  Revolutionary  Debt  repudiated  by  Rhode  Inland. 


THE  NATIONAL  BANK. 


241 


Pitt's  policy.1  The  commercial  treaty  pro 
posed  by  Adams  in  1785  was  refused,  ami  so 
both  from  within  and  without  the  necessity 
of  union  and  nationality  was  enforced. 

The  first  measure  of  Congress  was  for  tax 
ation.  The  act  of  July  4, 1789,  specified  pro 
tection  as  one  of  its  objects.  It  laid  duties 
of  five  per  cent.,  fifty  cents  per  ton  on  for 
eign  ships,  and  ten  per  cent,  discriminating 
duty.  Thus  the  United  States  failed  to  take 
the  enlightened  position  on  foreign  trade 
which  consistency  with  their  other  doctrines 
seemed  to  prescribe.  Other  acts  followed 
on  an  average  every  other  year  for  the  next 
thirty  years,  by  which  the  duties  were  in 
creased  and  extended. 

September  2,  1789,  the  Treasury  Depart 
ment  was  established,2  and  Alexander  Ham 
ilton  was  appointed  Secretary.  He  made  a 
report  on  the  finances  January  14, 1790.  The 
Confederate  debt  was  $42,000,000  domestic 
and  $11,000,000  foreign,  and  the  debt  of  the 
States  $25,000,000.  The  Confederate  domes 
tic  debt,  including  officers'  half-pay  commu 
tation  (a  very  unpopular  thing),  was  fund 
ed  at  par,  the  market  price  being  15.  The 
State  debts  were  assumed,  and  funded 
against  strong  opposition,  the  location  of 
the  capital  on  the  Potomac  being  assured  in 
order  to  gain  the  consent  of  Virginia.  Pen 
sions  and  the  funding  of  crops  of  exchequer 
bills  had  been  two  great  abuses  in  England 
for  a  century,  and  were  regarded  with  dread 
here. 

Hamilton  next  proposed  a  national  bank, 
which  was  established  by  act  of  March  3, 
1791,  with  a  capital  of  $10,000,000,  $8,000,000 
subscribed  by  individuals  (one-quarter  in 
specie,  three  -  quarters  in  United  States 
stock),  and  $2,000,000  by  government.  Its 
charter  was  for  twenty  years.  It  issued  no 
notes  under  $10.  Eight  or  ten  years  later 
the  government  sold  its  stock  for  twenty- 
five,  twenty,  and  forty-five  premium.  A 
bubble  speculation  followed  the  founding 
of  the  bank.3 


1  Pitkin,  189. 

3  A  full  history  of  the  finances  would  include  ton 
nage,  post-office,  and  tariff.  These,  however,  are  ex 
cluded,  except  in  cases  where  they  affect  the  finances 
generally,  from  the  present  account.  The  only  attempt 
to  deal  thoroughly  with  the  financial  history  of  the 
United  States  is  Von  Hock's,  Die  Finanzen  und  die  Fi- 
nanzyeschichte  der  Ver.  St.  (Cotta,  Stuttgart,  1867.) 

3  Giles's  Register,  May  9, 1835. 
16 


March  3, 1791,  an  excise  was  laid  on  spir 
its,  which  led  to  a  rebellion  in  Pennsylvania 
in  1794.  In  1794  other  direct  taxes  were 
laid,  and  in  1797  stamp  taxes.  July  14, 
1798,  direct  taxes  were  apportioned  on  laud, 
houses,  and  slaves.  These  taxes  were  all 
repealed  in  1802. 

Questions  of  coinage  were  taken  up  as 
early  as  1781.  January  15,  1782,  Eobert 
Morris  made  a  report  (said  to  have  been 
prepared  by  Gouverneur  Morris)  proposing 
a  coinage.1  July  6,  1785,  the  "dollar"  was 
adopted.  August  8,  178G,  a  mint  law  was 
passed,  which  was  modified  October  10, 1786. 
During  1790  both  Hamilton  and  Jeifersou3 
prepared  papers  on  coinage,  and  September 
2, 1792,  the  mint  law  was  approved.  Silver 
was  first  coined  in  1794,  and  gold  in  1795. 
The  silver  dollar  was  to  weigh  371.25  grains 
pure  metal,  and  the  gold  dollar  24.75  grains 
pure  metal,  thus  rating  the  metals  as  15  to 
1.  Silver  was  to  gold  in  England  as  15.2  to 
1,  and  here  it  was  probably  as  15.5  to  1. 
Little  gold  circulated  here  before  1820,  and 
after  that  none.  The  silver  dollar  having 
less  value  than  the  gold  dollar,  was  the  only 
one  which  debtors  paid. 

The  calamity  of  Europe  in  the  wars  from 
1791  to  1815  was  the  opportunity  of  Amer 
ica.  It  could  not  be  enjoyed  without  expe 
riencing  the  usual  fortune  of  neutrals,  nor 
without  in  its  final  results  showing  that  the 
best  gain  of  a  nation  comes  not  from  the 
quarrels  of  its  neighbors,  but  from  their 
peace  and  prosperity.  We  were  led  to  try 
another  commercial  war,  and  finally  to  un 
dertake  actual  hostilities  "for  free  trade" 
(i.  e.,  of  neutrals  during  war)  "and  sailors' 
rights,"  being  forced  to  this  by  votes  from 
south  of  the  Delaware,  while  the  ships  and 
sailors  in  the  North  and  East  asked  only  to 
take  their  own  risks.  April  14, 1814,  the  re 
strictive  acts  were  finally  repealed.  Daniel 
Webster  characterized  the  whole  system  in 
a  sentence  whan  he  said  it  was  "  pernicious 
as  to  ourselves,  and  imbecile  as  to  foreign 
nations."3  The  idea  was  by  withholding 
trade  to  get  a  consideration  in  hand,  viz., 
the  promise  to  restore  it,  and  then  to  oiler 
this  to  either  belligerent  to  induce  him  to 

1  Sparks's  Diplomatic  Correspondence,  xii.  81.    Amer 
ican  State  Papers,  vii.  101. 
3  American  State  Papers,  vii.  105;  xx.  13. 
3  Speech  in  the  House,  April  6, 1S14. 


242 


MONETARY  DEVELOPMENT. 


relax  his  hostile  regulations.  Mr.  Canning 
treated  this  with  thinly  veiled  contempt. 
His  position  was,  If  it  is  a  threat,  I  do  not 
notice  it ;  if  it  is  something  to  sell,  I  decline 
to  buy. 

The  embargo  and  war  had  "encouraged 
domestic  industry,"  and  had  come  to  be  con 
sidered  by  some  as  beneficent  forces.  Com 
merce  had  developed  in  an  unexampled 
manner.  The  customs  revenue  fluctuated 
greatly,  but  rose  from  $3,400,000  in  1792  to 
$13,300,000  in  1811,  actual  receipts,  long 
credit  being  given  from  the  time  of  importa 
tion.  Lands  figure  as  a  source  of  income 
from  1796 ;  $21,000,000  were  due  on  arrears 
(credit  being  given)  in  1820,1  of  which 
$14,900,000  were  canceled  before  1830  by 
surrendering  lands.  The  Post-office  was  es 
tablished  May  8,  1794.  A  single  letter  cost 
six  cents  for  thirty  miles ;  over  450  miles, 
twenty-five  cents.  Between  1794  and  1830 
the  Post-office  produced  revenue  except  iu 
1808,  1820,  1821,  1822,  1823,  1828,  1829,  1830.2 
Between  1837  and  1874  it  produced  revenue 
only  in  1837,  1848-1851,  and  1865. 3 

January  1,  1791,  the  foreign  debt  was 
$12,800,000 ;  the  domestic  debt,  $62,600,000 ; 
total,  $75,400,000.  The  act  of  August  4, 
1790,  set  apart  the  surplus  revenue  from  du 
ties  to  pay  the  debt.  The  act  of  May  8, 
1792,  appropriated  the  revenue  from  lands 
to  that  purpose.  The  act  of  March  3,  1795, 
increased  this  fund,  and  named  it  the  "  sink 
ing  fund."  The  act  of  April  29, 1802,  raised 
the  sinking  fund  to  $7,300,000  per  annum. 
Two  acts  of  November  10,  1803,  raised  loans 
of  $13,000,000  to  pay  for  Louisiana,  and  in 
creased  the  sinking  fund  to  $8,000,000  per 
annum.  By  the  treaty  of  January  8,  1802, 
in  fulfillment  of  section  six  of  Jay's  treaty, 
the  United  States  agreed  to  pay  £600,000 
(at  $4  44)  to  discharge  ante-Revolutionary 
debts  of  Americans  to  Englishmen.  The 
foreign  debt  increased  until  1795,  but  was 
extinguished  in  1810.  The  domestic  debt 
increased  until  1801.  The  Louisiana  pur 
chase  carried  it  to  its  maximum  in  1804 
(January  1,  total,  $86,400,000).  It  was  re 
duced  to  $39,000,000  September  30, 1815.* 

A  bankruptcy  law  was  passed  April  4, 
1800,  but  it  was  repealed  December  19, 1803. 

1  Niles's  Register,  February  5, 1820. 

2  Pitkin,  338.    3  Postmaster-General's  Report,  18T4. 
*  Treasury  Report,  1815. 


The  following  table  shows  the  develop 
ment  of  banking,1  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States  being  omitted : 


Year.          |    No. 

Capital. 

Circulation.    |      Specie. 

1791 
Jan.  1,  1811 
"      1815 

3 

88 
208 

$2,000,000 
42,600,000 
82,200,000 

$22,700,000 
45,500,000 

$9,600,000 
17,000,000 

Bunks  at  this  time  were  political  engines. 
Niles  often  says  that  the  old  United  States 
Bank  gave  favors  only  to  black -cockade 
Federalists  in  and  after  1798.  Pitkin  says 
that  bank  was  Federalist,  and  finds  it  natu 
ral  that  the  Jeff'ersonian  Democrats  would 
not  recharter  it.  McDufifie2  repeats  the  as 
sertion  of  political  character  in  the  old 
bank.  Clay  said  that  its  stock  was  largely 
held  by  foreigners  and  noblemen,3  which 
proves  that  it  brought  capital  here  which, 
at  that  day,  would  not  otherwise  have  come. 
The  charter  expired  March  3,  1811.  The  re- 
charter  was  lost  in  the  House,  January  24, 
by  one  vote,  and  in  the  Senate,  February  20, 
by  the  casting-vote  of  the  Vice-President. 
The  bank  closed  up  its  affairs,  and  paid 
back  its  capital  at  108£.*  A  large  number 
of  State  banks  at  once  sprang  up.  February 
12,  1820,  Secretary  Crawford  estimated  the 
paper  in  circulation  in  1813  at  $62,000,000, 
and  the  specie  at  $8,000,000 ;  the  paper  in 
1816  at  $99,000,000,  and  the  specie  at 
$11,000,000.  For  the  latter  year  Gallatin 
estimated  the  banks  at  246,  with  $89,800,000 
capital,  $68,000,000  circulation,  $19,000.000 
specie.5 

Duties  in  1804  were  twelve  and  a  half,  fif 
teen,  and  twenty  per  cent.  The  "  Mediter 
ranean  Fund"  was  then  raised  by  addition 
of  two  and  a  half  per  cent.  April  3, 1812,  in 
preparation  for  war,  an  embargo  was  laid 
for  ninety  days.  The  exportation  of  spe 
cie  was  forbidden,  all  duties  were  doubled, 

1  Gallatin,  Considerations  on  the  Currency  and  Bank 
ing  System  of  the  United  States  (Carey  and  Lea,  Phila 
delphia,  1831).  Others  give  four  banks  in  1789,  count 
ing  one  in  Maryland. 

*  Report  on  United  States  Bank,  April  13, 1830. 

3  Clay's  report  against  the  first  bank  (Senate,  March 
2,  1811)  would  have  made  a  good  Jackson  document, 
in  1832. 

*  Pitkin,  421.    The  last  dividend  was  in  1834  (Giles's 
Register,  September  13, 1834). 

5  The  best  account  of  this  period  is  given  by  Will 
iam  Gouge,  History  of  Paper  Money  and  Banking 
(Philadelphia,  1833).  Historically  very  correct  and 
trustworthy,  but  theoretically  marred  by  indiscrim 
inate  hostility  to  banks.  See  also  Condy  Raguet's 
Currency  and  Banking,  1840,  Appendix  H. 


WAK  DEBT  OF  1812. 


243 


an  additional  duty  of  ten  per  cent,  was 
laid  on  foreign  ships,  and  a  tonnage  duty  of 
$1  50.  This  made  the  duties  twenty-seven 
and  a  half,  thirty-two  and  a  half,  and  forty- 
two  and  a  half  per  cent.  The  Mediterra 
nean  Fund  expired  in  1815,  and  the  duties 
were  twenty-five,  thirty,  and  forty  per  cent, 
until  July,  1816.  July  22, 1813,  a  direct  tax 
of  $3,000,000  was  laid.  July  24  excise  taxes 
and  licenses  were  laid,  which  were  extended 
by  acts  of  January  18  and  February  27, 1815, 
but  an  income  tax  was  defeated  January  18, 
1815.  Another  direct  tax  of  $6,000,000  was 
also  laid.  On  December  23,  1814,  postage 
was  raised  to  twelve  cents  for  one  sheet  less 
than  forty  miles ;  this  was  repealed  Febru 
ary  1, 1816.  The  internal  taxes  were  repeal 
ed  in  1817. 

The  loans  contracted  were : 


April,  1814 ;  the  banks  of  the  District  dur 
ing  the  invasion,  August  27  ;  those  of  Phil 
adelphia,  August  30, 1814 ;  those  of  the  Mid 
dle  and  Southern  States,  within  a  fortnight 
later ;  those  of  Ohio  and  Kentucky  paid  spe 
cie  until  January  1,  1815 ;  the  only  one  in 
Tennessee  went  on  until  July  or  August, 
1815 ;  a  few  in  Maine  stopped  early  in  1814 ; 
the  rest  in  New  England  did  not  suspend 
at  all.1  Banks  now  multiplied  faster  than 
ever,  and  the  old  ones  increased  their  is 
sues.  The  notes  required  elaborate  quota 
tions,  and  brokers  had  a  rich  harvest  in  ne 
gotiating  them.  Niles's  Register  from  1814 
to  1820  is  filled  with  complaints  and  objur 
gations  about  the  "shavings."  The  Secre 
tary  of  the  Treasury  found  the  greatest  em 
barrassment  from  this  state  of  things.  The 
New  England  people  paid  all  their  dues  to 


Date  of  Act. 

Interest. 

Amount  authorized. 

Amount  Usuu.l. 

Rate. 

March  14,  1812  

6 
6 
6 
6 

16 
7 

$11,000,000 
10,000,000 
7,500,000 
25,000,000 

12,000,000 

$1,860,500 
18,109,377 
8,493,581 
15,661,813 

9,745,745      -f 
3,268,949      j 

Par. 

88 
S8# 
80 
90  to  par  in 
Treasury  notes. 
Par  in  Treasury 
notes. 

February  8,  1813  

August  2,  1813  

March  24,  1814  

March  3,  1815  (for  funding  interest- 
bearing  Treasury  notes)  

February  24,  1815  (for  funding  non- 
interest-bearing  Treasury  notes) 

Total  funded  debt  on  account  of  the  war  

$63,144,972 

Five  and  two-fifths  per  cent.  Treasury  notes  outstanding  September  30, 1815 $14,686,600 

Non-interest-bearing  Treasury  notes,  about 1,500,000 

Temporary  loans 1,150,000 

Total  cost  of  the  war,  ascertained  to  September  30, 1815,  about 80,500,000 


These  items,  with  the  temporary  loans, 
made  the  debt  for  the  war  $80,500,000,  and 
the  total  public  debt,  September  30,  1815, 
$1 19,600,000.' 

These  loans  were  contracted  at  80-90  in 
paper,  depreciated  twenty  per  cent.,  and 
after  1814  all  the  income  of  the- government 
was  in  the  same  paper.2 

March  19, 1813,  Governor  Snyder,  of  Penn 
sylvania,  vetoed  twenty-five  bank  charters ; 
March  21,  1814,  forty  charters  were  passed 
over  his  veto.  Banks  multiplied  on  every 
hand,  especially  in  the  Middle  States,  where 
they  speculated  in  government  stocks.  The 
system  was  generally  to  deposit  stock  notes 
for  the  capital,  issue  notes  even  beyond  this. 
and  loan  them  on  accommodation  paper. 
Bridge  and  other  companies  in  this  way  got 
their  capital  from  the  public. 

The   New  Orleans   banks   suspended   in 


1  Treasury  Report,  1815,  with  review  of  the  finances 
of  the  war.    See  also  Treasury  Report  for  1827,  and  a 
letter  of  Gallatin  in  Silen'a  Register,  February  21, 1846, 
on  the  finances  of  the  second  war. 

2  Crawford's  Report,  February  12, 1820. 


the  government  in  Treasury  notes  worth  90. 
The  government  had  to  pay  in  New  En 
gland  in  specie  all  that  it  owed  there,  while 
it  nowhere  received  a  specie  revenue.  At 
the  same  time  the  Boston  merchants  found 
that  the  Baltimoreans  had  the  advantage 
of  them  in  trade,  for  while  the  Bostonians 
paid  duties  in  Treasury  notes  at  90,  the  Bal 
timoreans  paid  in  their  own  bank-notes  at 
80.  So  little  was  the  "exchange"  under 
stood  that  the  Secretary  (Dallas)  complain 
ed  because  he  got  bids  for  the  loan  of  March 
3,  1815,  which  "  varied  according  to  the  ar 
bitrary  variations  of  what  is  called  the  dif 
ference  of  exchange."  The  object  of  this 
loan  was  to  fund  Treasury  notes.  The  Sec 
retary  fixed  the  price  of  his  bonds  at  95,  ei 
ther  in  Treasury  notes  or  "  cash,"  i.  e.,  bills 
of  suspended  banks.  The  result  was  that 
the  large  subscriptions  were  made  where  the 
currency  was  most  depreciated,  and  were 
made  in  "  cash."  Where  the  currency  was 


1  Gouge's  Journal  of  Banking,  quoted  in  Macgreg- 
or's  Commercial  Statistics,  iii.  987. 


244 


MONETARY  DEVELOPMENT. 


about  at  95,  the  subscriptions  were  paid  half 
in  "  cash,"  and  half  in  notes.  Where  the  cur 
rency  was  worth  more  than  95,  the  subscrip 
tions  were  all  in  Treasury  notes.  The  Sec 
retary's  own  table  shows  this  at  a  glance.1 

In  the  disorder  of  the  currency,  Eppes  (on 
behalf  of  Jefferson)  proposed  a  government 
paper  money  fundable  in  stock,  such  as  was 
issued  in  January,  1815,  and  never  circu 
lated.  Dallas,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas 
ury,  October  17,  1814,  proposed  a  national 
non-specie-paying  bank.  Calhoun  proposed 
a  bank  on  Treasury  notes,  but  which  should 
never  suspend  specie  payments.  Dallas's 
scheme  passed  the  Senate,  but  was  defeat 
ed  in  the  House  by  the  double  vote  of  the 
Speaker  (Cheves).  A  plan  for  a  bank  to  be 
prohibited  from  suspending  passed,  and  was 
vetoed  January  30,  1815.  Dallas's  paper 
scheme  passed  the  Senate  again,  but  was 
defeated  in  the  House  by  one  vote  on  Feb 
ruary  17,  the  day  the  news  arrived  of  the 
Peace  of  Ghent.  It  was  heard  of  no  more. 

At  the  next  session  Calhoun  re-introduced 
the  bank,  the  charter  being  Dallas's  work. 
It  was  passed  April  10, 1816.  The  bank  was 
to  have  $35,000,000  capital,  $7,000,000  to  be 
subscribed  by  government  in  rive  per  cent, 
stock,  $28,000,000  by  the  public,  of  which 
$7,000,000  was  to  be  in  specie  and  $21,000,000 
in  six  per  cent.  United  States  stocks.  It 
was  to  pay  a  bonus  of  $1,500,000  in  one,  two, 
and  three  years.  It  was  to  issue  no  notes 
under  $5,  and  was  forbidden  to  suspend  un 
der  twelve  per  cent,  penalty.  Votes  were 
to  be  given  at  elections  of  bank  officers  by 
an  intricate  limitation,  varying  according 
to  the  number  of  shares  held,  and  directors 
could  serve  only  three  years  out  of  four. 

This  bank  was  to  correct  the  currency 
and  to  control  the  exchanges,  which  no  bank 
can  do  or  ought  to  do.  It  was  to  be  the 
financial  Providence  of  the  country,  bring 
exchange  to  par,  and  keep  it  there  in  an  im 
mense  sparsely  settled  country  with  defect 
ive  means  of  communication.  Its  capital 
was  far  too  large,  and  there  was  no  reason 
for  putting  part  of  the  capital  in  stocks. 
Finally,  there  was  no  reason  why  the  gov 
ernment  should  have  shares  in  it. 

April  30  Congress  voted  that  specie  pay- 

1  This  report  (1815)  was  very  correctly  criticised  by 
Mr.  Nathan  Appleton :  On  Currency  and  Banking  (Bos 
ton,  1841),  Appendix  D. 


ineuts  ought  to  be  resumed  February  20, 
1817,  and  that  government  ought  to  accept 
only  specie  or  its  equivalent  in  payment 
thereafter.  The  banks  refused  to  resume 
before  July,  1817.  The  stock  of  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States  was  taken  in  July  in 
such  a  way  that  a  Baltimore  clique,  taking 
advantage  of  the  rule  about  voting,  got 
votes  enough  to  control  the  organization.1 
By  subscribing  as  attorneys  they  got  22,187 
votes  out  of  80,000,  and  they  subscribed  only 
$4,000,000  out  of  $28,000,000.  In  November 
the  stock  was  at  $42.50  for  $30  paid.  The 
organization  took  place  October  28,  fifteen 
directors  being  Democrats  and  ten  Federal 
ists.  The  directors  allowed,  December  18 
and  27,  discount  on  the  pledge  of  stocks,  by 
which  the  specie  payment  in  the  second  in 
stallment  (January  2)  was  evaded.  Wild 
stock-jobbing  now  began,  especially  among 
those  inside.  After  February  20  all  stock 
was  discounted  at  par  (65  paid).  "  The  dis 
counts,  the  payment  of  the  second  install 
ment,  the  payment  of  the  price  to  the  own 
er,  the  transfer,  and  the  pledge  of  the  stock 
were,  as  it  is  termed,  simultaneous  acts." 
August  26,  1817,  they  voted  to  discount  on 
the  stock  at  125.  The  third  installment 
was  partly  paid  in  bank-notes  because  gov 
ernment  stock  wras  at  a  premium  in  notes. 
August  28,  1818,  the  bank  refused  to  re 
ceive  or  pay  its  notes  except  at  the  offices 
specified  on  the  note,  and  also  refused  to  col 
lect  drafts,  etc.,  except  for  exchange  rates, 
thus  abandoning  the  attempt  to  "equalize 
exchange."  In  April,  1819,  it  refused  to 
transfer  funds  for  the  government  except  at 
exchange  rates,  thus  disappointing  another 
expectation  in  regard  to  it. 

The  bank  was  going  on  just  after  the  pre 
vailing  fashion.  Instead  of  restraining,  it 
joined  the  race.  The  Secretary  in  1817  said 
that  he  had  paid  off  all  the  United  States 
stock  in  the  capital  of  the  bank,  and  he  paid 
off  $13,000,000,  which  seems,  therefore,  to  be 
the  amount  paid  in,  instead  of  $21,000,000. 
The  rest  was  bank-notes  or  stock  notes. 
This  redemption  turned  the  whole  capital 
into  a  shape  demanding  use,  and  led  to  a  pro 
digious  expansion  of  credit.  The  State  banks 
agreed  to  "  resume"  if  the  bank  would  extend 


1  The  story  is  told  here  consecutively.  The  doings 
inside  the  bank  were  not  made  known  until  the  inqui 
ry  in  1819  and  Cheves's  report  in  1822. 


LIQUIDATION  UNDER  DIFFICULTIES,  1819-1823. 


245 


its  discounts  at  New  York  $2,000,000,  Phil 
adelphia,  $2,000,000,  Baltimore,  $1,500,000, 
Virginia,  $500,000.  There  never  was  any  re 
sumption  in  fact.1  August  8, 1817,  the  pres 
ident  and  cashier  were  authorized  to  dis 
count  $500,000,  and  subsequently  to  discount 
$2,000,000,  between  discount  days,  in  their 
discretion.  September  30  they  were  au 
thorized  to  renew  notes  so  discounted.  The 
stock  was  then  at  its  highest,  155-156^. 
From  July,  1817,  to  December,  1818,  the  bank 
imported  $7,300,000  in  specie,  at  an  expense 
of  over  $500,000.  Congress  appointed  an  in 
vestigating  committee,  on  the  rumor  that 
things  were  not  all  right,  and  because  the 
bank  had  not  helped  the  currency.  They 
reported2  January  16,  1819,  exposing  the 
facts  here  detailed.  The  president  of  the 
bank  and  the  managers  at  Baltimore  re 
signed.  March  6, 1819,  Laugdon  Cheves  be 
came  president.  He  found  the  bank  bank 
rupt,  but  already  engaged  in  vigorous  efforts 
to  contract  its  obligations.  These  meas 
ures  were  continued.  The  loss  at  Baltimore 
was  $2,000,000,  the  whole  loss  $3,000,000. 
February  25  Congress  refused  to  order  a 
scire  facias  for  the  forfeiture  of  the  charter. 

Maryland,  Ohio,  and  Kentucky  had  at 
tempted  to  tax  the  bank,  but  the  tax  was 
declared  unconstitutional.3  In  Ohio  a  tax 
of  $100,000  was  collected  by  force  September 
16, 1819,  but  ordered  restored,  after  long  liti 
gation,  in  September,  1821.* 

Meanwhile  the  commerce,  industry,  and 
finance  of  the  world  had  been  finding  their 
way  back  to  the  ordinary  natural  forms  and 
channels  of  peace,  and  away  from  the  un 
natural  developments  of  war.  This  did  not 
take  place  without  shocks  and  confusion 
throughout  the  commercial  world.  The 
United  States  had,  for  insufficient  reason, 
plunged  into  the  general  meUe,  and  the  re 
sult  was  that  not  only  was  their  commerce 
first  unnaturally  distorted  and  then  crush 
ed,  but  also  their  home  industry  had  sought 
unnatural  developments,  and  their  finances 
had  been  thrown  into  confusion.  In  1816 
paper  money  yet  prevailed  in  Europe,  and 
was  depreciated  more  than  ours.  The  ex- 


1  Crawford's  Report,  February  12, 1820. 
3  See  the  report  and  documents  in  Xiles's  Register, 
vols.  xv.  and  xvi.,  series  1. 
3  4  Wheaton,  316. 
*  Final  action  and  history  of  the  case,  9  Wheaton,  739. 


changes  were  favorable  to  the  United  States, 
and  a  golden  opportunity  was  offered  for  re 
sumption.  In  1819  efforts  were  being  made 
all  over  Europe  to  resume,  and  masses  of 
metal  were  moving  from  country  to  coun 
try.  In  the  midst  of  this  state  of  things 
came  the  real,  though  not  publicly  known, 
break-down  of  the  bank.  Its  efforts  to  re 
cover  itself  prostrated  the  whole  industry 
of  the  country.  Prices,  which  had  risen  fifty 
or  one  hundred  per  cent,  since  1814,  fell  even 
below  the  former  level,  and  a  grand  liquida 
tion  set  in,  which  ran  through  some  three  or 
four  years. 

In  1820  exchange  on  England  rose  to  105 
and  106,  which  earned  off  gold,  the  par  of 
gold  being  102.72,  or,  with  expenses,  105. 
Par  of  silver  was  106  (at  15i  to  1),  or,  with 
expenses,  108.  In  fact,  silver  was  then  de 
pressed  to  16  for  1  by  the  demand  for  gold 
in  England,  and  it  took  110  to  draw  silver 
from  here.  Exchange  rose  at  a  leap  from 
106  to  110,  and  then  to  112 — rates  which  the 
living  generation  could  hardly  remember. 
Every  gold  coin  here  was  drawn  away,  for 
there  was  no  such  profit  on  any  thing  else 
exported.  The  re-adjustment  was  not  com 
plete  before  1822  or  1823,  and  it  was  not 
brought  about  without  great  suffering.1 

In  1823  land  was  worth  forty  or  forty-five 
per  cent,  less  than  in  1806,  and  sixty  or  sev 
enty  per  cent,  less  than  in  1817  ;2  thousands 
in  actual  suffering;  families  living  on  one 
dollar  per  week  ;3  women  earning  six  and 
a  quarter  cents  per  day.  The  distress  was 
all  used  as  an  argument  for  protection. 

The  indiscriminate  rage  of  men  like  Gouge 
and  Niles  against  "  banks"  dates  from  this 
period.  Niles  again  and  again  speaks  of 
banks  just  as  one  would  speak  of  gambling 
hells.  There  were  three  kinds  of  paper 
afloat  in  1819 :  first,  notes  of  incorporated 
banks  with  more  or  less  pretense  to  solv 
ency  ;  second,  notes  of  banks  which  had  no 
other  reality  than  a  counting-room,  books, 
and  a  plate — their  notes  were  circulated  at 
a  distance,  and  when  they  came  home  the 
bank  ceased  to  be ;  third,  counterfeits  in  enor 
mous  quantities,  though  they  differed  from 
the  second  kind  only  in  stealing  a  name 

1  Valuable  reports  on  coinage,  etc.,  by  Lowndes,  H. 
R.,  January  26, 1819,  and  J.  Q.  Adams,  February  22, 1821. 
3  Niles'n  Register,  August  23, 1823. 
3  Xiles's  Register,  May  17, 1823. 


246 


MONETAEY  DEVELOPMENT. 


some  one  else  had  invented,  instead  of  in 
venting  a  new  one.  The  amount  afloat  can 
not  be  guessed  at.  Niles1  said  the  number 
of  banks  \vas  put  at  397  on  unknown  au 
thority.  The  homilies  about  extravagance 
and  protecting  home  industry,  and  the  praise 
of  the  old  simple  times,  then  began.  These 
times  have  never  been  since  the  earliest  co 
lonial  days,  when  people  were  so  poor  that 
they  could  buy  nothing.  Since  then  they 
have  bought  all  they  could,  and  as  they 
have  been  getting  rich  fast,  they  have  al 
ways  had  far  more  good  things  at  the  end 
of  any  twenty  years  than  at  its  beginning. 

In  1817  the  sinking  fund  was  raised  to 
$10,000,000  per  annum,  and  more,  if  possible, 
leaving  $2,000,000  in  the  Treasury.  In  1816, 
1817, 1818,  and  1819  this  sum  was  paid,  and  in 
some  years  much  more ;  but  in  1820,  the  rev 
enue  having  declined,  $2,000,000  were  bor 
rowed  from  the  sinking  fund,  with  many 
apologies.  In  1821  it  was  curtailed  over 
$3,000,000,  but  without  any  apologies.  It 
showed  that  the  sinking  fund  is  simply 
what  can  be  saved  and  paid,  nothing  more 
or  less. 

During  the  next  decade  the  scene  of  in 
terest  is  in  the  West.  Kentucky,  Tennes 
see,  Illinois,  and  Missouri  tried  stay  laws, 
tender  laws,  property  laws,  and  paper  issues 
in  every  form.  Kentucky  tried  the  experi 
ment  most  thoroughly ;  the  others  desisted 
sooner.  A  history  of  Tennessee  banking 
was  given  by  Judge  White  in  a  speech  in 
the  Senate  March  24, 1838. a 

In  the  East  things  soon  returned  to  order, 
and  the  next  years  were  generally  quiet 
financially.  The  agitations  were  in  regard 
to  protection.  The  revenue  was  good,  the 
public  debt  was  being  paid,  canals  were  be 
ing  built,  and  although  there  was,  in  regard 
to  all  these  things,  much  which  a  conserva 
tive  economist  would  disapprove,  yet  there 
was  perhaps  nothing  but  what  must  be  tol 
erated  in  a  new  and  poor  country.  It  may 
suffice  here  to  mention  the  following  impor 
tant  incidents :  In  1819  it  was  proposed  to 
issue  a  government  paper  money.  Secretary 
Crawford  reported  against  it  February  12, 
1820.  In  1820  a  loan  of  $3,000,000  was  con- 

>  August  29, 1818. 

3  A  short  history  of  banking  in  the  separate  States 
is  given  in  a  series  of  articles  in  the  Bankers'  Magazine, 
vol.  xi. 


tracted,  and  in  1821  a  loan  of  $5,000,000. 
July  2, 1821,  a  committee  of  stockholders  of 
the  bank  reported  its  losses  at  $3,547,838  80. 
October  1, 1822,  Mr.  Cheves  reported  on  the 
state  of  the  bank  when  he  took  it,  and  his 
eiforts  to  save  it.  The  Suffolk  bank  sys 
tem  was  organized  in  New  England  in  1824. 
The  investments  of  foreign  capital  here, 
1823-1825,  were  estimated  at  from  $30,000,000 
to  $38,000,000.'  The  great  crisis  of  1825  in 
England  did  not  have  great  effect  here.  In 
1826  there  was  a  great  collapse  of  unsound 
banking  institutions  in  various  parts  of  the 
country.  Many  such  had  been  organized  at 
New  York,  and  in  New  Jersey  opposite.  Sev 
eral  of  the  projectors  were  condemned  to  the 
penitentiary. 

Andrew  Jackson  became  President  March 
4,  1829,  and  proceeded  to  reform  the  gov 
ernment.  In  the  summer  of  that  year  com 
plaints  were  made  by  New  Hampshire  pol 
iticians  that  the  branch  of  the  bank  at 
Portsmouth  was  presided  over  by  Mr.  Jere 
miah  Mason,  a  friend  of  Mr.  Webster.  The 
administration  sought  to  induce  Mr.  Biddle 
(president  of  the  bank  since  January,  1823) 
to  remove  Mr.  Mason.  He  refused,  and  this  is 
the  earliest  germ  we  can  find  of  a  great  war. 
Mr.  Biddle  was  in  the  position  of  resisting 
an  alliance  of  Bank  and  State.2  The  Mes 
sage  of  1829  astonished  the  nation  by  ques 
tioning  the  constitutionality  and  advantage 
of  the  bank,  whose  charter  would  not  ex 
pire  until  March  3,  1836,  and  proposing  a 
bank  on  the  revenues  and  credit  of  the 
nation.  The  bank  had  lived  down  the  odi 
um  of  its  early  history.  The  Committee  of 
Ways  and  Means  reported  April  13, 1830  (by 
McDuffie),  in  favor  of  rechartering  the  bank 
at  the  proper  time.  The  Committee  of  Fi 
nance  of  the  Senate  reported  March  29, 1830, 
that  the  currency  was  good,  and  in  a  fair 
way  to  improve.  "  They  deem  it  prudent 
to  abstain  from  all  legislation,  to  abide  by 
the  practical  good  which  the  country  enjoys, 
and  to  put  nothing  to  hazard  by  doubtful 
experiments."  In  November,  1830,  Mr.  Gal- 
latin  published  the  article  on  the  currency 
above  referred  to,  in  which  he  showed  that 

i  Niles,  November  22, 1823 ;  June  12, 1824 ;  January 
22, 1825. 

"  J.  Q.  Adams's  Report,  1832.  The  history  is  given 
consecutively ;  incidents  which  did  not  become  public 
ly  known  until  later  are  put  in  their  proper  place. 


THE  BANK  KECHAETERED. 


247 


the  bank  had  been  very  useful.  These  doc 
uments  no  doubt  represented  the  opinions 
of  the  educated  and  business  classes  at  that 
time. 

The  revolution  of  1830  in  France,  political 
disturbances  elsewhere  on  the  Continent, 
and  the  disturbances  which  preceded  the 
Keforrn  Bill  in  England  were  then  causing 
much  capital  to  be  sent  to  this  country. 
The  new  canals  just  opened,  the  railroads 
just  beginning  to  be  built  (for  horse-power), 
the  application  of  anthracite  coal  to  the 
arts,  and  numerous  improvements  in  all 
branches  of  production  afforded  ample  op 
portunity  of  applying  this  capital  here  to 
advantage.  The  same  improvements  in  En 
gland  tended  to  an  unprecedented  increase 
of  capital,  which  sought  investment  here  for 
the  next  eight  or  ten  years. 

It  was  under  these  circumstances  that 
the  President  set  about  an  "  experiment" 
with  the  currency.  The  Message  of  1830 
repeated  the  opinion  of  1829  in  regard  to 
the  bank ;  that  of  1831  was  milder.  Janu 
ary  9, 1832,  the  petition  for  a  recharter  was 
presented.  A  special  committee  having 
been  appointed  in  the  House,  a  majority  re 
ported  agaiust  the  recharter ;  McDuffie  and 
Adams  both  made  counter  -  reports.  The 
charges  against  the  bank  were,  first,  that 
its  assets  consisted  largely  of  accommoda 
tion  loans  in  the  West,  which  were  created 
by  "race-horse"  bills,  and  were  worthless. 
(There  was  too  much  truth  in  this ;  the 
branch  drafts  since  1827  had  been  mischiev 
ous.)  Second,  extending  favors  to  Con 
gressmen.  (This  was  admitted  and  defend 
ed.)  Third,  using  political  influence.  (It 
appeared  rather  that  the  administration  had 
tried  to  use  the  bank  politically.)  The  re- 
charter  passed,  but  was  vetoed  July  10, 1832. 

In  1830  $3,000,000  of  the  $7,000,000  five 
per  cent,  stock  of  the  United  States  which 
was  in  the  capital  of  the  bank  was  redeem 
ed,  and  in  1831  the  remaining  $4,000,000. 

By  treaty  of  July  4,  1831,  France  agreed 
to  pay  the  United  States  25,000,000  francs 
as  indemnity  for  spoliations  after  1806.  The 
Secretary  drew  on  the  French  Finance  Min 
ister  for  the  first  installment,  due  February 
2, 1833,  and  sold  the  bill  to  the  bank.  The 
French  Chambers  had  made  no  appropria 
tion  to  carry  out  the  treaty,  and  the  bill  was 
protested,  but  taken  up  by  Hottiuguer  for 


the  bank.  The  bank  claimed  fifteen  per 
cent,  damages,  and  reserved  the  sum  with 
interest  ($170,041)  from  dividends  due  the 
government  July  17, 1834.  The  government 
gained  the  suit  to  recover  this  in  1847.1 

The  government  desiring  to  pay  off  the 
three  per  cents  in  1832,  the  bank  assumed 
and  carried  them  a  year  longer.  The  Pres 
ident  expressed  his  fears  that  the  public  de 
posits  were  unsafe  in  the  bank,  in  his  Mes 
sage,  1832.  The  majority  of  the  Committee 
of  Ways  and  Means  found  the  deposits  safe, 
but  the  minority  made  a  strong  attack  on 
the  bank  on  account  of  the  Western  loans. 
These  were  rapidly  reduced. 

During  the  summer  of  1833  overtures  were 
made  to  the  State  banks  to  receive  the  pub 
lic  deposits.  August  19,  1833,  the  govern 
ment  directors  of  the  bank  made  a  report 
showing  large  expenditures  by  the  bank  for 
printing  and  distributing  documents  during 
the  campaign  of  1832.  These  consisted  of 
Gallatiu's  article,  the  minority  reports  of 
Adams  and  McDuffie,  et  al.2 

Meanwhile  the  national  debt  was  being 
rapidly  paid,  and  a  surplus  was  to  be  ex 
pected  after  1835.  The  opposition  desired 
to  divide  the  public  lands,  in  order  to  cut 
off  revenue,  and  to  go  into  internal  im 
provements,  in  order  to  increase  expendi 
tures,  but  not  to  reduce  the  protective  tar 
iff.  The  tariff  of  July  14, 1832,  was  finally 
modified  by  the  act  of  March  2,  1833,  to  re 
duce  duties  until  1842.  The  pound  ster 
ling  was  rated  at  $4  80  for  customs  pur 
poses,  standard  weights  and  measures  were 
distributed,3  and  the  credit  on  duties  was 
shortened. 

September  18, 1833,  the  President  read  in 
his  cabinet  an  argument  against  the  bank, 
showing  wrhy  the  deposits  ought  to  be  re 
moved.  Duane,  who  had  only  been  Secre 
tary  since  May  29,  refused  to  remove  them. 
He  was  dismissed,  and  Tauey  appointed,*  by 
whom  they  were  transferred.  The  amount 


>  2  Howard,  711,  and  5  Howard,  382. 

3  Keport  of  directors  on  "  A  Paper  read  in  the  Cab 
inet,"  December  3,  1833.  (Xilea's  Register,  December 
14, 1833.) 

3  The  weights  in  nse  at  the  various  custom-houses 
varied  sixteen  per  cent.  The  proportion  of  the  bushels 
in  use  was:  Bath,  74;  Portland,  76;  Saco,  80;  Boston, 
78 ;  New  York,  78}  ;  Philadelphia,  78t ;  Baltimore,  771 ; 
Newbern,  S7i;  Charleston,  78;  Savannah,  76.  (Silea's 
Register,  January  5, 1833.) 

*  He  was  not  confirmed. 


248 


MONETARY  DEVELOPMENT. 


was  $9,800,000.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treas 
ury  is  in  an  ambiguous  position,  being  dis- 
missible  as  a  cabinet  officer,  and  yet  charged 
with  independent  responsibility.  The  six 
teenth  section  of  the  bank  charter  gave  to 
him  power  to  remove  the  deposits.  This  act 
caused  great  alarm,  being  apparently  a  bold 
and  self-willed,  but  not  intelligent,  act. 
Credit  was  disturbed,  and  the  winter  passed 
in  commercial  distress.  In  February,  1834, 
the  President,  in  answer  to  a  deputation 
from  Philadelphia,1  sketched  his  new  pro 
gramme.  He  would  crush  the  bank,  try  the 
plan  of  using  State  banks  as  fiscal  agents, 
introduce  a  metallic  currency,  and  use  spe 
cie  only  for  the  government.  The  radical 
weakness  of  this  plan  was  that  he  could  in 
no  way  control  the  State  banks,  though  they 
should  do  far  worse  things  than  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States  had  done. 

BANK  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


January  1. 

1831. 

1-  •;-.'. 

1833. 

1834. 

Loans  
Circulation 
Deposits... 
Coin  

$ 
44,000,000 
16,200,000 
17,200,000 
10,800,000 

$ 
66,200,000 
21,300,000 
22,700,000 
7,000,000 

$ 
61,600,000 
17,500,000 
20,300,000 
8,900,000 

$ 
54,900,000 
19,200,000! 
10,800,000! 
10,000,000 

Small  banks  now  sprang  up  in  great  num 
bers  to  claim  the  deposits,  and  they  urged 
political  reasons  generally  for  being  granted 
a  share.3  December  3, 1833,  Tauey  gave  the 
reasons  for  removing  the  deposits :  First,  the 
Exchange  Committee  of  the  Board  of  Direct 
ors  governed  the  bank.  (This  was  a  well- 
founded  complaint.  It  was  the  arrange 
ment  which  made  the  final  catastrophe  of 
the  bank  possible.)  Second,  the  bank  had 
meddled  in  politics.  Third,  selfishness  in  de 
ferring  the  three  per  cents  and  demanding 
damages  on  the  French  draft.  December  9, 
the  government  directors  reported  that  they 
were  excluded  from  knowledge  of  the  affairs 
of  the  bank.  March  28, 1834,  the  Senate  re 
solved  that  the  President  had  "  assumed 
upon  himself  authority  and  power  not  con 
ferred  by  the  Constitution  and  the  laws." 
April  15,  the  President  sent  in  a  protest 
against  this  resolution,  which  the  Senate  re 
fused  to  register  (27  to  16).  The  resolution 
was  "  expunged"  January  16, 1837.  April  4, 
1834,  the  House  resolved  that  the  bank  ought 
not  to  be  rechartered  nor  the  deposits  re- 


Niles,  March  1, 1834. 

See  Xiles'a  Register,  April  8, 1837. 


stored,  and  raised  another  committee.  Of 
this  the  majority  reported,  May  22,  that  the 
bank  had  refused  to  submit  to  investiga 
tion  ;  the  minority  reported  that  the  com 
mittee  had  made  unreasonable  and  improper 
demands. 

February  4,  1834,  the  Senate  appointed  a 
committee  which  reported,  December  18,  fa 
vorably  to  the  bank.  The  Message  of  1834 
reviewed  the  controversy  and  renewed  the 
old  charges. 

June  28,  1834,  the  coinage  was  altered  so 
that  the  silver  dollar  should  weigh  412£ 
grains,  371.25  grains  pure,  and  the  gold  dol 
lar  25.8  grains,  23.2  grains  pure,  rating  the 
metals  as  15.99  to  1.  The  standard  for  silver 
was  0.900  fine ;  for  gold  0.89922.  This  ex 
pelled  silver,  rating  it  as  much  too  low  as  it 
had  before  been  too  high.  Another  mistake 
was  made  at  the  same  time  by  rating  foreign 
coins  too  high,  so  that  they  were  a  cheaper 
tender  than  American  coin.  This  prevent 
ed  them  from  being  sent  to  the  mint.  The 
act  of  January  18, 1837,  brought  both  metals 
to  the  standard  0.900,  and  made  the  gold  dol 
lar  23.22  grains  fine.  From  this  time  par 
of  exchange  with  England  was  109£,  or 
£1  =$4.8665.  A  gold  eagle,  coined  before 
July  31,  1834,  was  worth  $10.668  in  eagles 
coined  after  that. 

The  new  banks  opened  a  period  of  specu 
lation  in  1834,  which  went  on  through  1835, 
growing  wilder  and  wilder,  seizing  on  cot 
ton  lands  and  negroes,  city  lots,  Western 
lauds,  and  every  form  of  stocks.1  The  ad 
ministration,  it  is  true,  prevailed  on  the  fol 
lowing  States3  to  forbid  notes  under  $5 : 
Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  Virginia,  Georgia, 
Tennessee,  Louisiana,  North  Carolina,  In 
diana,  Kentucky,  Maine,  New  York,  New 
Jersey,  Alabama.  Connecticut  had  forbid 
den  $l's  and  $2's;  Mississippi  and  Illinois 
had  no  notes  under  $5 ;  and  Missouri  had  no 
bank  of  issue ;  but  the  exchanges  were  kept 
favorable  by  exporting  securities  (import 
ing  capital),  and  the  position  was  one  of 
unstable  equilibrium.  The  specie  in  the 
country  was  $64,000,000.  The  prevailing  be 
lief  was  that  bank  issues  could  be  extended 
to  any  amount,  if  only  there  was  one-third 
the  amount  in  specie  behind  them. 


»  Niles,  May  9, 1835. 
=  Treasury  Report,  1835. 


THE  FINANCIAL  CRISIS  IN  1836. 


249 


The  directors  of  the  bank1  ordered  the 
Exchange  Committee,  March  6, 1835,  to  loan 
the  funds  of  the  bank  on  stock  as  fast  as  it 
was  called  in,  in  order  to  facilitate  the  wind 
ing  up.  The  branches  (of  which  there  were 
twenty-five)  were  sold,  and  bonds  taken  pay 
able  in  from  one  to  five  years.  In  the  win 
ter  of  1835-36  it  was  suddenly  proposed  that 
Pennsylvania  should  grant  a  charter  to  the 
bank,  and  a  bill  was  passed  February  13, 
1836,  doing  so,  but  joining  the  charter  with 
internal  improvement  schemes  and  a  repeal 
of  some  taxes.  The  conditions  were  very 
onerous.  Thus  instead  of  winding  up  March 
3,  1836,  the  bank  went  on  as  the  United 
States  Bank  of  Pennsylvania.  Under  the 
resolution  of  March  6, 1835,  $20,000,000  of  its 
capital  had  been  loaned  on  stocks,  and  it 
had  its  bonus  to  the  State  to  pay,  the  shares 
of  the  government  to  pay  back,  and  the  cir 
culation  of  the  old  bank  to  redeem.  The 
Exchange  Committee  had  complete  control 
of  the  bank.2 

In  the  winter  of  1835-36  the  rates  for  capi 
tal  advanced  under  great  fluctuations,  such 
as  always  occur  on  a  bank-note  currency 
with  an  inadequate  coin  basis.  The  great 
fire  of  December,  1835,  at  New  York  led  some 
to  propose  a  bank  of  $5,000,000  for  the  suf 
ferers.  Niles  said,  "  To  make  a  bank  is  the 
grand  panacea  for  every  ill  that  can  befall 
the  people  of  the  United  States,  and  yet  it 
adds  not  one  cent  to  the  capital  of  the  com 
munity."3 

During  1836  speculation  went  on,  althoTigh 
rates  for  loans  were  twelve  to  twenty  per 
cent,  per  month  throughout  much  of  the 
year.  Prices  were  so  high  that  wheat  came 
here  from  Europe.  It  was  said  that  the 
canals,  etc.,  had  drawn  laborers  away  from 
agriculture.  In  the  fall  the  Bank  of  En 
gland  refused  to  discount  for  bankers 
who  were  granting  American  credits,  and 
those  houses  reduced  their  acceptances  from 
£20,000,000  to  £12,000,000  during  the  win 
ter,*  producing  still  greater  distress  here, 
both  directly  and  indirectly,  by  the  fall  in 
cotton. 

The  public  debt  was  all  paid  January  1, 
1835,  and  a  surplus  of  over  $40,000,000  accu 
mulated  during  1836.  The  administration 


1  Keport  of  1841.  a  Ibid. 

3  Register,  January  2,  1836. 

*  Morning  Chronicle,  in  Giles's  Register,  April  29, 1837. 


having  done  all  the  harm  it  could  by  scat 
tering  this  over  the  Union  in  forty  banks, 
the  opposition  now  undertook  to  withdraw 
it  from  the  banks  and  distribute  it  to  the 
States  in  the  ratio  of  Congressional  repre 
sentation.  The  bill  passed  June  23,  1836. 
It  ordered  the  surplus  over  $5,000,000  Jan 
uary  1, 1837,  to  be  deposited  with  the  States. 
The  Message  of  1836  contained  a  criti 
cism  of  this  proceeding  which  was  unan 
swerable,  although  the  three  great  men, 
Clay,  Calhoun,  and  Webster,  all  favored  the 
scheme. 

July  11,  1836,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas 
ury  issued  a  circular  forbidding  the  receipt 
of  any  thing  but  specie  for  public  lands. 
Congress  passed  a  resolution  practically  re 
scinding  this.  It  was  sent  to  the  President 
March  2,  and  he  sent  it  to  the  State  De 
partment  to  be  filed  at  11.45  P.M.,  March  3, 
1837. 

February  25, 1837,  the  United  States  Bank 
offered  to  pay  off  the  public  shares  at  $115  58 
per  share,  in  four  installments,  September, 
1837,  1838,  1839,  and  1840.  March  3  Con 
gress  ordered  this  offer  accepted,  and  it  was 
fulfilled. 

Early  in  March  Herman  Briggs  and  Co., 
of  New  Orleans,  failed,  on  account  of  the 
decline  in  cotton.  J.  L.  and  S.  Joseph  and 
Co.,  of  New  York,  failed  ao  soon  as  the  news 
reached  New  York.  This  was  the  begin 
ning.  The  whole  Southwest  was  pros 
trated.  At  New  York  one  failure  followed 
another  among  those  who  held  Southern 
funds.  Mr.  Biddle  had  before  acted  as 
financial  Jupiter,  and  to  him  prayers  were 
now  addressed.  He  came,  March  28,  and 
sold  post-notes  for  mercantile  paper  at  112, 
which  notes  brought  in  cash  95.  They  were 
payable  in  Europe,  and  were  remitted  to 
settle,  instead  of  shipping  specie.  In  April 
news  came  that  three  great  houses  granting 
American  credits,  Wilson,  Wildes,  and  Wig 
gins,  had  become  dependent  on  the  Bank  of 
England,  and  were  being  carried  on  a  guar 
antee  from  the  City.  The  panic  now  re 
commenced,  and  ran  on  increasing  until 
May.  May  8  a  run  on  the  Dry  Dock  Bank 
caused  its  suspension.  The  other  banks 
were  forced  to  suspend  on  the  9th  and  10th. 
The  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  and  other 
banks  followed  as  the  news  spread.  Each 
city  professed  that  it  could  have  held  out, 


250 


MONETARY  DEVELOPMENT. 


but  was  forced  to  yield  in  the  general  in 
terest. 

In  May  news  reached  England  of  events 
here  in  March,  and  post-notes  instead  of 
money.  The  great  question  was :  Can  the 
Americans  pay  ?  The  amount  of  American 
debts  falling  due  June  1  was,  to  the  three 
W.'s,  £3,800,000;  to  other  English  houses, 
£5,000,000;  to  France,  £1,500,000.  Total, 
£10,300,000.  The  American  houses  were 
allowed  to  fall  June  1.  They  failed  for 
£2,000,000;  £1,300,000  was  covered  by  the 
guarantees,  and  £700,000  fell  on  the  bank.1 
An  arrival  of  $100,000  in  specie  sufficed,  how 
ever,  to  restore  American  credit  and  to  turn 
the  tide.  Extensions  were  granted,  securi 
ties  were  negotiated,  and  in  general  long 
credits  secured. 

On  the  suspension  gold  went  to  107,  all 
specie  disappeared,  and  the  country  was 
flooded  with  shin-plasters.  The  premium 
on  gold  was  greater  in  the  South  and  West, 
being  120-125  in  the  Southwest.  There 
were  said  to  be  $80,000,000  in  specie  in  the 
country,  which  Beuton  said  would  be  its 
"  bulwark"  against  financial  disaster.  Thus, 
between  those  who  misused  paper  and  those 
who  held  the  superstition  of  gold,  the  advo 
cates  of  sound  doctrine  were  either  wanting 
or  their  voices  were  drowned. 

May  3  a  committee  of  New  York  mer 
chants  went  to  Washington  to  ask  the  re 
call  of  the  specie  circular,  delay  in  collect 
ing  duty  bonds,  and  the  calling  of  an  extra 
session  of  Congress.  The  first  the  President 
(Van  Buren)  would  not  do,  the  second  he 
could  not  do,  and  the  third  he  thought  use 
less  ;  but  the  necessities  of  the  government 
forced  the  last.  Congress  met  September  4, 
and  passed  bills  to  collect  the  deposits  of 
the  suspended  banks,  to  delay  the  collection 
of  duty  bonds,  and  to  issue  Treasury  notes. 
Three  installments  of  the  deposit  had  been 
paid.  The  fourth  ($9,000,000)  was  yet  in 
the  banks.  As  to  calling  back  any  of  the 
$28,000,000  which  had  been  "  deposited,"  no 
one  proposed  it.  It  was  with  great  difficul 
ty  that  the  payment  of  the  fourth  install 
ment  was  deferred  until  January  1,  1839. 
It  was  not  paid  at  all.  The  Treasury  Re 
port  of  1838  showed  $2,400,000  still  due  from 
suspended  banks. 

1  London  Times,  in  Giles's  Register,  July  22,  1S37. 


The  bank  had  really  had  very  little 
grounds  for  the  position  it  had  assumed  as 
public  benefactor.  It  was  itself  a  borrow 
er.  A  ring  of  officers  and  their  friends  were 
using  the  funds  of  the  bank,  putting  securi 
ties  in  the  cashier's  drawer,  and  taking  out 
cash.  These  transactions  passed  examina 
tion  day  as  "  bills  receivable."  In  July, 
1837,  the  bank  began  to  speculate  in  cotton, 
of  course  through  outside  firms,  but,  as  Mr. 
Biddle  said  in  his  letters  to  Clayton,  1841,  it 
was  to  meet  the  post-notes  of  the  bank. 
He  also  thought  that  he  could  carry  cotton 
to  get  a  price.  Mr.  Jaudon  was  sent  to  Lon 
don  as  agent  for  the  bank  September  22, 
1837.  He  executed  some  sensational  trans 
actions,  the  consequence  of  which  was  that 
he  was  regarded  as  a  reckless  and  danger 
ous  man. 

The  New  York  banks  tried  all  winter  to 
get  a  general  agreement  to  resume,  but  with 
out  success.  The  New  York  law  allowed  the 
suspension  for  one  year.  May  10,  1838,  the 
New  York  and  New  England  banks  resumed. 
The  New  York  banks  had  pursued  a  policy 
of  contraction  on  all  their  liabilities  which 
at  the  time  was  regarded  with  great  disfa 
vor,  and  was  unfavorably  compared  with 
Mr.  Biddle's  policy  of  "repose"  under  the 
suspension.  It  produced  health,  however, 
and  brought  New  York  out  of  the  troubles 
of  the  times  at  least  three  years  before  Phil 
adelphia  issued  from  them,  and  with  far  less 
suffering  on  the  whole.  The  Philadelphia 
banks  delayed  until  the  Governor  forced 
them  to  resume,  August  13,  1838.  Mean 
time  Mr.  Biddle  was  writing  plausible  let 
ters  to  Mr.  J.  Q.  Adams  to  manufacture  pub 
lic  opinion.  Perhaps  his  head  was  turned 
by  the  position  of  financial  Providence  to 
the  country.  It  would  not  be  strange.  In 
the  summer  of  1838  he  enjoyed  his  high 
est  prestige.  Mr.  James  G.  King  induced 
the  Bank  of  England  to  send  £1,000,000 
in  specie  here,  and  some  of  it  was  sent, 
which  went  into  the  United  States  Bank, 
and  was  thought  a  great  victory  for  Mr. 
Biddle.  He  was  said  to  have  carried  the 
merchants  of  Philadelphia,  the  great  corpo 
rations  of  the  country,  and  the  public  im 
provements  of  Pennsylvania  through  the 
crisis.1  The  great  bank  was,  however,  an 

1  New  York  Express,  in  Giles's  Register,  May  12, 1833. 


SUSPENSION  OF  BANKS  IN  1839. 


251 


unwieldy  hulk,  which  was  already  stranded, 
aud  Mr.  Biddle's  bravado  was  ouly  prepar 
ing  a  more  humiliating  downfall.  He  had 
become  president  of  the  bank  at  the  age  of 
thirty-seven,  succeeding  Mr.  Cheves,  who 
was  considered  too  conservative.  He  had 
been  urged  on  to  bold  methods  of  banking, 
flattered  as  to  his  success,  and  encouraged 
to  assume  unbusiness-like  duties  and  re 
sponsibilities.1  December  10, 1838,  he  wrote 
his  last  letter  to  Mr.  Adams,  in  which  he 
finally  abdicated  for  the  bank  the  position 
of  financial  Providence.  March  29, 1839,  he 
resigned  the  presidency  of  the  bank,  leav 
ing  it,  as  he  said,  prosperous.  During  1838 
its  stock  had  reached  123.  When  he  resign 
ed  it  was  111-113.  July  6, 1838,  an  act  was 
passed  by  Congress  to  prevent  the  bank  from 
re-issuing  the  notes  of  the  old  bank. 

The  notion  of  controlling  the  cotton  mar 
ket,  which  has  been  mentioned,  was  embod 
ied  in  a  circular  of  June  6,  1839,  proposing 
a  grand  national  combination  to  "  bull"  cot 
ton.  It  was  issued  by  Mr.  Wilder,  who  de 
nied  that  the  bank  was  in  the  plot,  but  it 
appeared  in  1841  that  this  was  a  prevarica 
tion.  The  Manchester  Guardian2  spoke  of 
it  as  "  the  most  rash  and  insane  speculation 
of  modern  times."  The  mills  closed  up,  the 
price  fell,  and  the  speculators  were  ruined. 
$1,400,000  had  been  gained  previously  by 
the  clique,  of  which  $800,000  had  been  di 
vided.  The  residue  and  $900,000  more  were 
now  lost.3  In  August  Mr.  Jaudon  was  in 
great  straits  for  money,  and  was  calling  on 
Biddle  and  Humphreys,  of  Liverpool,  to  get 
money  at  any  sacrifice  of  cotton.  The  bank 
here  was  selling  post-notes  in  New  York, 
Boston,  and  even  smaller  cities.  In  August 
it  drew  all  the  bills  it  could  sell  on  Hottin- 
gucr,  and  shipped  the  proceeds  in  specie  to 
meet  the  bills.  The  object  was  to  force  the 
New  York  banks  to  suspend.*  The  drawee 
had  given  warning  that  he  would  not  hon 
or  any  bill  unless  he  was  covered.  Septem 
ber  18,  1839,  bills  for  2,000,000  francs  were 
presented,  for  which  the  specie  had  not  ar 
rived.  They  were  refused,  but  the  Eoths- 

1  Contemporary  criticism  was  all  colored  by  party 
feeling.  The  most  just  and  intelligent  criticism,  com 
bined  with  sound  financial  doctrine,  is  in  Mr.  N.  Ap- 
pleton's  pamphlet  On  Currency  and  Banking,  1841. 

1  Quoted  in  Giles's  Register,  July  27,  1839. 

3  Biddle's  first  letter  to  Clayton,  1841. 

*  Biddle's  second  letter  to  Clayton,  1841. 


childs  took  them  up,1  and  also  some  8,000,000 
francs  more  which  were  out,  Mr.  Jaudon 
finding  security. 

The  fact  of  the  protest  was  known  in 
New  York,  October  10, 1839,  but  the  Phila 
delphia  banks  had  suspended  the  day  be 
fore.  They  were  followed  by  all  the  banks 
South  and  West,  and  by  those  of  Rhode  Isl 
and.  The  New  York  and  other  New  En 
gland  banks  did  not  suspend.  This  was 
the  real  break-down  of  credit.  There  was 
no  recovery  from  this,  except  through  a 
liquidation,  which  went  on  during  1840. 
The  Pennsylvania  Legislature  set  January 
15, 1841,  as  the  day  beyond  which  the  pen 
alties  of  suspension  should  be  enforced. 
January  1, 1841,  the  bank  published  a  list 
of  its  assets,  from  which  it  appeared  that  its 
capital  was  locked  up  in  a  lot  of  the  most 
doubtful  securities  on  the  market.  A  run 
on  the  banks  began  as  soon  as  they  opened, 
January  15.  In  twenty  days  the  United 
States  Bank  paid  out  $6,000,000,  and  the 
other  banks  $5,100,000.  February  4  they  all 
suspended  again.  The  United  States  Bank 
had  just  loaned  the  State  $800,000,  and  it  held 
over  $2,000,000  of  Michigan  bonds  which  it 
had  not  paid  for.  It  had  paid  or  loaned  to 
Pennsylvania  $12,000,000  since  the  charter 
was  granted.2  Suits  were  now  brought 
against  the  bank  in  such  number  that  all 
hope  of  recovery  was  destroyed.  Three 
trusts  were  established  to  wind  it  up.  A 
committee  of  stockholders  reported  April 
3,  1841,  and  gave  a  history  of  the  bank  for 
six  years,  for,  as  they  said,  "  The  origin  of 
the  course  of  policy  which  has  conducted  to 
the  present  situation  of  the  affairs  of  the 
institution  dates  beyond  the  period  of  the 
recharter  by  the  State."  Mr.  Jaudon  bor 
rowed  $23,000,000  in  Europe  between  No 
vember,  1837,  and  July,  1840.  After  that 
he  borrowed  $12,200,000  at  an  expense  of 
$1,100,000  for  discounts,  etc.,  and  the  ex 
penses  of  his  office  were  $335,937.  The  for 
eign  debt  of  the  bank  was  $15,000,000.  One 
firm  had  had  over  $4,000,000  of  cash  from  the 
drawer  between  August,  1835,  and  Novem 
ber,  1837.  Jaudon,  Andrews  (first  cashier), 
and  Cowperthwaite  (second  cashier)  had 
owed  the  bank  $300,000  or  $400,000  each,  and 

1  The  Mexsager  in  Giles's  Register,  November  2, 1839. 
*  Memorial  to  Pennsylvania  Legislature  (Xiles's  Reg 
ister,  February  27,  1841). 


252 


MONETARY  DEVELOPMENT. 


settled  by  handing  over  stocks,  etc.  The 
losses  on  cotton  had  been  repaid  to  the 
bank  by  the  clique  in  doubtful  securities. 
The  stock  in  April,  1843,  was  quoted  at  II.1 
January  1, 1846,  the  notes  still  outstanding 
were  $3,400,000.  Every  one  seems  to  have 
dropped  the  bank  suddenly  in  disgust,  and 
it  is  even  more  difficult  to  get  information 
about  its  obsequies  than  about  its  earlier 
proceedings. 

In  a  Treasury  Report  of  January  8, 1840, 
it  was  stated  that  there  were  850  banks  and 
109  branches,  of  which,  in  1839,  343  suspend 
ed  entirely,  and  62  partially,  56  had  failed 
entirely,  and  48  had  resumed.  The  Phila 
delphia  banks  resumed  March  18  or  19, 1842. 


a  precedent  was  fortunately  avoided.  The 
States  and  Territories  without  debt  were 
New  Hampshire,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut, 
Vermont,  New  Jersey,  Delaware,  North  Car 
olina,  Wisconsin,  and  Iowa.  Those  which 
at  any  time  failed  to  pay  interest  were  Penn 
sylvania,  Maryland,  Louisiana,  Indiana,  Illi 
nois,  and  Arkansas.  Those  which  repudiated 
part  of  their  debt  were  Mississippi,  Michi 
gan,  and  Florida.  Pennsylvania  suspend 
ed  in  1842.1  Her  debt,  January,  1843,  was 
$37,900,000.  She  resumed  in  February,  1845. 
Mississippi  plumply  repudiated  $5,000,000. 
Louisiana  repudiated  $20,000,000,  but  the 
banks  finally  assumed  or  provided  for  it. 
Michigan  settled  up  by  disposing  of  her 


COMPARATIVE  BANK  STATEMENTS. 


Year 

No." 

Capital. 

Circulation. 

Deposits. 

Specie. 

1820  

308 
330 
5U6 
704 
713 
788 
829 
840 
901 

137,100,000 
145,100,000 
200,000,000 
231,200,000 
251,800,000 
290,700,000 
317,600,000 
327,100,000 
358,400,000 

44,800,000 
61,300,000 
94,800,000 
103,600,000 
140,300,000 
149,100,000 
116,100,000 
135,100,000 
106,900,000 
74,300,000 
44,800,000 
97,000,000 
125,200,000 

19,800,000 
22,100,000 

1830    

1834  

75,600,000 
83,000,000 
115,100,000 
127,300,000 
84,600,000 
90,200,000 
75,600,000 
57,000,000 
88,300,000 
87,300,000 

1835  

43,900,000 
40,000,000 
37,900,000 
35,100,000 
45,100,000 
33,100,000 
25,800,000 
46,900,000 
43,200,000 
49,200,000 

1836  

1837  

1838  

1839  

1840  

1841  

1844  

1845 

6973 
791 

197,000,000 
200,800,000 

1848*  

American  credit  held  good  abroad  until 
1839.  Loans  were  negotiated  during  1838 
with  as  much  success  as  ever.  The  "depos 
its,"  however,  had  seduced  the  States  into 
great  expenditures  for  improvements,  and 
into  debts.  The  debts  of  the  States  were 
about  $200,000,000  in  1840.  The  amount  of 
American  securities  held  in  England  was 
over  £20,000,000  sterling  in  1837.5  In  1839 
the  credits  given  in  1837  were  not  all  met, 
and  some  States  defaulted.  Doubts  of  the 
credit  of  the  States  arose.  Mr.  Webster  was 
in  England,  and  gave  the  Barings  an  assur 
ance  of  the  constitutionality  of  the  debts.6 
An  effort  was  made  in  1840  to  have  Congress 
assume  the  State  debts,  but  so  mischievous 


'  Table  from  Bicknell's  Reporter  in  Xiles's  Register, 
September  30,  1843.  Twenty-three  stocks  are  given. 
A  share  of  each  would  have  cost,  in  1836,  f  2839  62 ;  in 
April,  1842,  $708. 

3  Branches  included.  In  1840  one  hundred  and  one 
banks  and  branches  are  estimated.  The  statistics  have 
value  only  as  general  indications. 

s  Twelve  more,  with  capital  $7,300,000,  not  reported. 
Niles,  February  7, 1846. 

*  Bankers'  Magazine,  in  Niles,  February  26,  1848. 

s  London  Bankers'  Circular  in  Giles's  Register,  March 

25.1837.  Garland's  estimate,  $110,000,000.    Niles,  July 

21. 1838.  «  Niles,  December  28, 1839. 


public  works.  Maryland  suspended  in  1842, 
but  resumed  in  1848.  The  delinquencies  of 
interest  in  1844  were  over  $7,000,000."  Some 
on  the  other  side  sneered  at  republicanism 
and  Yankees  on  account  of  these  defaults.3 
Some  here  cared  little  for  the  losses  of  for 
eigners.  They  gravely  mistook  the  value 
to  a  young  new  country  of  its  credit,  its  pow 
er  to  borrow  capital  of  old  countries. 

The  debt  began  to  grow  again  as  soon  as 
it  was  extinguished,  and  the  accounts  show 
indebtedness  every  year  after  1835  (when 
some  $30,000  of  old  claims  were  outstand 
ing).  After  1837  the  Treasury  notes,  which 
were  authorized  from  year  to  year,  raised 
the  debt  to  $32,700,000,  January  1,  1843. 
After  that  it  was  reduced  to  $15,500,000, 
January  1,  1846.  The  Mexican  war  carried 
it  up  to  $63,000,000,  January  1,  1849.  The 
Texan  indemnity  of  $5,000,000  was  passed 
September  9,  1850 ;  $15,000,000  were  paid  to 
Mexico  in  five  installments,  and  $3,250,000 


1  See  Sydney  Smith's  letter  to  Congress  in  M'Cul- 
loch's  Dictionary  of  Commerce,  article  "  Funds." 
3  Niles,  October  12, 1844. 
3  Webster's  letter  to  Biddle.    Niles,  September  12, 

1840. 


DISCOVERY  OF  GOLD  IN  CALIFORNIA. 


253 


of  her  debts  to  American  citizens,  assumed 
under  the  treaty  of  February,  1848 ;  $7,000,000 
were  paid  for  the  Gadsden  purchase  of  De 
cember,  1853.  The  debt  reached  $68,300,000 
January  1 , 1851,but  was  reduced  to  $28,600,000 
January  1,  1857. 

The  Sub-Treasury,  after  having  been  ve 
hemently  discussed  thoughout  Van  Buren's 
administration,  was  established  July  4, 1840. 
At  the  special  session  which  assembled  May 
31,  1841,  the  Sub-Treasury  was  abolished, 
two  national  bank  bills  were  passed  and  ve 
toed,  a  bankruptcy  act,  a  revenue  act  rais 
ing  duties  to  twenty  per  cent,  throughout, 
and  a  land  distribution  act,  with  proviso 
that  it  should  not  be  executed  at  any  time 
when  duties  were  over  twenty  per  cent., 
were  passed.  The  bankruptcy  act  was  sign 
ed  August  19,  1841,  and  repealed  February 
25,  1843.  At  the  same  special  session  the 
Secretary  reported  that  $2,620,500  had  been 
lost  within  twelve  years  by  the  defalcations 
of  public  officers.  At  the  regular  session, 
1841-42,  a  temporary  and  a  permanent  tar 
iff  were  both  vetoed  because  they  provided 
for  violating  the  proviso  in  the  laud  dis 
tribution  bill.  A  third  tariff  of  high  pro 
tective  duties  passed,  and  land  distribution 
was  cut  off.  The  duties  wrere  to  be  collect 
ed  on  the  "  homo  valuation,"  and  no  credit 
was  to  be  given.  In  1842  the  pound  sterling 
was  rated  at  $4  84  for  customs  purposes. 
August  6,  1846,  the  independent  Treasury 
was  re-established,  and  the  operations  of 
the  government  were  prescribed  to  be  car 
ried  on  with  specie.  The  result  proved  the 
system  wise  and  sound.  The  government 
had  nothing  to  do  with  banking,  and  very 
little  to  do  with  the  money  market. 

The  paper  money  disease  broke  out  next 
in  Ohio,  Indiana,  and  Illinois.  The  Fort 
Wayne  Times1  gives  a  description  of  the 
currency  of  Indiana  in  1843,  which  is  in 
structive  as  to  some  doctrines  of  "  redemp 
tion."  State  bank  paper  was  the  stand 
ard.  "  Scrip"  was  issued  for  the  domestic 
debt  of  the  State,  and  was  receivable  for 
State  dues.  "  Bank  scrip"  was  a  State  issue 
to  the  bank  to  reimburse  it  for  payments  to 
canal  contractors.  "  White  Dog"  was  a 
State  issue  to  pay  for  canal  repairs,  and  was 
receivable  for  certain  lands  at  its  face  and 


1  Xilea's  Register,  September  30,  1843. 


interest.  "  Blue  Dog"  was  a  State  issue  for 
canal  extension,  receivable  for  canal  lauds 
and  canal  tolls.  "Blue  Pup"  was  a  shin- 
plaster  currency  issued  by  canal  contract 
ors,  and  redeemable  in  "  Blue  Dog."  Quota 
tions  (State  Bank  being  standard):  scrip, 
85-90 ;  bank  scrip,  85 ;  White  Dog,  80-90 ; 
Blue  Dog,  40;  Blue  Pup—!1  In  1845  the 
quotations  of  Illinois  currency  were,  State 
Bank,  42-45  discount ;  Bank  of  Illinois,  50- 
55  discount ;  Cook  County  orders,  18-20  dis 
count  ;  canal  indebtedness,  60-75  discount ; 
railroad  scrip,  60-75  discount;  Bank  of 
Michigan,  85  discount ;  Michigan  or  Indiana 
State  scrip,  10-15  discount.2 

In  the  summer  of  1845  the  business  sta 
tus  was  said  to  be :  stocks  neglected,  much 
building  going  on  for  the  "new  communi 
ties"  which  were  coming  across  the  water, 
money  abundant,  exchange  at  par.3  In 
1846  and  1847  the  potato  famine  in  Ireland 
sent  us  thousands  of  emigrants,  and  in  1848 
the  revolutions  on  the  Continent  sent  thou 
sands  more.  The  potato  famine  also  gave 
us  a  market  for  grain,  and  saved  us  from  a 
share  in  the  financial  troubles  of  1847.  The 
repeal  of  the  Corn  Laws  in  1846,  and  our  own 
more  liberal  tariff  of  that  year,  gave  wider 
scope  to  industry.  Railroads  were  extended 
already,  both  here  and  in  Europe,  far  enough 
to  affect  production  and  exchange.  The  tel 
egraph  was  just  coming  into  general  use. 
Ocean  steam  navigation  was  rapidly  extend 
ing.  Upon  this  set  of  circumstances  came 
the  discovery  of  gold  in  California  in  1847. 
At  once  a  great  emigration  thither  of  ad 
venturous  men  began,  and  also  a  great  spec 
ulation  in  exports  thither.  The  gold  diggers 
found  that  they  ran  into  hardship,  danger, 
and  toil  to  pursue  an  industry  which  was  pre 
carious  at  best,  and  that  the  same  amount 
of  sacrifice  would  have  gained  more  com 
forts  at  the  East.  Their  industry  nourished 
the  gambling  spirit,  and  their  gains  changed 
hands  first  over  the  gaming  table. 

The  traders  were  little  better  off  after  a 
few  years.  The  market  was  alternately 
glutted  and  empty,  and  the  gains  of  one 
period  were  swallowed  up  in  the  losses  of 

1  The  Ohio  nomenclature  was  wider  still.  "Yellow 
Dog,"  " Red  Cat,"  " Smooth  Monkey,''  "Blue  Pup," and 
"  Sick  Indian"  (yiles's  Register,  June  28,  1845).  More 
particular  descriptions  are  wanting. 

a  Niles,  June  28,  1S45.          =>  Niles,  June  14, 1845. 


254 


MONETARY  DEVELOPMENT. 


another.  It  was  the  great  industrial  world 
which  gained  by  this  new  supply  of  the  me 
dium  of  exchange,  which  came  just  when  it 
was  needed  to  sustain  the  new  development 
of  industry  and  commerce.  The  first  ex 
change  of  the  metal  was  for  food  and  man 
ufactured  articles.  It  presented  a  new  and 
sharp  demand  for  agricultural  and  manu 
factured  products.  New  fields  were  opened, 
new  factories  built,  not  here  only,  but  in 
all  the  commercial  countries.  The  new  and 
enlarged  industries  brought  richer  returns 
than  before  both  of  wages  and  profits,  not 
on  account  of  the  money,  but  on  account  of 
the  whole  industrial  expansion  which  the 
new  supply  of  money  facilitated,  and  the 
possibilities  of  which  already  lay  in  the  im 
provements  mentioned.  The  returns  in  all 
these  industries  being  large,  the  demand 
for  luxuries  was  extended,  and  the  importa 
tions  of  wines,  cigars,  silks,  etc.,  rapidly  in 
creased.  The  accumulation  of  capital  was 
also  rapid,  and  credit  institutions  which 
sought  to  facilitate  its  transfer  sprang  up 
in  all  civilized  countries.  They  never  have 
been  able,  under  such  circumstances,  to  re 
frain  ^from  credit  creations  in  addition  to 
the  capital  which  passes  their  hands,  and 
they  did  not  refrain  in  this  case.  In  the 
United  States  all  the  old  tendency  to  over 
issues,  heightened,  as  it  unquestionably  was, 
by  the  usury  law,  and  also  the  general  use 
of  accommodation  paper,  were  at  hand  to 
assist  such  a  movement.1 

After  two  or  three  years  of  low  discount 
rate  and  cheap  food,  there  followed  in  1853 
rumors  of  war  and  a  bad  crop  in  England. 
This  caused  high  prices  for  wheat  here  and 
a  renewed  speculation  in  Western  lands  and 
railroads,  which  issued  in  1854  in  a  formal 
crisis  and  panic  in  Wall  Street.  Some  Cal 
ifornia  traders  also  found  their  affairs  at  a 
crisis,  but  generally  the  mercantile  commu 
nity  held  firm.  The  indebtedness  for  for 
eign  importations  was  large,  and  the  invest 
ments  of  foreign  capital  here  were  rapidly 
increasing.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
estimated  them  at  $200,000,000. 


1  As  an  example  of  the  comprehensive  and  philo 
sophical  study  of  commercial  crises,  from  which  alone 
any  correct  knowledge  of  them  can  be  derived,  men 
tion  should  be  made  of  Max  Wirth's  Oeschichte  der 
HandelskriKen  (Frankfort,  1874),  from  which  some  sug 
gestions  are  here  adopted. 


During  1856  the  discount  rate  of  the  Bank 
of  England  was  high,  the  harvest  being 
poor  and  the  importation  of  wheat  great. 
In  the  spring  of  1857  it  was  feared  that  the 
harvest  here  would  not  be  good,  but  during 
the  summer  it  turned  out  so  well  that  the 
fear  was  lest  it  might  not  bring  a  price. 
Suddenly,  on  the  24th  of  August,  the  failure 
of  the  Ohio  Life  and  Trust  Company,  of  Cin 
cinnati,  an  old  and  highly  esteemed  institu 
tion,  with  liabilities  for  $7,000,000,  was  an 
nounced.  It  had  loaned  its  means  to  new 
railroads,  and  then  borrowed  more  to  lend. 
This  incident  passed,  however,  without  caus 
ing  general  alarm.  The  banks  knew  best 
what  it  meant.  They  reduced  their  loans 
in  New  York  city  from  $120,000,000,  August 
22,  to  $67,000,000,  October  17.  This  produced 
a  crisis.  The  whole  fabric  had  been  built 
up  on  bank  credits,  and  it  was  ruined  when 
they  were  withdrawn ;  but  the  banks  fear 
ed  for  themselves,  so  it  was  said  that  the 
panic  broke  out  in  the  bank  parlors.  On 
the  12th  and  13th  of  September  the  Phila 
delphia  banks  and  others  of  the  South  and 
West  (except  of  New  Orleans)  suspended. 
Mercantile  failures  now  commenced,  and  fol 
lowed  day  by  day,  the  panic  increasing,  as 
money  was  locked  up  by  any  one  who  could 
get  and  keep  it.  The  run  on  the  New  York 
city  banks  for  note  redemption  began  on 
the  9th.  On  the  13th  an  agreement  was 
made  to  open  a  run  on  them  for  deposits  in 
order  to  force  them  to  suspend.  Eighteen 
succumbed  on  that  day,  and  thirty-two  more 
the  next  day.  One  did  not  suspend.  The 
New  England  banks  followed  immediately. 
The  Constitution  of  New  York  forbade  the 
Legislature  passing  any  law  to  allow  a  bank 
suspension,  but  the  judges  of  the  Supreme 
Court  agreed  to  grant  no  injunction  against 
a  bank  unless  there  should  appear  to  be 
fraud.  The  Northern  and  Eastern  banks  re 
sumed  in  December.  The  Pennsylvania  Leg 
islature  authorized  suspension  until  May. 
Of  nine  banks  at  New  Orleans  only  four  sus 
pended  for  a  few  days. 

This  crisis  was  short,  sharp,  and  severe. 
It  never  touched  the  productive  powers  of 
the  country.  It  is  the  only  one  in  our  his 
tory  on  a  currency  approximately  of  specie 
value.  The  recovery  was  rapid,  and  the 
reaction  healthful.  The  losses  were  very 
great,  but  it  was  only  a  bad  stumble  in  a 


THE  SITUATION  IN  1861. 


255 


career  of  great  prosperity,  and  it  simply 
taught  sobriety  and  care.  The  number  of 
bankruptcies  in  the  United  States  and  Can 
ada  was  5123 ;  liabilities,  $299,800,000 ;  3839 
bankrupts,  with  $197,000,000  liabilities,  were 
expected  to  pay  forty  cents  on  the  dollar ; 
435  resumed,  and  paid  in  full  $77,100,000 ; 
$143,700,000  were  a  total  loss.  Fourteen  rail 
roads'  suspended  payment  on  $189,800,000. 
Cotton  manufacturers  suffered  severely  by 
the  fall  of  cotton  (sixteen  cents  to  eight 
and  a  half  cents)  and  by  the  depreciation 
of  stock.  The  American  securities  held  in 
Europe  at  this  time  amounted  to  $400,000,000. 

The  tariff  had  been  lowered  by  act  of 
March  3, 1857,  and  the  revenue  suffered,  of 
course,  from  the  financial  crisis.  Indian 
wars  had  also  increased  the  expenditures. 
Treasury  notes  were  issued  by  act  of  De 
cember  23,  1857 ;  loans  were  authorized 
June  14,  1858,  and  June  22, 1860.  The  debt 
January  1,  1861,  was  $90,500,000.  There 
were  on  the  same  date  1605  banks,  with 
$429,600,000  capital,  $207,200,000  deposits, 
$91,300,000  gold,  $202,000,000  circulation,  and 
$696,700,000  loans. 

The  election  of  Mr.  Lincoln  was  followed 
by  movements  toward  secession  and  politic 
al  alarms.  There  ensued  limitation  of  busi 
ness,  contraction  of  credit,  reduction  of  en 
terprise,  and  some  hoarding  of  gold.  Prices 
were  reduced,  the  foreign  exchanges  fell, 
gold  began  to  be  imported.  During  the 
winter  the  Southern  States  seceded,  and 
the  political  excitement  increased.  South 
ern  collections  became  difficult,  and  then 
ceased.  The  failures  during  the  year  1861 
were  5935,  for  $178,600,000. 

The  Morrill  tariff  had  passed  the  House 
May  10, 1860.  Protection  had  been  adopted 
in  the  Chicago  platform.  After  the  depart 
ure  of  the  Southern  Senators  the  tariff  pass 
ed  the  Senate,  and  was  approved  March  2, 
1861.  It  was  soon  buried  deep  under  the 
financial  legislation  of  the  war. 

Part  of  the  loan  of  June  22, 1860,  had  been 
offered  in  October,  1860,  but  some  of  the  sub 
scribers  withdrew  after  the  election.  De- 


1  Wirth  treats  his  readers  to  an  account  of  the  pur 
chase  of  the  Wisconsin  government  for  $872,000  by 
the  La  Crosse  and  Milwaukee  Railroad  (p.  341),  and  he 
translates  a  number  of  confessions  of  American  ras 
cality  from  the  newspapers  of  the  post-panic  period, 
when  extravagances  in  that  direction  were  in  order. 


cember  17,  1860,  $10,000,000  Treasury  notes 
were  authorized :  $5,000,000  brought  88 ;  in 
January  $5,000,000  more  brought  89  and  90. 
February  8, 1861,  a  loan  of  $25,000,000  was 
authorized ;  on  March  2,  another  loan  of 
$10,000,000  was  voted,  or  Treasury  notes  to 
the  amount  of  this  and  all  unissued  loans : 
$35,300,000  were  issued.  In  March  Secreta 
ry  Chase  refused  bids  under  94.  In  May 
$5,000,000  Treasury  notes  were  sold  under 
onerous  conditions,  and  May  25  the  banks 
took  $6,400,000  in  bonds  at  85  to  93,  and 
$2,200,000  Treasury  notes  at  par.  July  4 
Congress  met  in  extra  session.  On  the  17th 
they  voted  to  issue  $50,000,000  non-interest- 
bearing  demand  notes,  receivable  for  all 
dues ;  also  7.30  notes ;  also  a  loan  at  six 
per  cent,  to  fund  the  same ;  and  August  5, 
another  loan.  The  Secretary  proposed  a  di 
rect  tax  of  $30,000,000.  Congress  voted  and 
apportioned  $20,000,000,  of  which  $8,000,000 
fell  on  the  seceded  States.  August  5  the 
tariff  was  extended.  After  Bull  Run  the  six 
per  cent,  stocks  were  at  88J.  August  19  the 
banks  agreed  to  take  $50,000,000  Treasury 
notes  under  conditions  unfavorable  to  the 
government,  and  two  months  later  to  take 
$50,000,000  more.  In  November  they  took 
six  per  cent,  bonds  at  89,  under  still  harder 
conditions. 

The  morale  of  the  nation  was  now  high. 
The  war  feeling  was  strong,  and  the  enthu 
siasm  had  only  settled  down  into  determi 
nation.  The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
reported  an  enormous  deficit,  and  did  not 
propose  any  way  to  deal  with  it.  He  look 
ed  wistfully  toward  paper  issues,  but  re 
jected  that  plan.  He  proposed  a  national 
bank  system,  but  such  a  moment  did  not 
seem  propitious  for  reconstructing  the  bank 
ing  system  of  the  country.  A  run  on  the 
banks  and  an  export  of  specie  began  in  De 
cember.  On  the  30th  all  the  banks  sus 
pended.  Specie  was  at  one  or  two  per  cent, 
premium. 

December  24,  1861,  duties  on  tea,  coffee, 
and  sugar  were  raised.  February  12,  1862, 
$10,000,000  demand  notes  were  issued,  like 
those  of  July  17,  1861.  February  25,  1862, 
$500,000,000  of  5-20  bonds  were  authorized. 
The  same  act  established  a  sinking  fund  of 
one  per  cent,  on  the  debt,  and  provided  foi 
the  issue  of  $150, 000,000  of  non-interest-bear 
ing  notes  ("greenbacks"),  legal  tender,  con- 


256 


MONETARY  DEVELOPMENT. 


vertible  into  sis  per  cent,  bonds.  This  was 
the  Legal  Tender  Act.  It  was  passed  as  a 
temporary  war  measure,  under  the  stress  of 
necessity.  There  was  necessity  for  money, 
a  necessity  which  had  been  neglected  three 
months  too  long,  but  there  was  no  necessi 
ty  for  a  legal  tender  law.  It  was  another 
illustration  of  Daniel  Webster's  saying, 
when  a  paper  bank  was  proposed  in  1815, 
"A  strong  impression  that  something  must 
be  done  is  the  origin  of  many  bad  meas 
ures."  The  old  demand  notes  were  to  be 
withdrawn.  As  they  were  received  for 
duties,  they  bore  the  same  premium  as 
gold.  The  Secretary  was  also  authorized 
to  receive  deposits  at  five  per  cent,  to  the 
amount  of  $25,000,000,  raised  March  17, 1862, 
to  $50,000,000,  July  11,  1862,  to  $100,000,000, 
and  June  30,  1864,  to  $150,000,000,  and  six 
per  cent,  interest  allowed.  July  11,  1862, 
$150,000,000  more  legal  tenders  were  voted, 
and  the  provision  of  the  act  of  February  25 
for  funding  them  in  six  per  cent,  bonds  was 
omitted.  Those  of  February  25  were  to  be 
recalled.  The  first  issue  of  legal  tenders 
was  in  April,  1862.  As  they  were  issued, 
gold  rose  and  all  specie  disappeared.  An 
eifect  was  produced  at  first  just  like  that 
noticed  above  as  following  the  opening  of 
the  California  mines,  but  the  paper  did  not 
distribute  itself  over  the  world.  It  threw 
American  prices  out  of  relation  to  those  of 
the  rest  of  the  world  ;  that  is  to  say,  it  dis 
turbed  all  the  relations  of  value  and  ex 
change,  both  internally  and  externally. 
July  1,  1862  (just  a  year  too  late),  an  act 
was  passed  laying  internal  taxes.  This 
was  extended  by  acts  of  March  3, 1863,  June 
30,  1864,  March  3,  1865.  The  last  provided 
for  a  commission  to  investigate  the  subject 
of  internal  revenue. 

March  17, 1862,  an  act  was  passed  author 
izing  the  purchase  of  coin,  which  was  nec 
essary  until  the  "  old  demand  notes"  were 
all  paid  in.  The  act  of  March  1,  1862,  au 
thorized  certificates  of  indebtedness.  July 
14, 1862,  duties  were  raised  "  temporarily." 

The  act  of  July  17,  1862,  provided  for  an 
issue  of  stamps  to  be  used  as  "  change,"  but 
they  were  inconvenient,  and  the  act  of 
March  3,  1863,  provided  for  $50,000,000  of 
fractional  notes. 

February  25, 1863,  the  National  Bank  Act 
was  passed,  authorizing  $300,000,000  of  bank 


capital,  to  be  distributed,  half  of  it  by 
banking  capital,  and  half  of  it  by  popula 
tion.  An  act  approved  July  12, 1870,  added 
$54,000,000,  and  provided  for  withdrawing 
and  redistributing  an  excess  above  the  quo 
ta  held  in  New  York  and  the  East.  This 
last  was  found  impracticable.  The  act  of 
January  14, 1875,  removes  all  restriction  on 
the  amount  of  capital.  The  $54,000,000 
were  never  taken  up  by  those  who  had  not 
their  "  quota,"  but  are  now  in  a  fair  way  to 
be  taken  up  by  those  who  before  had  an  ex 
cess.  Banking  capital  does  not  go  by  heads 
nor  by  square  miles. 

October  5,  1865,  there  were  sixty-six  na 
tional  banks  in  operation.  The  system  rap 
idly  absorbed  nearly  all  the  banks.  The  law 
required  that  country  banks  should  hold  fif 
teen  per  cent,  of  their  circulation  and  depos 
its  in  greenbacks,  and  that  the  banks  in  the 
large  redemption  cities  should  hold  twenty- 
five  per  cent.  The  banks  were  afterward 
allowed  to  count  their  reserves  with  their 
redemption  agents  as  part  of  this  reserve 
up  to  three-fifths  of  the  required  amount. 
The  act  of  June  20, 1874,  did  away  with  this 
reserve,  as  far  as  circulation  is  concerned, 
and  substituted  a  five  per  cent,  reserve  to 
be  kept  at  Washington,  where  the  redemp 
tion  takes  place. 

The  Comptroller  of  the  Currency  report 
ed,  December,  1874,  that  2200  banks  had 
been  organized,  35  had  failed,  137  wound 
up,  2028  remained.  December  31,  1874, 
there  were  2027  banks  in  operation ;  cap 
ital,  $495,800,000  ;  loans,  $955,800,000  ;  bonds 
to  secure  circulation,  $412,900,000;  specie, 
$22,400,000  ;  United  States  Treasury  certif 
icates  of  deposit,  $133,500,000;  legal  tend 
ers,  $82,700,000 ;  five  per  cent,  redemption 
fund,  $16,900.000 ;  circulation,  $332,000,000 ; 
deposits,  $682,800,000. 

In  his  report  for  1862,  the  Secretary  sus 
tained  his  legal  tender  paper  money  by  all 
the  old  paper  money  fallacies.  He  set  his 
face  against  the  "gold speculators."  March 
3, 1863,  a  tax  of  one-half  per  cent,  was  laid 
on  time  sales  of  gold,  and  six  per  cent,  per 
annum  also  for  the  time  the  contract  had  to 
run.  June  20,  1864,  gold  trading  was  for 
bidden.  Gold  rose  from  199  on  the  21st  to 
230  on  the  23d,  and  fell  to  207  again.  The 
act  was  repealed  July  2.  Nevertheless  Mr. 
Stevens  introduced  a  bill,  December  6, 1864, 


CONGRESSIONAL  RESTRICTIONS  ON  THE  CURRENCY. 


257 


declaring  gold  and  paper  equal,  and  laying 
a  fine  equal  to  the  amount  of  the  proposed 
transaction,  and  imposing  six  months'  im 
prisonment  on  any  one  who  should  contract 
to  sell  notes  for  gold.  This  was  tabled,  but, 
January  5,  1865,  he  tried  to  introduce  the 
bill  again.  The  opposition  was  so  great 
that  he  withdrew  it.  It  was  not  because 
he  did  not  know  of  the  English  acts  of  1811 
and  1812,  and  the  fame  of  Mr.  Vansittart. 
He  did  know  of  them.  He  specified  those 
acts  as  laudable  precedents,  and  wanted  to 
imitate  them,  and  he  called  Mr.  Vansittart 
"  the  great  financier." 

Gold  reached  its  highest  point,  285,  in 
July,  1864.  Sales  of  American  government 
stocks  in  Germany  began  in  the  summer  of 
1864.  Loans  were  being  contracted  contin 
ually  which  it  is  not  thought  necessary  to 
enumerate  here.  They  were  being  "  float 
ed"  by  the  redundant  paper  in  the  hands  of 
the  people.  The  debt,  June  1,  1866,  was 
$2,800,000,000.  The  greenbacks  out  were 
$402,100,000.  The  national  bank  notes  were 
§280,000,000.  The  fractional  currency  was 
$27,300,000.  In  May,  1865,  gold  feU  to  140. 

The  act  of  June  30,  1864,  limited  the 
amount  of  greenbacks  to  $400,000,000,  and 
such  part  of  $50,000,000  more  as  might  be 
needed  to  redeem  temporary  loans.  A  gen 
eral  resolution  in  favor  of  contraction  and 
resumption  passed  December  18, 1865,  by  144 
to  6 ;  but  a  measure  allowing  the  Secretary 
to  withdraw  $10,000,000  in  six  months,  and 
thereafter  $4,000,000  per  month,  was  lost, 
and  only  passed,  on  reconsideration,  by  83  to 
52,  April  14, 1866.  This  stiff  and  arbitrary 
measure  had  no  principle  of  sound  finance 
in  it  except  that  it  went  in  the  right  direc 
tion.  If  the  Secretary  had  been  allowed  a 
tithe  of  the  immense  discretion  allowed  in 
creating  debt  and  issues  two  years  before, 
he  could  have  withdrawn  $200,000,000  in 
two  years  without  annoyance,  for  at  that 
time  every  one  expected  it,  and  there  was 
no  credit  structure  yet  built  on  the  inflated 
paper.  The  crisis  in  England  in  the  spring 
of  1866,  and  the  war  on  the  Continent  in  the 
summer  of  that  year,  caused  some  stringency 
here,  and  set  the  gold  premium  in  activity. 
In  February,  1868,  McCulloch's  contraction 
was  suspended  by  order  of  Congress.  He 
had  reduced  the  greenbacks  to  $356,000,000, 
at  which  point  they  stood  until  October, 
17 


1872,  when  Mr.  Boutwell,  who  affirmed  that 
the  $44,000,000  so  withdrawn  were  under 
his  control,  issued  $5,000,000  of  them  to  cor 
rect  a  stringency  in  Wall  Street.  It  took 
him  all  winter  to  get  them  ba«k.  The  sum 
remained  $356,000,000  until  the  crisis  of  1873, 
when  it  was  raised  to  $382,000,000.  The  act 
of  January  14, 1875,  set  that  sum  as  the  limit, 
allowed  national  banks  to  be  formed  to  any 
extent,  and  to  issue  notes  for  ninety  per 
cent,  of  the  bonds  deposited,  and  greenbacks 
to  the  amount  of  eighty  per  cent,  on  the 
additional  notes  issued  are  to  be  withdrawn 
until  greenbacks  are  reduced  to  $300,000,000. 

March  2, 1867,  for  the  third  time  in  our  his 
tory,  a  general  bankruptcy  law  was  passed. 

March  3, 1865,  the  tariff  was  raised  to  com 
pensate  for  internal  taxes.  July  13, 1866,  in 
ternal  taxes  were  re-arranged  and  somewhat 
reduced.  This  is  the  act  under  which  Hon. 
D.  A.  Wells  became  special  commissioner. 
The  office  expired  by  limitation  June  30, 
1870.  Internal  taxes  were  reduced  by  the 
acts  of  March  2,  1867,  which  exempted  in 
comes  under  $1000 ;  February  3, 1868,  which 
repealed  the  tax  on  cotton ;  July  20,  1868, 
which  reduced  and  re-adjusted  the  taxes ; 
and  by  the  act  of  July  14, 1870,  which  was 
a  grand  reduction.  The  income  tax  expired 
by  limitation  in  1871.  The  act  of  July  14, 
1870,  also  reduced  duties  somewhat  (pig- 
iron  $9  to  $7  per  ton).  Up  to  this  time  the 
protective  system  had  been  steadily  extend 
ed  by  acts  which  have  been  left  out  of  the 
present  review  as  belonging  more  to  com 
merce  than  finance.  The  duty  on  tea  and 
coffee  was  repealed  in  1872,  and  a  ten  per 
cent,  reduction  over  a  number  of  important 
articles  was  made.  In  the  session  of  1874-75 
two  acts  were  passed  increasing  and  extend 
ing  duties.  The  result  is  that  the  balance 
which  should  exist  between  internal  and 
customs  duties  in  a  sound  system  of  taxa 
tion  has  been  more  and  more  destroyed, 
that  the  customs  duties  have  been  placed 
too  high  and  on  too  many  articles  to  be 
productive  of  revenue,  and  that  there  is  no 
system  or  principle  in  the  present  taxes  at 
all.  They  weigh  very  heavily  on  the  peo 
ple  without  furnishing  adequate  revenue 
to  the  government. 

The  act  of  March  3, 1865,  provided  for  fund 
ing  Treasury  notes  in  5-20's.  This  went 
on  through  1865,  1867,  and  1868.  Hence 


258 


MONETARY  DEVELOPMENT. 


the  5-20'a  of  those  years.  The  act  of  July 
14, 1870,  provided  for  issuing  $200,000,000  in 
bonds  at  five  per  cent.,  $300,000,000  in  bonds 
at  four  and  a  half  per  cent.,  and  $1,000,000,000 
in  bonds  at  four  per  cent.,  in  order  by  ex 
changes  to  reduce  the  interest  paid.  This 
is  now  being  partly  carried  out  through 
the  "Syndicate."  March  30, 1867,  $7,000,000 
were  paid  for  Alaska,  and  July  8, 1870,  four 
per  cent,  certificates  for  $678,000  were  is 
sued  to  pay  Massachusetts  her  old  claims 
against  the  United  States  from  the  war 
of  1812.  The  principal  of  the  debt  Jan 
uary  30,  1875,  was  $2,242,301,082  43,  besides 
$64,623,512  issued  to  railroads. 

By  the  act  of  March  3, 1863,  the  Supreme 
Court  was  to  have  ten  members,  and  a  new 
judge  was  appointed.  The  act  of  July  23, 
1866,  provided  that  no  new  appointments 
should  be  made  until  the  number  of  judges 
was  reduced  to  seven.  By  the  act  of  April 
10,  1869,  to  take  effect  the  first  Monday  in 
December,  the  court  was  to  consist  of  eight 
judges  and  a  chief  justice.  The  case  of 
Hepburn  v.  Griswold,1  involving  the  con 
stitutionality  of  the  Legal  Tender  Act  as  to 
contracts  made  before  its  passage,  was  de 
cided  in  conference  November  27,  1869,  by 
the  Chief  Justice  and  seven  associates.  One 
of  these,  Judge  Grier,  resigned  February  1, 
1870,  and  the  decision  against  the  constitu 
tionality  of  the  act  as  applied  to  the  con 
tracts  mentioned  was  announced  February 
7.  Judge  Strong  was  appointed  February 
18,  1870,  and  Judge  Bradley  March  21,  1870. 
The  re-argument  of  Kuox  v.  Lee,  involving 
the  decision  just  mentioned,  took  place  in 
December,  1870.2  Judge  Miller  read  the  de 
cision  of  the  majority  affirming  the  constitu 
tionality  of  the  law,  Chase,  Nelson,  Clifford, 
and  Field  dissenting.3 

In  September,  1869,  a  corner  in  gold  was 
made  which  belongs  to  the  financial  history 
of  the  country,  for  it  was  the  legitimate 
fruit  of  the  existing  financial  system.  It 
issued  in  a  panic  September  23  ("  Black  Fri 
day"),  when  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
intervened  by  a  sale  of  gold  to  put  a  stop 
to  the  proceedings  of  a  clique  of  character 
less  speculators.  A  panic  in  stocks  follow 
ed,  and  a  number  of  important  failures. 


8  Wall.,  626. 
12  Wall.,  457. 
See  12  Wall.,  528,  note. 


The  coinage  law  of  February  21,  1853, 
fixed  the  weight  of  silver  coins  for  frac 
tional  parts  of  a  dollar  at  384  grains  to  the 
dollar,  0.900  fine ;  legal  tender  for  five  dollars. 
It  also  put  a  seigniorage  of  one-half  of  one 
per  cent,  on  gold  coined.  The  effect  was  to 
send  gold  to  England  or  France,  where  there 
was  no  seigniorage  and  lower  mint  charges.1 
The  act  of  February  12, 1873,  reconstructs  the 
coinage  and  mint  laws  entirely.  The  only 
silver  dollar  is  the  trade  dollar  of  420  grains 
standard,  not  meant  to  circulate  here,  but  in 
the  East.  It  is  worth  one  dollar  when  sil 
ver  is  at  $1.14285  per  ounce  standard,  which 
is  just  about  the  present  price.  The  frac 
tional  coins  were  made  to  weigh  385.8  grains 
to  the  nominal  dollar,  so  that  two  halves 
should  just  equal  a  five-franc  piece.  These 
coins  are  issued  at  $1.24414  per  standard 
ounce,  or  803J  ounces  for  $1000,  and  are  le 
gal  tender  for  five  dollars.  The  gold  dollar 
is  yet  the  dollar  of  1837,  23.22  grains  fine, 
25.8  grains  standard. 

The  act  of  1873  made  the  charge  for  coin 
ing  gold  one-fifth  of  one  per  cent.,  but  the 
second  section  of  the  act  of  January  14, 1875, 
repealed  this,  and  left  coinage  of  gold  en 
tirely  free.  The  law  of  March  3, 1873,  fixes 
the  pound  sterling  for  customs  purposes  at 
$4.8665,  and  prescribes  that  exchange  be 
quoted  $4  86,  $4  87,  etc. 

The  stringency  which  had  occurred  in 
the  fall  of  1871  and  1872  was  significant  of 
the  approaching  absorption  by  expanding 
credit  of  the  legally  limited  amount  of  pa 
per  currency.  In  the  summer  of  1873  the 
Granger  agitation  at  the  West  frightened 
investors  from  railroad  bonds,  and  crippled 
the  enterprises  which  depended  on  the  con 
tinuance  of  these  investments  for  funds. 
The  rebuilding  of  Chicago  and  Boston  had 
also  caused  a  great  absorption  of  circula 
ting  capital.  September  8  the  New  York 
Warehouse  and  Security  Company  failed, 
followed  by  one  or  two  firms  involved  in 
railroad  construction.  Confidence  in  per 
sons  known  to  be  burdened  in  this  way  was 
impaired,  and  a  run  on  them  for  deposits 
began.  September  18  Jay  Cooke  and  Co. 
succumbed  to  this  demand,  and  a  panic  fol 
lowed.  The  country  depositors  began  to 

i  The  best  criticism  on  this  is  in  Ernest  Seyd'e  Sug 
gestions  in  Reference  to  the  Metallic  Currency  of  the 
United  States.  London,  1871. 


THE  OUTLOOK. 


259 


run  on  their  banks,  though  without  pan 
ic.  The  country  banks  called  for  their  bal 
ances,  and  the  city  banks  called  their  funds 
in  from  the  brokers.  On  the  20th  the  Un 
ion  Trust  Company  suspended,  followed  by 
two  or  three  other  banks  and  trust  compa 
nies.  The  panic  on  the  Exchange  was  so 
great  that  the  Exchange  was  closed,  and 
remained  closed  for  ten  days.  The  Gold 
Exchange  closed  on  Monday  the  22d,  gold 
at  112.  On  the  20th  the  Associated  Banks 
formed  an  alliance  by  which  seven  per  cent, 
certificates  were  issued  for  seventy-five  per 
cent,  of  the  value  of  securities  deposited 
by  any  bank,  which  certificates  were  good 
for  Clearing-house  balances ;  $22,000,000  of 
them  were  issued  before  the  tide  turned. 
The  President  and  Secretary  were  in  New 
York  on  the  21st,  but  refused  to  draw  on 
the  $44,000,000.  The  Secretary  ordered 
bonds  to  be  bought  as  a  measure  of  relief, 
and  $12,000,000  were  bought.  This  deple 
ted  the  cash  on  hand,  and  before  January  1 
he  was  obliged  to  issue  over  $26,000,000  of 
the  $44,000,000  for  current  expenses.  This 
carried  the  greenbacks  up  to  $382,000,000. 
The  suspension  of  paper  payments  by  the 
banks  lasted  until  November  22.  Mean 
while  the  crisis  was  affecting  industry  in 
all  forms.  It  produced  a  general  doubt  of 
the  status  and  of  the  future.  Hours  of  la 
bor  and  wages  were  reduced  and  workmen 
discharged.  The  lack  of  reviving  courage 
and  enterprise  has  been  very  marked,  and 


is  due  to  nothing  else  than  the  general 
feeling  that  there  can  be  no  permanent 
cure  until  the  financial  problem  is  solved. 
The  failures  in  1873  were  5183,  liabilities, 
$228,100,000 ;  those  in  1874,  5830,  liabilities, 
$155,200,000.  The  act  of  January  14,  1875, 
specified  January  1, 1879,  as  the  day  for  re 
suming  specie  payments. 

The  people  of  a  new  country  are  not  like 
ly  to  be  very  careful  financiers.  They  have 
no  traditions  to  carry  down  the  warning  of 
the  past.  They  are  not  trained  to  look 
back  or  to  look  forward.  They  do  not  look 
back,  because  the  great  achievements  of  yes 
terday  only  provoke  a  smile  to-day.  They 
do  not  look  forward,  because  they  trust 
their  power  to  deal  with  whatever  may 
come.  We  must  not  expect  what  is  incon 
sistent  with  the  conditions.  If  we  look  to 
the  past,  there  has  been  great  progress.  The 
theories  on  which  the  colonists  based  their 
paper  "  banks"  obtain  attention  from  no  so 
ber  men  to-day.  The  banks,  whatever  their 
faults,  are  not  like  those  of  1816,  nor  yet 
like  those  of  1836.  On  the  other  hand,  we 
are  still  struggling  with  the  problems  of 
currency  and  taxation  and  debt.  A  stu 
dent  of  our  past  history  can  hardly  expect 
that  these  will  be  solved  by  a  heroic  effort, 
but  by  a  long  and  painful  growth  up  to  the 
conviction  that  financial  make-shifts  do  not 
pay,  and  that  the  first  condition  of  dealing 
successfully  with  difficulty  is  to  get  free 
exercise  of  the  national  productive  powers. 


IX. 


THE  EXPERIMENT  OF  THE  UNION,  WITH  ITS  PREPARATIONS. 


THERE  are  some  states  and  forms  of 
government  which  have  been  slowly 
building  themselves  up  for  ages,  while  oth 
ers  are  the  artificial  results  of  political  the 
ory.  The  first  find  support  in  historical 
causes  and  in  past  political  habits.  Hav 
ing  grown  with  a  people,  and  being  expres 
sions  of  their  national  life,  they  are  in  little 
danger  of  overthrow  from  within,  and  pre 
sent  so  great  a  resistance  to  aggression  from 
without  that  nothing  but  a  very  superior 
force  can  destroy  them.  The  states  which 
are  constructed  on  theory  or  after  an  ap 
proved  model,  without  being  rooted  in  old 
habits,  are  much  less  sure  of  continuance. 
If  enacted  constitutions  do  not  meet  the 
wants  of  the  nation,  they  have  little  self- 
preserving  power,  they  awaken  no  enthu 
siasm,  they  point  back  to  no  history  on 
which  a  people's  pride  loves  to  dwell.  Es 
pecially  is  the  life-power  of  institutional 
nations  great.  Those  ancient  institutions 
which  are  connected  with  the  habits  and 
affections  of  a  people,  and  those  local  ones 
which  carry  the  spirit  of  self-government 
into  the  smallest  territorial  divisions,  and 
which  are  at  the  opposite  pole  from  central 
ization — these  possess  a  tenacity  of  life  to 
which  no  constitutions  founded  on  the 
rights  of  man  and  on  the  almost  mechanical 
working  of  functions  of  government  can 
possibly  attain.  If  in  the  course  of  time  it 
should  be  found  necessary  to  make  changes 
in  the  form  of  government,  such  institution 
al  nations  can  make  them  without  changing 
their  political  habits.  The  state  puts  on 
another  dress,  and  seems  to  have  passed 
through  a  revolution,  but  the  revolution  is 
confined  to  form ;  the  essential  spirit  of  the 
polity  remains  as  before. 

Yet  even  a  nation  wonted  to  self-govern 
ment  and  to  political  reflection  can  not  hope 
to  escape  changes  of  a  different  kind  from 
those  that  generally  give  birth  to  revolu 
tions  in  free  communities.  The  changes  to 
which  we  refer  do  not  proceed  from  political 
causes  in  the  first  instance,  although  such 
causes  may  help  them  in  their  growth ;  but 


they  are  to  be  ascribed  to  moral  and  social 
changes  affecting  large  masses  in  the  socie 
ty.    They  resemble,  on  the  great  scale,  those 
silent   alterations   in   individual   character 
when  a  man  finds  his  old  ways  of  thinking 
not  so  satisfactory  to  himself  as  they  once 
were,  or  when  he  acquires  the  means  of 
pleasure  or  of  show  of  which  in  his  youth 
he  was  destitute,  or  when  he  forms  rela 
tions  and  enters  into  intimacies  with  men 
of  a  class  or  of  habits  to  which  he  was  a 
stranger  before.     By-and-by  he  finds  his  old 
principles  giving  way ;  he  was  not  aware 
of  the  direction  in  which  he  was  drifting 
until,  perhaps,  the  work  on  his  character  or 
his  faith  is  nearly  done.     In  the  same  way 
the  influences  of  changes  in  the  relations 
of  property  when  there  is  immense  capital 
in  the  hands  of  a  few  by  the  side  of  a  great 
proletarian  class,  or  of  a  transition  from  sim 
plicity  of  life  and  habits  to  showiness  and 
expensiveness,  or   of  changes  of  religious 
faith  and  moral  principles  undermined  by 
social  or  philosophical  causes,  and  giving 
way  to  skepticism  or  profligacy  on  the  part 
of  many — these  influences  may  go  on  with 
out  being  noticed  or  feared  for  a  long  time 
but  are  really  more  to  be  dreaded  than  po 
litical  revolutions.      Changes  from   causes 
like  these  are  hard  to  be  estimated,  not  only 
because  they  are  slow  and  silent,  but  also 
because  the  people  themselves  are  the  sub 
ject  of  the  change,  and  the  new  generations 
have  no  exact  standard  within  their  reach 
by  which  they  can  compare  the  present  with 
the  past.     Their  effects,  again,  on  political 
institutions  as  well  as  on  social  life  cannot  be 
prevented.     You  might  as  well  try  to  keep 
a  stream  from  running  downward  as  to  pre 
vent  these  consequences  altogether.     Take 
an  example :  the  feudal  system  could  keep 
its  sway  over  a  nation  as  long  as  the  feudal 
lords  held  all  the  land,  and  there  was  no,  or 
next  to  no,  personal  property ;  but  as  soon 
as  the  towns  became  great  centres  of  manu 
facturing  and  commerce,  as  soon  as  large 
merchants  could  lend  money  to  kings  and 
so  turn  the  fortune  of  war  against  the  no- 


V 


Jk      ' 


HISTORIC  CAUSES  OF  POLITICAL  GROWTH. 


261 


bles,  so  soon  a  new  estate  was  in  its  germ, 
which,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  would  de 
mand  a  place  in  the  political  system,  and 
could  not  long  be  kept  out.  Such  an  in 
stance  is  a  plain  one,  because  the  external 
side  of  life  is  visible  to  all,  and  is  easily 
measured  by  the  historian.  But  what  shall 
we  say  of  a  general  loss  of  religious  faith  in 
a  nation,  of  the  decay  of  simplicity,  of  integ 
rity  in  public  and  private  affairs,  of  honor, 
of  respect  for  the  institutions  or  habits  of 
forefathers?  Shall  we  not  say  that  these 
changes  in  a  people's  moral  principles  must 
have  an  effect  upon  their  capacity  to  endure 
political  restraints,  to  bear  political  free 
dom,  to  deal  soberly  with  obstacles  in  the 
way  of  prosperity,  to  respect  the  relations 
of  private  life,  to  be  orderly  and  contented 
amidst  the  inequalities  of  fortune  ? 

In  forecasting  the  dangers  to  which  na 
tional  union  or  liberty  is  exposed,  in  esti 
mating  the  probabilities  for  the  future  of 
good  or  evil  growing  out  of  causes  already 
active  or  now  beginning  to  act,  in  endeav 
oring  to  form  a  judgment  on  the  continuity 
of  political  habits,  in  discussing  the  ques 
tion  whether  a  community  has  a  self-re 
forming  power  when  evil  is  already  admit 
ted  into  its  system — we  must  look  at  moral 
and  historical  influences  both.  These  may 
be  coeval  and  concurrent  at  their  origin, 
while  afterward  a  new  set  of  causes  may 
come  in  and  act  either  together  or  on  oppo 
site  sides.  If  they  are  found  in  decided 
conflict — the  historical,  for  instance,  being 
conservative,  and  those  of  a  moral  nature 
destructive — the  tendency  will  be  toward 
national  weakness  and  decay,  unless  there 
is  life  enough  left  to  reform  the  body-poli 
tic.  Or  they  may  come  into  existence  at 
different  epochs;  and  in  general  it  is  true 
that  new  moral  influences,  themselves  the 
results,  in  part,  of  changes  in  society,  ap 
pear  after  states  are  fully  organized,  and 
amidst  great  public  as  well  as  private  pros 
perity. 

Bearing  these  remarks  in  mind,  let  us  look 
at  the  development  of  our  institutions  from 
the  time  of  the  first  English  colonies  on 
ward.  For  one  of  the  most  hopeful  things 
to  be  said  of  these  United  States  is  that  we 
are  what  we  are  not  chiefly  by  any  forecast 
of  our  own,  still  less  by  any  intention  to 
form  a  great  English-speaking  nation  on 


this  side  of  the  water,  but  because  histor 
ical  causes  which  could  not  be  foreseen 
shaped  and  moulded  us  into  a  tolerably 
homogeneous  and  compact  people.  This  is 
the  only  nation  of  civilized  men  of  which  it 
can  be  said  that  we  passed  through  all  the 
stages  of  our  life,  from  birth  onward,  through 
revolution  to  self-government  and  political 
greatness,  in  a  natural  progress,  so  that  what 
some  call  historical  accidents  stand  out,  iu 
our  case  most  especially,  to  a  man  who  sees 
a  God  in  the  world,  as  His  guidance  and 
purpose  to  make  something  good  out  of  us : 
which  purpose  we  can  thwart,  but  one  is 
filled  with  hope  by  believing  that  it  is  real. 

Among  the  advantages  which  the  English 
colonies  had  at  their  commencement  deserve 
to  be  mentioned  the  nationality  of  the  first 
colonists,  the  time  at  which  they  emigrated, 
and  their  general  character. 

We  are  not  disposed,  on  the  score  of  race, 
to  claim  a  superiority  for  the  Anglo-Saxons 
over  the  inhabitants  of  other  parts  of  Eu 
rope  ;  nor  can  we  believe  that  if  there  had 
been  no  Norman  conquest,  no  check  on  the 
kings  by  the  nobles,  110  parliaments,  no  op 
position  to  papal  interference  by  statutes  of 
prcemunire  and  against  provisors,  no  Prot 
estant  Reformation,  the  English  race  would 
have  of  course  developed  itself  by  its  inher 
ent  energies  into  something  great  and  good. 
It  was,  in  fact,  owing  to  national  decline  that 
William  of  Normandy  succeeded  in  his  con 
quest  of  Saxon  England.  But  we  rejoice 
that  the  first  colonies  were  composed  chief 
ly  of  Englishmen,  because  they  brought  with 
them  the  habits  and  traditions  of  a  land 

"Where  freedom  broadens  slowly  down 
From  precedent  to  precedent" 

It  was  not  in  England,  as  on  the  Continent, 
that  the  towns  needed  to  conspire  with  the 
kings  against  an  oppressive  nobility,  or  that 
the  nobility  gained  privileges  exclusively  for 
their  own  order,  leaving  the  others  to  take 
care  of  themselves,  but  the  Magna  Charta 
and  all  the  securities  of  freedom  that  fol 
lowed  it  were  for  the  benefit  of  all.  There 
the  Parliament  at  an  early  day  separated 
into  two  Houses,  and  by  its  power  of  grant 
ing  or  withholding  taxes,  which  was  derived 
from  feudalism,  came  to  have  a  material  part 
in  making  the  laws.  It  was  there  that  the 
town  privileges  and  habits  of  local  self-gov- 


262 


THE  EXPERIMENT  OF  THE  UNION,  WITH  ITS  PREPARATIONS. 


eminent  maintained  themselves  "with  more 
permanence  than  on  the  Continent.  There 
arose  a  numerous  yeomanry,  holders  of  small 
portions  of  land  in  their  own  rights — a  class 
which  since  the  emigrations  has  almost  dis 
appeared  in  the  old  country.  There,  too, 
the  freemen  were  called  to  act  on  juries, 
and  felt  that  they  were  part  of  the  power 
of  the  country.  Thus  the  colonists  brought 
with  them  habits  of  self-government  and  the 
spirit  of  free  Englishmen,  which  were  not 
likely  to  fade  out  of  their  characters  in  the 
new  wilderness  life  where  they  were  forced, 
in  great  measure,  to  model  their  own  insti 
tutions. 

The  time  of  the  emigrations  was  the  best 
possible  for  the  formation  of  new  self-gov 
erning  communities.  If  they  had  begun  in 
the  century  before  the  Reformation,  when 
the  civil  wars  of  England  had  destroyed  a 
large  part  of  the  upper  classes  and  barba 
rized  the  people,  the  star  of  empire  setting 
its  way  westward  would  have  shed  a  baleful 
light.  Little  intelligence,  no  learning,  small 
acquaintance  with  the  arts,  no  religious 
thoughtfulness,  and  an  ill-defined  feeling 
of  political  rights  would  have  presided  over 
the  birth  of  the  new  settlements.  If  they 
had  begun  in  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  when  England  had  fallen  to  ita 
lowest  degree  of  moral  and  religious  degen 
eracy,  and  when  the  old  yeomanry  were  be 
ginning  to  disappear,  these  States  would 
have  been  founded  by  a  less  hardy  class, 
with  purposes  in  changing  their  homes  that 
were  less  noble,  and  with  less  of  the  vigor 
ous  manhood  required  in  the  conquest  of 
nature.  It  is  a  remark  of  the  political 
economists  that  the  best  prospects  for  suc 
cessful  colonization  belong  to  an  ago  anteri 
or  to  division  of  labor  on  a  great  scale.  Men 
whose  lives  are  spent  in  one  process  of  man 
ufacture  are  not  well  fitted  for  all  the  vari 
ous  employments  of  a  settlement  in  the  wil 
derness,  where  every  one  must  know  a  little 
of  the  numerous  arts  of  life,  or  succumb  in 
the  conflict  with  unsubdued  nature.  The 
time  which  determined  the  character  of  the 
American  colonies  was  prior  to  the  great 
modern  triumphs  of  mechanical  invention. 

We  have  also  great  reason  to  be  thankful 
for  the  average  character  of  the  early  colo 
nists.  M.  Guizot,  in  speaking  of  the  English 
and  French  revolutions,  contrasts  them  in 


this  respect :  that  the  English  occurred  in  a 
religious  age  among  a  religious  people,  while 
the  French  broke  out  in  an  age  when  the 
human  mind  doubted,  or  denied  with  ex 
treme  boldness,  every  thing  that  had  been 
settled  before.  The  first  colonies  belonged 
to  that  religious  age,  and  though  it  would 
not  be  true  to  say  that  religious  liberty  was 
the  only  motive  of  even  the  Puritan  colo 
nists,  yet  it  was  a  very  strong  motive,  and 
it  furnished  the  best  conditions  for  the  rise 
of  a  God-fearing  and  liberty-loving  nation. 
For  they  who  planted  first  of  all  the  church, 
and  the  school  by  its  side,  who  within  a  few 
years  founded  a  college,  as  a  pattern  for  all 
that  should  afterward  arise,  might  indeed 
be  narrow  in  some  of  their  views  and  prac 
tices,  but  they  were  the  best  possible  pio 
neers  of  a  coming  host  of  freemen.  So,  also, 
the  Quaker  settlements  were  dictated  by 
the  desire  to  enjoy  their  religion  in  peace, 
away  from  the  oppressive  laws  of  England 
and  of  its  colonies ;  their  leaders  were 
among  the  best  men  of  the  mother  country. 
The  Catholics  of  Maryland  founded  their 
colony  for  the  sake  of  religious  freedom. 
The  Dutch  of  New  Netherlands  did  not,  in 
deed,  emigrate  for  this  purpose ;  but  they 
belonged  to  a  noble  race,  in  whose  memories 
the  times  of  William  the  Silent  were  still 
fresh,  and  their  settlements  at  the  end  of 
his  son  Maurice's  life  were  favored  by  the 
more  liberal  of  the  two  political  parties. 
The  more  southern  colonies  did  not,  it  is 
true,  have,  motives  in  their  emigrations 
much  beyond  the  ordinary  ones  that  lead 
people  away  from  their  homes.  Some,  more 
over,  who  joined  them  at  an  early  time  add 
ed  any  thing  but  character  and  strength ; 
yet  the  chivalrous  spirit  and  the  attach 
ment  to  English  institutions  which  animated 
the  best  of  the  settlers  in  that  quarter  were 
to  become  valuable  elements  in  the  forma 
tion  of  the  national  character. 

Besides  the  classes  of  colonists  just  men 
tioned,  two  others  deserve  to  bo  spoken  of, 
although,  on  account  of  their  small  num 
ber  and  the  later  date  of  their  emigration, 
they  contributed  comparatively  little  to  the 
qualities  which  mark  the  American  people. 
One  of  these  were  the  Huguenots,  who  came 
in  the  greatest  numbers  soon  after  the  revo 
cation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes,  and  who,  mak 
ing  small  settlements  in  New  York,  Massa- 


FORTUNATE  CONDITIONS. 


263 


chusetts,  Virginia,  and  South  Carolina,  have 
given  to  the  country  a  number  of  honorable 
and  important  families.  Larger  and  more 
compact  settlements  were  made  by  the 
Scotch -Irish  Presbyterians  of  Ulster  in 
New  Hampshire,  Western  Pennsylvania,  and 
North  Carolina — a  class  of  inhabitants  of 
whom  their  descendants  have  a  right  to  be 
proud. 

Another  most  fortunate  circumstance  in 
the  early  history  of  the  country  was  the 
substantial  equality  of  the  early  settlers. 
They  nearly  all  belonged  to  that  industrious 
middle  class  which  is  the  strength  of  a  na 
tion.  A  few  servants  came  with  the  more 
opulent  of  the  colonists,  and  a  few  younger 
branches  or  near  connections  of  noble  fam 
ilies  established  themselves  both  in  the 
Northern  and  the  Southern  settlements,  but 
not  enough  to  have  any  sensible  influence 
either  on  the  spirit  or  the  destinies  of  the 
land.  It  was  fixed  well-nigh  a  century  be 
fore  the  Revolution  that  if  such  an  event 
should  happen,  and  the  colonies  become 
self-governing,  there  could  be  no  strife  of 
orders  to  add  complexity  to  the  struggle 
with  the  mother  country. 

Still,  again,  it  deserves  notice  that  the 
slowness  with  which  population  and  wealth 
increased  during  a  century  and  a  half  con 
tributed  to  the  steadiness,  the  simplicity  of 
manners,  and  sobriety  of  judgment  of  the 
people.  The  colonies  went  into  the  war  of 
independence  with  a  population  of  less  than 
three  millions.  There  were  no  towns  con 
taining  twenty -five  thousand  inhabitants 
at  the  peace  in  1783.  There  were  no  cen 
tres  of  business  in  the  last  century  such  as 
now  exist.  Merchants  in  some  of  the  small 
er  villages  of  the  Eastern  States  imported 
their  goods  directly  from  England ;  as,  in 
deed,  it  was  the  custom  in  parts  of  the 
South  for  the  planters  of  a  district  to  re 
ceive  their  annual  supplies  from  the  old 
countries  and  send  back  their  tobacco  and 
other  commodities  in  the  same  vessel.  In 
regard  to  social  distinctions  it  may  be  said 
that  they  were  more  marked  than  now.  Cer 
tain  families  here  and  there  had  a  pre-emi 
nence  conceded  to  them,  which  rather  grew 
out  of  old  ancestral  respectability  than  out 
of  wealth,  which  was  acknowledged  willing 
ly  and  accepted  without  pride.  In  a  few 
large  places  a  style  prevailed  which  wanted 


the  show  and  expense  of  our  times,  but  ap 
proached  nearer  to  the  style  of  true  gentle 
manly  living.  This  was  a  tradition  from 
the  usages  of  the  upper  middle  class  in  En 
gland,  which  was  as  natural,  as  much  ex 
pected  from  persons  of  a  certain  standing, 
as  plain  living  was  from  the  mass  of  the 
people.  In  those  families,  however,  who 
set  the  mode,  thrift,  domestic  economy,  a 
training  of  the  daughters  for  housekeeping, 
are  believed  to  have  prevailed  which  are  now 
passing  away.  As  there  was  slow  growth, 
with  no  perceptible  change,  steady  habits 
grew  up  in  political  as  well  as  in  social  life. 
Take  the  colony  of  Connecticut  for  an  ex 
ample.  Three  Wyllyses  of  the  same  family 
were  Secretaries  of  State  in  succession  all 
the  time  from  1712  to  1810,  and  the  middle 
one  of  the  three  for  sixty-one  years.  One 
member  of  what  is  now  called  the  House  of 
Representatives  was  elected  by  his  town  to 
seventy-two  Legislatures  in  succession,  that 
is — since  there  were  two  annual  elections 
— through  a  period  of  thirty-six  years.  It 
was  comparatively  rare  for  a  minister  to 
leave  his  parish  until  death  called  him 
away.  Capital  accumulated  so  slowly,  and 
families  were  in  general  so  large,  that  strict 
economy,  the  parent  of  many  civic  virtues, 
was  almost  a  necessity.  Men  were  free,  and 
felt  themselves  to  be  equal,  but  marks  of 
respect  were  voluntarily  rendered  to  per 
sons  in  public  stations.  When  on  Sunday 
the  service  was  over,  the  minister  and  his 
family  went  out  of  church  first,  the  congre 
gation  all  rising,  and  in  some  places  bow 
ing  until  they  had  passed  through  the 
aisle.  The  display  in  dress  was  very  small, 
but  if  the  thick  brocades  which  are  now 
shown  here  and  there  as  having  belonged 
to  a  grandmother  or  a  great -grandmother 
afford  a  criterion  for  judgment,  materials 
were  chosen  which  would  last  almost  a  life 
time,  while  the  ordinary  household  garb 
was  very  simple.  If  habits  such  as  partic 
ulars  like  these  show  to  have  existed  did 
indeed  prevail,  they  mark  a  character  con 
tented  with  the  present,  averse  to  innova 
tion,  neither  anxious  nor  speculative — the 
best  possible  character  for  hardening  and 
toughening  a  people  in  preparation  for  fu 
ture  struggles.  And  here,  again,  our  good 
fortune  in  having  had  no  aristocratic  class 
in  the  proper  sense  of  the  term  may  be  re- 


264 


THE  EXPERIMENT  OF  THE  UNION,  WITH  ITS  PREPARATIONS. 


ferred  to  as  another  cause  of  simplicity  of 
manners.  For  if  there  had  been  but  a  mod 
erate  number  of  noble  families  with  large 
incomes  and  domains  distributed  through 
the  colonies,  their  mode  of  living  and  dress 
ing  would  have  been  the  ideal,  and  would 
have  made  many  dissatisfied  with  their  mod 
erate  means.  It  might  have  been  as  it  has 
since  been  in  the  new  settlements  of  some 
of  the  Western  States,  where  a  very  small 
percentage — say,  five  or  eight  per  cent. — 
of  slaves  was  diifused  through  the  dis 
trict.  This  small  ratio  was  enough  to 
bring  white  labor  into  disrepute.  So,  in 
the  case  supposed,  a  sprinkling  of  persons 
belonging  to  a  noble  class  might  have  been 
enough  to  affect  injuriously  those  solid 
and  homely  virtues  which  are  the  strength 
of  a  country. 

And  here  we  are  reminded  of  the  one  bit 
ter  drug  poured  into  our  cup — the  institu 
tion  of  slavery  and  the  importation  of  blacks 
from  Africa.  The  bringing  over  of  indent 
ured  apprentices,  of  convict  laborers,  and 
of  "  redernptioners"  was  a  small  evil,  for  in 
fifty  years  they  were  lost  in  the  population. 
But  when,  in  1620,  a  Dutch  vessel  brought 
twenty  negroes  for  sale  into  James  River,  a 
new  element  of  race  and  population  was  in 
troduced,  which  has  had,  and  may  yet  have, 
a  vast  and  disastrous  influence  on  our  his 
tory.  This  is  not  the  place  to  pursue  this 
gloomy  subject  to  a  great  length.  We  sim 
ply  remark  that  the  separation  in  interests 
and  traits  of  character  between  the  North 
ern  and  Southern  States  was  intensified  by 
slavery  far  beyond  the  bounds  of  a  healthy 
difference ;  that  the  uniformity  of  interests 
produced  by  it  in  States  where  it  existed 
gave  them  the  power  of  combination,  made 
them  the  political  masters  of  the  country, 
and  opened  the  way  for  burning  jealousies ; 
that  the  wearing  out  of  the  soil  by  the  ag 
riculture  of  slavery  demanded  new  lands  for 
its  spread;  that  it  tended  to  degrade  the 
lower  class  of  whites  where  it  was  predom 
inant  ;  and  that  it  was  destined  to  come  in 
evitably  into  conflict  with  ideas  of  personal 
rights  and  with  those  religious  feelings 
which  demanded  security  for  the  sacred- 
ness  of  family  ties  in  the  negro  race  as  well 
as  for  their  mental  and  moral  elevation. 
The  conflict  came,  and  was  indeed  awful. 
Had  there  been  less  blindness  and  more 


trust   in   the  final  triumph  of  justice,  it 
would  have  been  earlier  and  less  severe. 

But  that  which  more  than  all  things 
else  determined  the  future  of  this  country 
was  the  number  of  colonies,  together  with 
their  general  similarity  and  their  important 
differences.  If  there  could  have  been  one 
vast  colony,  under  one  government,  extend 
ing  along  the  whole  line  of  coast  from  the 
French  possessions  to  the  Spanish  settle 
ments  in  Florida,  it  might  have  been  strong 
and  prosperous  possibly,  but  the  present 
United  States  would  not  have  grown  up  on 
such  a  foundation.  There  was  a  necessity 
of  just  such  a  series  of  colonies  as  were  act 
ually  planted,  all  animated  by  a  common 
English  feeling,  and  speaking  the  common 
English  tongue,  yet  settled  for  different  rea 
sons,  and,  in  a  course  of  many  years  of  self- 
government,  developed  into  different  enti 
ties,  as  well  as  having  distinctive  character 
istics.  The  Northern  and  Southern  groups 
of  these  colonies,  alike  among  themselves, 
yet  differing  each  from  the  other  in  their  cli 
mates,  industries,  institutions,  and  religious 
peculiarities,  might  have  formed  the  nucleus 
of  two  nations  if  English  feeling,  influences 
from  the  mother  country,  trade,  and  many 
common  interests  had  not  brought  them  to 
gether  more  than  the  causes  of  an  opposite 
nature  tended  to  keep  them  apart.  The 
colonies  lying  between  these  extremes  had 
no  common  likeness ;  indeed,  before  the  ces 
sion  of  New  Netherlands  to  the  English  they 
had  no  common  bond  of  union,  and  after 
ward,  although  best  situated  for  purposes 
of  commerce,  were  more  fitted  for  some  time 
to  follow  than  to  lead.  We  will  make  the 
supposition  that  when  the  Southern  colonies 
admitted  slavery,  New  England  had  thought 
it  a  sin  and  a  shame  ;  even  such  an  opinion 
could  easily  have  prevented  the  two  ex 
tremes  from  meeting.  As  it  was,  slavery  ex 
isted  every  where,  and  not  being  regarded 
as  a  wrong  or  an  evil  until  the  Quakers  be 
gan  to  teach  a  higher  morality,  no  such  cause 
of  separation  existed.  We  will  make  anoth 
er  supposition,  that  the  colony  of  New  Neth 
erlands,  lying  like  a  wedge  on. the  coast, 
with  the  best  sea-port  within  its  borders, 
settled  originally  by  colonists  not  under 
standing  the  English  tongue  and  not  edu 
cated  under  English  political  institutions, 
could  have  retained  its  nationality  until  no 


COLONIAL  PREPARATION  FOR  THE  UNION. 


265 


power  could  have  conquered  it.  In  this  case 
a  most  serious  problem  would  have  offered 
itself  in  the  course  of  time — either  the  East 
ern  and  Southern  English  colonies  would 
have  pursued  their  destinies  apart,  or,  if  they 
could  have  acted  in  conjunction  with  the 
Dutch  colony,  difficulties  from  language  and 
institutions  might  have  prevented  a  perfect 
union.  Thus  we  see  that  the  colonies  were 
pointed  toward  confederation  by  their  his 
tory,  and  were  almost  prevented  from  es 
tablishing  any  other  kind  of  government 
throughout  the  course  of  centuries.  One 
cluster  of  confederates,  or  more  than  one, 
seems  to  have  been  the  only  possible  polit 
ical  alternative  if  they  were  ever  to  sepa 
rate  from  the  mother  country.  Two  or  more 
clusters,  so  far  as  we  can  interpret  the  prob 
abilities  of  things,  would  have  been  most 
disastrous,  as  containing  the  seeds  of  strife, 
and  sowing  them  for  all  the  future. 

Another  point  connected  with  our  colo 
nial  history  deserves  notice.  We  were  not 
only  prepared  by  the  circumstances  of  our 
history  for  a  confederation  or  union  of 
States,  but  were  educated  for  it  by  our  re 
lations  to  the  mother  country.  The  colo 
nies  all  had  law-making  assemblies  formed 
somewhat  after  the  pattern  of  the  Houses 
of  Parliament,  and  the  larger  part  of  them 
chief  executive  officers  holding  their  places, 
without  any  popular  election,  by  appoint 
ment  of  the  king.  At  first,  indeed,  several 
colonies  chose  their  own  chief  magistrates, 
but  on  various  pretenses  they  were  divested 
of  this  power,  until  at  last  two  of  the  colo 
nies  subsisted  under  what  was  called  a  pro 
prietary  government,  and  two  of  the  smaller 
alone  retained  their  original  free  choice  of 
all  public  officers.  The  royal  Governors  cer 
tainly  did  not  tend  to  establish  friendly  re 
lations  between  the  crown  and  its  American 
subjects  :  witness  the  strifes  between  these 
magistrates  and  the  Legislatures  in  Massa 
chusetts  and  Virginia.  The  proprietary  gov 
ernment  in  Pennsylvania  was  perhaps  less 
acceptable,  as  placing  it  in  the  hands  of  a 
private  man  by  hereditary  right  to  fill  a 
kind  of  secondary  throne,  with  the  power 
of  vetoing  the  acts  of  the  Legislature.  The 
two  chartered  colonies  of  Connecticut  and 
Rhode  Island  certainly  had  no  occasion  to 
find  fault  with  their  independence ;  but 
they  were  brought  up  by  their  very  privi 


leges  to  be  on  their  guard  against  any  inva 
sion  of  them,  and  could  see  little  use  in  their 
distant  connection  with  the  crown. 

The  exigencies  of  self-defense  often  call 
ed  for  common  counsels  on  the  part  of  neigh 
boring  colonies,  so  that  the  minds  of  the 
people  were  accustomed  to  congresses  gath 
ered  for  objects  in  which  all  shared  alike. 
The  great  contest  between  England  and 
France  for  supremacy  in  North  America  ex 
cited  the  liveliest  interest  through  the  col 
onies  ;  they  looked  on  the  French  not  only 
with  the  eyes  of  Englishmen  as  hereditary 
foes,  but  as  allies  also  of  the  red  men,  and  as 
willing  to  incite  them  to  any  treacherous 
act  against  the  frontier  English  settlements. 
The  prelude  to  the  seven  years'  war  was 
marked  by  the  unfortunate  expeditions  of 
the  Virginians  and  of  Braddock,  in  which 
Washington  was  schooled  for  his  future  post. 
The  critical  years  1757-1758  saw  regiments 
from  the  Northern  colonies  joining  Aber- 
crombie  and  Lord  Howe  in  their  expedi 
tion  against  Ticonderoga  and  Crown  Point, 
while  large  quotas  were  sent  from  New  En 
gland  to  aid  General  Amherst  in  his  attack 
on  Louisbourg.  There  were  thus  scattered 
through  the  colonies  numbers  of  officers  and 
soldiers  who  had  seen  service.  When  the 
critical  blow  was  struck,  and  Quebec  be 
came  English — when,  finally,  by  the  peace 
of  1763,  all  the  French  territory  in  the  North 
changed  hands,  and  in  the  West  the  Mis 
sissippi  nearly  to  its  mouth  became  the 
boundary  between  the  two  nationalities,  we 
may  easily  believe  that  the  colonies  felt  an 
increase  of  security,  and  would  be  the  more 
ready  to  resist  aggressions  from  the  mother 
country  because  they  stood  in  no  fear  of  the 
power  of  France. 

Thus  far  we  have  seen  historical  causes 
preparing  the  colonies  for  self-government, 
on  a  certain  plan,  if  ever  the  connection 
with  the  mother  country  should  be  broken. 
The  declaration  of  independence  and  the 
war  of  the  Revolution,  after  this  prepara 
tion,  were  owing  to  faults  and  blunders  of 
the  mother  country,  and  to  the  political 
doctrines  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Of 
this  breach  we  will  forbear  to  speak.  To 
say  little  of  it  would  be  to  do  injustice  to 
events  so  supremely  important  in  our  his 
tory  ;  to  say  much  of  it  would  turn  us  aside 
from  our  main  subject.  The  colonists  had 


266 


THE  EXPEKIMENT  OF  THE  UNION,  WITH  ITS  PREPARATIONS. 


as  much  loyalty  to  the  mother  country  as 
could  justly  be  expected  from  men  who  had 
chiefly  protected  themselves,  who  had  been 
denied  their  privileges  as  Englishmen,  and 
had  been  used  rather  as  sources  of  commer 
cial  benefit  for  Great  Britain  than  helped 
in  their  progress  toward  becoming  self- 
sustaining  parts  of  the  empire.  The  war 
was  undertaken  soberly,  regretfully,  with 
no  side  issues  in  view,  and  with  no  rancor 
toward  England  in  the  hearts  of  the  peo 
ple.  This  want  of  rancor  is  shown  by  the 
fact  that  many  of  the  best  officers,  Wash 
ington  himself,  Hamilton,  Knox,  and  a  host 
of  others,  remained  English  in  their  feel 
ings,  and  were  attached  to  the  traditions 
of  the  mother  country ;  and  that  the  lead 
ing  civilians  who  had  urged  on  rebellion, 
and  had  been  the  counselors  of  the  country 
in  the  war,  were  afterward  charged  with 
undue  partialities  toward  England.  Prob 
ably  no  revolution  did  its  work  with  more 
conscientiousness,  and  fuller  persuasion  of 
its  rightfulness  on  the  part  of  the  people, 
with  less  of  a  spirit  of  blood,  with  fewer 
bitter  remembrances  of  the  enemy,  than 
this.  It  deserves  to  be  noticed,  as  showing 
the  sober  temper  of  the  war,  that  a  regi 
ment  formed  from  volunteers  in  one  part 
of  a  county  took  one  of  the  parish  minis 
ters  with  them  as  their  chaplain,  as  if  it 
had  been  a  church  meeting  adjourned  to 
another  place. 

It  was  a  blessing  for  which  we  can  never 
be  too  thankful  that  an  experiment  at  con 
stitution-making  was  set  on  foot  in  the  war, 
and  was  tried  long  enough  to  show  its  de 
fects,  and  point  the  way  toward  something 
better.  It  was  nothing  but  a  league  of 
States,  with  no  Executive,  with  one  House 
in  Congress,  without  a  Supreme  Court,  with 
out  the  power  of  regulating  commerce  with 
foreign  countries  or  between  the  States. 
This  last  defect  especially  it  was  that  de 
manded  a  new  instrument.  This  new  in 
strument  was  made  to  remove  difficulties 
which  were  felt;  and,  as  Mr.  Edward  A. 
Freeman,  in  his  history  of  confederations, 
justly  remarks,  was  made  in  no  conscious 
imitation  of  any  other  constitution.  This 
learned  and  able  historian  of  federal  gov 
ernments,  writing  in  1863,  when  he  looked 
on  the  Union  as  permanently  dissolved, 
says  of  it :  "  The  American  Union  has  actu 


ally  secured  for  what  is  really  a  long  period 
of  time  a  greater  amount  of  combined  peace 
and  freedom  than  was  ever  before  enjoyed 
by  so  large  a  portion  of  the  earth's  surface. 
There  have  been  and  still  are  vaster  des 
potic  empires,  but  never  before  has  so  large 
an  inhabited  territory  remained  for  more 
than  seventy  years  in  the  enjoyment  at 
once  of  internal  freedom  and  of  exemption 
from  the  scourge  of  war.  Now  this  is  the 
direct  result  of  the  federal  system."  If  we 
have  succeeded  in  making  it  clear  that  our 
present  Constitution  was  almost  an  inevita 
ble  result  of  historical  causes — that  is,  of 
Divine  Providence — we  shall  be  led  to  value 
it  more  than  if  we  were  to  look  on  it  as  a 
product  of  successive  workings  of  human 
wisdom. 

It  is  impossible  that  any  constitution 
should  at  all  times  be  equal  in  its  bearing 
upon  all  interests  and  all  parts  of  a  coun 
try,  and  equally  impossible  that  it  should 
not  admit  in  some  points  two  interpreta 
tions.  The  parts  of  the  country  which  were 
more  devoted  to  trade  wanted  a  strong  gov 
ernment  ;  the  parts  where  the  people  li ved 
Avithin  themselves,  in  the  pursuits  of  agri 
culture,  felt  in  general  less  zeal  for  some  im 
provement  on  the  old  Confederation.  There 
grew  up  naturally  a  jealousy  of  powers  con 
ferred  on  the  common  government  as  re 
stricting  and  opposing  the  powers  of  the 
separate  States ;  with  this  the  principle  of 
strict  construction  of  the  Constitution  of 
the  United  States  was  united;  and  thus 
two  parties  coeval  with  our  present  gov 
ernment  arose — the  Federal,  and  the  Repub 
lican  or  Democratic.  The  former  had  a  cer 
tain  leaning  toward  England,  and  dreaded 
the  principles  of  the  French  revolutionists  ; 
the  other  admired  France  and  distrusted  En 
gland.  After  twelve  years  of  control  over 
public  affairs,  diiring  the  Presidencies  of 
Washington  and  the  elder  Adams,  the  very 
upright  party  of  the  Federalists  was  driven 
out  of  power,  partly  in  consequence  of  blun 
ders  and  dissensions  within  itself,  partly  be 
cause  it  did  not  fully  understand  the  temper 
of  the  people,  while  a  still  greater  blunder 
on  the  part  of  leading  members  of  it  in  the 
Eastern  States  led  to  its  final  extinction. 

The  Democratic  party,  under  Southern 
leaders,  held  the  government  from  the  be 
ginning  of  the  century  for  sixty  years,  not 


THE  DOCTRINE  OF  NULLIFICATION. 


267 


without  internal  differences  and  divisions, 
arising  from  sectional  interests  and  other 
causes.  As  it  often  happens,  the  name 
rather  than  the  essence  of  the  original 
party  was  preserved ;  new  issues  had  driven 
out  the  old  ones  from  the  field  of  politics. 
Tariffs  were  altered  from  time  to  time,  the 
Southern  States  being  almost  unanimous 
for  free  trade,  and  the  North  preponderating 
toward  protection.  Through  all  the  changes 
the  country  flourished  by  emigration,  by  the 
rise  of  manufactures,  in  its  marine,  in  its 
wealth.  The  great  West,  growing  vaster  in 
its  dimensions,  from  the  time  of  the  purchase 
of  Louisiana  until  it  reached  the  Pacific 
coast,  began  to  give  signs  of  grasping  at  the 
hegemony  and  controlling  the  policy  of  the 
country.  But  meanwhile  a  spiritual  cause, 
without  power  at  first — a  cloud  no  bigger 
than  a  man's  hand — arose  above  the  hori 
zon.  Slavery  h-ad  been  preached  against  by 
a  few,  protested  against  by  the  noblest  of 
the  Quakers  from  the  days  of  John  Wood 
man,  acknowledged  by  all  to  be  unrighteous 
in  itself,  and  yet  was  endured  in  the  hope 
that  emancipation  at  length  would  quietly 
dissolve  a  structure  which  ages  had  built 
up,  and  which  could  not  fall  without  a  re 
construction  of  society.  The  cotton-gin 
and  the  ample  lands  of  the  Gulf  States,  in 
cluding  the  latest  acquisition,  Texas,  offer 
ed  it  a  boundless  field  to  spread  over,  and 
opened  the  prospect,  whenever  a  new  State 
should  be  formed  in  which  there  was  an  ap 
preciable  infusion  of  the  slave  element,  of 
new  strength  added  to  the  Southern  su 
premacy.  In  the  extreme  South  this  was 
a  smooth  path  toward  supremacy,  but  was 
not  so  easy  on  the  borders,  where  slave  and 
white  labor  came  together.  As  early  as 
1820  the  problems  of  the  future  developed 
themselves,  at  which  time  a  dividing  line 
was  drawn  by  the  Missouri  Compromise  be 
tween  the  two  interests.  Next  appeared 
the  doctrine  of  nullification,  and  the  at 
tempt  of  the  leading  Southern  State,  South 
Carolina,  to  establish  a  practical  check  on 
the  action  of  the  general  government  by 
that  of  one  of  the  States.  It  was  maintained 
at  first  that  there  resided  a  power  in  each 
State  of  the  confederation  to  judge  whether 
a  law  of  the  United  States  was  constitu 
tional,  and  to  resist  within  its  own  territory 
the  operation  of  such  laws  as  were  judged 


to  be  otherwise.  In  1832  an  ordinance  was 
passed  declaring  the  tariff  law  "  null,  void, 
and  no  law,"  and  forbidding  duties  on  im 
ports  to  be  paid  within  its  jurisdiction  after 
a  certain  day  in  the  near  future.  It  so  hap 
pened  that  the  President  at  this  time  was  a 
Southern  man  of  great  popularity  and  of  sin 
gular  energy,  who  not  only  felt  that  such  a 
doctrine  of  nullification,  if  carried  out,  would 
be  a  death-blow  to  any  union,  and  was  en 
tirely  unconstitutional,  but  had  personal 
reasons  for  doing  his  utmost  to  oppose  it. 
In  his  opposition  he  carried  for  the  time  the 
greater  part  of  the  South  with  him ;  it  was 
understood  that  ho  was  ready  to  use  all  the 
forces  at  his  disposal  in  executing  the  law ; 
and  the  message  on  nullification  which  was 
issued  in  his  name  in  1833  was  a  most  val 
uable  state  paper  in  refutation  of  the  doc 
trine  that  a  State  has  a  right  to  decide  for 
itself  that  the  Constitution  has  been  vio 
lated,  and  so  deciding,  to  secede  from  the 
Union  or  to  declare  a  law  void. 

The  storm  thus  raised  was  blown  over  by 
the  help  of  a  tariff  compromise,  but  the 
opinions  already  spoken  of  spread  through 
the  Slave  States  more  and  more,  in  a  great 
er  ratio  of  increase,  perhaps,  than  the  prin 
ciples  of  abolition  and  the  political  party 
founded  upon  them  grew  at  the  North  and 
West.  Here  a  controversy  began  which 
nothing — no  prudence  at  the  North,  no  de 
nunciation,  no  interests  of  traffic  —  could 
put  down.  Every  fugitive  slave  reclaimed 
added  to  the  force  of  the  feeling  against 
slavery.  Formerly  it  had  been  hoped  that 
in  time  slavery  would  give  way  to  serfdom, 
and  in  the  end  to  full  freedom ;  but  as  the 
abolitionists  appealed  to  the  conscience  and 
to  our  American  theory  of  human  rights,  it 
was  necessary  to  construct  moral  defenses 
on  the  other  side.  Instead  of  confessing 
the  wrong  of  the  institution,  and  asking  for 
time  to  prepare  for  its  abolition,  it  was  sup 
ported  by  the  authority  of  Scripture ;  it  was 
the  redemption  of  men  from  heathenism  in 
Africa;  it  brought  with  it  relations  most 
kindly  and  humane  between  an  abject  race 
and  an  enlightened  one ;  it  kept  out  much 
of  the  vice  too  easily  discoverable  in  the 
cities  of  the  Free  States.  This  was  the  be 
ginning,  evidently,  of  the  last  phase  of  the 
controversy  between  the  two  parts  and  two 
interests  in  the  country ;  for  how  could  there 


268 


THE  EXPERIMENT  OF  THE  UNION,  WITH  ITS  PEEPAEATIONS. 


be  any  compromise  when  such  diametrically 
opposite  sides  were  taken  ?  And  as  the  foes 
of  slavery  grew  bolder,  the  apprehension  of 
what  might  come  to  pass  at  some  future  day 
grew  stronger  among  its  friends.  Perhaps, 
too,  they  must  have  been  aware,  and  have 
half  confessed  to  themselves,  that  whether 
their  pleas  on  behalf  of  their  institution 
were  tenable  or  not,  there  was  an  incon 
sistency  between  the  apologies  and  those 
fundamental  notions  which  the  whole  Un 
ion  once  avowed.  It  was  too  evident  also 
that  there  must  be  a  division,  aifecting  all 
questions  of  politics,  and  becoming  more 
pronounced  from  year  to  year,  growing  out 
of  this  question  of  questions,  which  could 
be  neither  settled  nor  avoided. 

We  pass  by  transactions  of  great  impor 
tance,  such  as  the  affairs  in  Kansas  and  the 
question  of  slavery  in  the  Territories,  and 
come  down  to  the  opening  of  the  war.  Why 
was  it,  when  Southern  men  and  Southern 
interests  had  controlled  the  country  for  gen 
erations,  when  the  North  and  West  were  di 
vided,  and  probably  would  always  continue 
so,  that  the  die  was  cast  in  1860  for  secession 
and  dissolution  ?  The  Presidential  election 
had  been  far  from  a  decided  expression  of 
public  will,  and  wise  adjustments  taken  in 
time  might  at  least  have  delayed  a  disrup 
tion.  There  were,  as  it  seems  to  us,  two 
leading  causes.  First,  the  progress  of  ideas, 
and  the  prospect  of  an  increase  in  the  fu 
ture  of  the  number  of  Free  States,  without 
any  counterbalancing  weights  in  the  other 
scale,  were  sure  to  fix  the  policy  of  the  coun 
try  for  the  future.  Secondly,  the  temper 
of  the  Northern  States  was  not  well  under 
stood,  just  as  at  the  North  the  South  was 
thought  to  be  threatening  rather  than  pur 
posing.  It  was  supposed  that  the  North 
could  not  act  as  a  unit  nor  by  great  major 
ities,  and  that  a  party  against  the  war  would 
paralyze  the  movements  of  the  government. 
Even  the  North  had  some  distrust  of  itself. 
This  is  not  the  first  instance  in  which  great 
masses  of  men  have  failed  to  comprehend 
each  other  or  themselves,  nor  will  it  be  the 
last.  But  it  was  found  that  the  preserva 
tion  of  the  Union,  all  over  the  North  and 
West,  had  an  importance  attached  to  it  in 
men's  minds  which  had  not  been  thought 
to  exist.  Nor  was  it  the  commercial  value 
of  the  Union  that  seemed  so  precious,  as  if 


the  navigation  of  the  Mississippi,  the  free 
intercourse,  as  before,  in  every  direction 
through  the  whole  territory,  needed  to  be 
maintained  at  all  hazards,  but  it  was  the 
Union  as  an  idea,  and  as  involving  the  fu 
ture  peace  of  this  laud  for  generations.  In 
the  spring  of  1862  the  writer  of  these  words 
was  standing  on  the  highlands  above  Cin 
cinnati,  and  looking  over  toward  the  Ken 
tucky  side  of  the  Ohio.  Then  first  a  deep 
impression  was  made  on  his  mind  of  the  ter 
rible  results  likely  to  follow  disruption,  for 
the  line  of  that  great  river  would  divide 
free  soil  from  slavery  for  hundreds  of  miles. 
And  when  the  boundary  should  be  fixed, 
who  would  or  could  prevent  fugitive  slaves 
from  crossing  it  ?  Who  would  not  resist 
their  pursuing  masters?  Who  could  pre 
vent  a  thousand  border  difficulties  which 
might  give  rise  to  war  ?  Wherever  the  two 
republics  met  there  would  be  desolation  or 
chronic  warfare,  obstructing  the  prosperity 
of  some  of  the  fairest  regions  in  the  world ; 
there  would  be  bitterness  and  national  ha 
tred  ;  a  blight  would  come  over  vast  tracts, 
unless,  perhaps,  by  slow  degrees,  slavery 
should  restrict  its  limits,  and  allow  its  an 
tagonist  to  encroach  on  its  domains.  Nor 
were  such  evils  in  the  future  worse  than 
the  loss  of  a  great  Union  over  which  one 
constitution  reigned,  where  common  princi 
ples  of  justice  were  supreme.  Such  feelings 
were  found  in  multitudes  of  minds ;  but  they 
could  not  partake  of  them  who  had  clung 
to  their  State  as  the  highest  object  of  their 
pride  and  allegiance. 

The  war  had  its  course.  At  its  close  the 
problems  offering  themselves  for  solution 
were  nearly  as  grave  as  the  problem  with 
which  it  began,  and  more  difficult.  The 
Union  had  been  saved  at  the  cost  of  over 
throwing  society  at  the  South,  and  now 
the  question  of  reconstruction  came  before 
the  country  under  conditions  which  de 
manded  the  highest  wisdom  and  modera 
tion.  A  new  race  was  called  into  political 
existence  :  the  slaves  had  been  turned  into 
freemen.  What  was  to  be  their  political 
status?  If  they  should  have  no  voice  in 
public  affairs — if  they,  while  acquiring  civil 
rights,  should  stand  by  and  see  the  most  ig 
norant  of  the  whites  voting  and  determin 
ing  State  politics  and  making  constitutions, 
what  would  be  their  security  for  the  future  ? 


CONFLICT  OF  RACES  IN  THE  SOUTH. 


269 


If,  on  the  other  hand,  political  power  were 
given  to  all  indiscriminately,  blacks  and 
whites,  the  evil  might  be  as  great.  What 
a  strange  state  of  things  to  bestow  the  fran 
chise  on  immense  multitudes  who  had  not 
the  knowledge  requisite  to  vote  intelligent 
ly  for  the  lowest  local  magistrates,  who 
could  be  combined  into  a  party  which  black 
or  white  demagogues  could  mould  and  guide 
according  to  their  will,  and  against  whom 
it  might  be  necessary  for  the  whites  to 
form  an  opposite  combination  in  order  to 
save  themselves  from  ruin !  Never,  perhaps, 
since  the  world  began  was  there  such  a 
dreadful  alternative  on  so  large  a  scale. 
Above  all  was  this  true  in  those  States 
where  the  numbers  of  the  races  were  nearly 
equal,  or  where  the  blacks  were  even  in  a 
majority.  In  the  process  of  reconstruction 
it  was  managed  that  the  suffrage  should  be 
granted  to  this  race  wherever  States  con 
taining  slaves  had  joined  in  the  secession ; 
and  a  new  motive  for  conceding  the  suf 
frage  was  supplied  by  the  Fourteenth  Amend 
ment  to  the  Constitution,  which  provides 
that  representation  in  Congress  shall  de 
pend  on  the  number  of  active  or  fully  quali 
fied  citizens.  Thus  suppose  the  number  of 
male  inhabitants  of  a  State  over  twenty- 
one  years  of  age  to  amount  to  150,000,  and 
one-third  of  them  to  be  disfranchised  by  an 
amendment  of  its  constitution  on  account 
of  want  of  sufficient  property — which  dis 
qualification  would  chiefly  affect  the  ne 
groes — the  representative  quota  for  Con 
gress  must  be  diminished  by  one -third. 
Few  States  would  be  willing  to  submit  to 
this  reduction  of  political  power  in  the  gen 
eral  government,  and  so,  probably,  it  will 
never  take  place,  if  otherwise  it  were  prac 
ticable.  We  regard  the  Fifteenth  Article 
of  the  Amendments  as  most  just  and  de 
sirable,  namely,  that  rights  shall  not  be 
abridged  on  account  of  "  race,  color,  or  pre 
vious  condition  of  servitude ;"  but  in  the 
constitutions  of  the  restored  States,  and  by 
the  Fourteenth  Amendment,  universal  suf 
frage  in  its  worst  shape,  with  its  worst  con 
sequences,  is  fastened,  perhaps  necessarily, 
but  unfortunately,  on  these  restored  re 
publics. 

This  condition  of  things  is  now  one  of  the 
worst  evils  that  we  suffer.  We  concede  that 
it  may  have  been  necessary,  but  that  docs 


not  take  from  the  dangers  which  attend 
upon  it.  We  will  look  at  some  of  these 
dangers,  disclaiming  most  solemnly  all  party 
motives  or  wishes  in  what  we  are  to  say. 
The  greatest  of  them  all  is  that  the  two 
races,  through  the  States  where  slavery  for 
merly  existed,  will  be  separated  by  party 
lines,  and  will  look  on  one  another  with  re 
ciprocal  distrust.  Sectional  differences  are 
bad  enough,  as  we  have  found  in  our  past 
history,  even  when  able  men  managed  the 
parties ;  but  differences  of  race,  intensified 
by  the  jealousies  and  distrusts  of  politics, 
are  tenfold  worse.  In  the  present  case  they 
tend  to  increase  in  intensity  and  bitterness, 
because  the  ignorant  mass  that  has  just 
been  rescued  from  slavery  must  fall  under 
the  influence  of  fear  of  what  will  happen 
if  the  management  of  State  affairs  passes 
over  permanently  into  the  hands  of  their 
adversaries.  They  feel  their  weakness ;  they 
have  inferior  power  of  combination ;  they 
have  small  means  of  self-protection.  They 
are  also  to  a  considerable  extent  under  the 
influence  of  cunning  leaders  who  seem  to 
have  unlimited  power  of  acting  on  their 
fears.  Brawls  will  unavoidably  break  out 
in  many  neighborhoods,  which  will  grow 
into  feuds  and  local  quarrels,  and  will  in  re 
port  be  magnified  or  extenuated,  as  it  may 
happen,  in  their  importance,  so  that  the 
country  will  not  know  what  to  believe  or 
disbelieve  in  regard  to  them.  As  for  the 
blame  to  be  imputed  to  the  one  or  the  other 
side,  that  is  a  small  matter.  We  do  not  be 
lieve  that  the  colored  race  or  their  leaders 
of  like  origin  would  be  or  have  been  the 
first  to  encroach  on  the  rights  of  the  white 
race.  And  we  wish  that  one  could  not  be 
lieve  that  there  has  been  a  policy  or  under 
standing  on  the  part  of  many  leading  whites 
in  some  of  the  States  in  question  to  the  ef 
fect  that  the  colored  people  must  be  pre 
vented  by  terrorism  from  enjoying  the  bene 
fits  granted  to  them  in  the  new  amendments. 
But  the  evils  to  which  we  refer  lie  outside 
of  the  immediate  occasions  of  strife  between 
the  races ;  it  will  reach  beyond  existing  par 
ties.  How  can  there  be  harmony  between 
them  under  any  future  division  of  parties, 
when,  in  addition  to  difference  of  race,  dis 
trust,  suspicion,  past  feuds  and  antagonisms, 
will  continually  foment  disquiet  ?  If  it  be 
said  that  unprincipled  whites  are  corrupt- 


270 


THE  EXPERIMENT  OF  THE  UNION,  WITH  ITS  PREPARATIONS. 


iug  the  blacks  and  poisoning  their  minds, 
it  may  be  very  true,  but  how  is  the  nuisance 
to  be  abated  ?  Will  not  the  eagles  be  gath 
ered  together  where  the  carcass  is  ?  In  brief, 
the  cause  of  all  that  has  taken  place  or  is 
to  be  apprehended  lies  not  in  particular  or 
local  provocations,  nor  in  the  leaders  of  to 
day,  nor  in  the  imbittering  of  a  most  mild 
and  inoffensive  race  by  the  war,  but  it  is 
one  that  is  likely  to  last  as  long  as  meas 
ures,  now  never  to  be  set  aside,  shall  have 
run  their  course  and  borne  their  fruits. 
"  The  end  is  not  yet." 

Until  this  state  of  things  shall  end,  if  end 
it  can,  this  unhappy  part  of  our  Union,  in 
jured  in  its  property,  with  its  old  landhold 
ers  impoverished  or  driven  from  their  homes, 
with  its  institutions  shattered,  must  lag  far 
behind  the  other  parts  in  most  of  the  essen 
tials  of  prosperity.  That  section  is  full  of 
undeveloped  resources :  its  exhaustless  beds 
of  iron  and  coal,  its  soil  yet  unbroken,  or 
capable  of  vastly  increased  production,  its 
mild  climate,  must  invite  capital  and  labor, 
if  those  timid  forces  could  be  assured  of 
safety  and  protection.  Perhaps  the  solu 
tion  of  the  problem  for  the  South  may  come 
from  this  source,  from  a  new  emigration  not 
compromised  in  old  strifes,  and  able  to  act 
in  the  end  as  a  mediating  and  a  reconciling 
power. 

We  pass  on  to  another  source  of  danger 
which  the  late  war  has  opened  up,  or  at 
least  made  more  apparent — to  the  increased 
power  of  the  general  government.  We  have 
already  had  occasion  to  speak  of  the  subject 
of  the  powers  given  by  the  present  Constitu 
tion  to  the  United  States  as  exciting  alarm 
in  many,  and  as  giving  occasion  to  the  birth 
of  the  old  Republican  or  Democratic  party. 
But,  as  it  often  happens  in  politics,  that 
party,  when  it  came  into  power,  was  not 
faithful  to  its  convictions  or  principles. 
Thus,  when  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  was 
opposed  by  the  Federalists  as  being  a  stretch 
of  the  Constitution,  this  was  not  wholly  de 
nied  by  the  Democrats,  but  justified  by  the 
circumstances  of  the  case.  Thus,  too,  in  the 
war  of  1812,  when  the  Federal  Governors  of 
the  New  England  coast  States,  while  con 
senting  to  furnish  the  quotas  of  militia  call 
ed  for,  claimed  to  judge  when  an  actual  in 
vasion  of  their  soil  had  taken  place,  and 
refused  to  put  the  troops  under  officers  of 


the  United  States,  pleading  their  unques 
tioned  rights  under  the  Constitution  and 
the  law,  the  anti-Federal  party,  then  hav 
ing  the  government  in  their  hands,  de 
nounced  this  action  as  disloyal  and  uncon 
stitutional.  Further,  the  Hartford  Conven 
tion — an  innocent  scheme  with  an  ugly  look 
— was  taxed  with  treasonable  or  disloyal 
designs,  although  without  good  reason ;  and 
yet  the  secession  in  1861  justified  itself  by 
this  unwise  measure  of  a  party  which  the 
States  joining  in  the  secession  had  for  that 
very  measure  strongly  denounced.  But  aft 
er  the  Peace  of  Ghent  the  parties  returned 
to  their  original  principles,  or,  rather — as 
one  of  them  had  nearly  expired,  and  the 
other  was  divided  within  itself  on  questions 
of  sectional  interest — the  parts  of  the  coun 
try  where  they  had  respectively  predomi 
nated  went  back  to  the  old  positions  of  a 
stricter  and  a  freer  interpretation  of  the 
Constitution,  to  the  Federal  and  the  States- 
rights  theories.  In  the  interval  between 
that  peace  and  the  attack  on  Fort  Sumter 
things  ran  commonly  in  the  States-rights 
channel.  The  general  government  seemed 
to  be  weak ;  and  foreigners,  as  they  specula 
ted  on  our  government  in  those  days,  thought 
that  the  great  danger  was  that  State  power 
weighed  most  in  the  balance.  It  is  true  that 
the  Supreme  Court  put  a  curb  on  the  acts  of 
several  of  the  States,  and  that  General  Jack 
son  would  undoubtedly  have  crushed  nulli 
fication  by  armed  force  if  necessary ;  but  his 
vigorous  measures  only  put  off  the  operation 
of  a  theory  which  even  then  involved  the 
power  of  a  State  to  secede  from  the  Union. 
Yet  even  while  the  general  government 
was  regarded  as  weak  in  conflict  with  the 
State  power,  it  showed  an  increase  of 
strength  of  an  indirect  sort  in  the  way  of 
patronage  and  of  influence  on  private  per 
sons.  The  appointments  within  the  gift  of 
the  Executive  grew  in  value  and  number, 
and  already,  if  we  mistake  not,  members  of 
Congress  had  begun  to  regard  it  as  their 
right  to  nominate  to  offices  within  their  dis 
tricts,  to  be  the  President's  almoners,  if  we 
may  give  that  name  to  their  business.  Still 
this  accumulating  power  was  rather  politic 
al  than  governmental ;  it  would  not  have 
excused  the  Executive  of  the  United  States 
from  transcending  the  constitutional  limits; 
it  was  strictly  constitutional,  although  used 


THE  STRENGTH  OF  THE  EXECUTIVE. 


271 


for  party  purposes.  If  the  framers  of  our  in 
strument  for  uniting  the  country  could  have 
had  a  vivid  impression  of  its  vast  extent, 
they  would  perhaps  have  put  some  check 
on  the  appointing  power.  But  they  built 
the  house  without  dreaming  how  many  serv 
ants  the  large  family  would  require. 

The  appointing  power  is  a  means  to  an 
end,  to  the  reward  of  partisans,  and  those 
the  neediest  generally  and  the  most  selfish. 
As  such  it  is  corrupting,  and  the  interests 
involved  in  it  are  strong  enough  to  resist  all 
attempts  at  reformation.  Its  bad  influences 
on  party  and  on  personal  honor  can  not  be 
removed  without  some  change  in  the  Con 
stitution,  and  such  change  party  feeling  it 
self  would  resist.  The  ill  success  of  civ 
il  service  reform  is  mortifying  enough,  and 
disheartening  for  the  future. 

The  strength  of  the  government,  looked 
at  apart  from  its  indirect  influences,  never 
appeared  formidable  until  the  war  called  it 
fully  forth.  Then  first  the  Executive  seem 
ed  to  have  a  new  quality,  which  might  be 
compared  with  the  dictatorial  power  con 
ferred  by  the  Senate  of  Rome  on  the  consuls 
in  the  well-known  formula  that  they  do 
their  best  to  prevent  the  republic  from  suf 
fering  any  detriment.  Then  first  the  com 
mand  of  immense  armies,  the  arrests  of  sus 
pected  persons,  the  control  over  vast  sums 
of  money,  the  arbitrary  use  of  telegraphs, 
and,  after  the  war  was  over,  the  government 
of  the  Southern  States  by  military  officers, 
and  the  reconstruction  of  those  States,  re 
vealed  an  accumulation  of  authority  which 
•was  unsuspected  before,  and  pointed  to  a 
possible  military  despotism  in  the  future. 
Then,  too,  the  power  that  Congress  author 
ized  of  suspending  specie  payments  and 
issuing  legal  tenders  showed  that  in  emer 
gencies  financial  measures  could  be  set  on 
foot  which  could  involve  the  country  in  un 
told  distress,  and  even  in  bankruptcy.  Since 
the  war,  also,  the  disturbed  condition  of  one 
of  the  Southern  States  has  induced  the  Pres 
ident,  on  his  own  responsibility,  to  use  mili 
tary  power  in  a  case  of  very  doubtful  con 
stitutionality,  to  say  the  least,  and  to  inter 
fere  for  the  restoration  of  order  in  a  way 
that  can  not  be  justified.  The  upright  in 
tentions  of  the  Chief  Magistrate  we  do  not 
intend  to  question ;  the  subject,  interesting 
aa  it  is,  concerns  us  only  because  a  very 


dangerous  precedent  may  be  set  for  the  fu 
ture.  The  question  may  be  asked,  and  is 
asked,  whether  there  is  any  danger  of  mili 
tary  despotism.  And  as  this  could  not 
exist  without  consolidation,  it  can  be  ask 
ed,  also,  Is  not  consolidation,  which,  at  the 
founding  of  the  republic,  one  party  dread 
ed,  and  would  have  prevented  by  constitu 
tional  limitations  if  the  other  had  thought 
it  more  than  a  bare  possibility — is  not  this 
to  be  the  ultimate  goal  of  our  Union  ? 
This  is  what  those  who  look  at  us  with  no 
sympathy  for  our  institutions  profess  to  re 
gard  as  a  future  probability.  Within  a 
few  months  we  have  seen  the  following  ex 
pression  in  a  foreign  paper  commenting  on 
affairs  in  Louisiana :  "  The  President  is  ex 
hibiting  how  easily  a  military  despotism 
could  be  built  on  American  institutions." 
Thus  the  same  Constitution  which  a  few 
years  ago,  as  looked  at  through  foreign 
spectacles,  could  not  resist  the  weak  power 
of  the  States,  or  bring  back  a  recalcitrant 
Governor  into  his  proper  relations  to  the 
general  government,  is  now  allowing,  it  is 
said,  the  general  government  and  the  "  one- 
man  power"  in  it  to  trample  on  the  rights 
of  the  States,  and  to  threaten  the  extinction 
of  liberty.  Do  these  opposite  charges,  made 
at  different  times,  refute  one  another,  or  is 
there  a  real  and  a  new  danger  before  us, 
and  that,  too,  when  the  army  of  the  United 
States  does  not  contain  one  soldier  for  every 
thousand  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  country  ? 
So  great  a  change  as  that  from  our  pres 
ent  Constitution  to  an  imperial  despotism, 
or,  in  other  words,  to  an  absolute  democ 
racy  under  one  man,  may  not  seem  to  many 
worthy  of  serious  apprehension ;  and  we 
share  this  opinion  so  far  as  to  think  that, 
in  itself  considered,  a  revolution  so  great, 
so  without  precedent  in  the  English  race,  is 
^entirely  improbable.  Before  it  could  be  ef 
fected  there  would  need  to  be  a  strong  party 
in  favor  of  it  diffused  through  all  quarters 
of  the  Union.  No  sectional  dissatisfaction 
would  be  adequate  to  bring  it  about.  To 
attempt  it  would  involve  the  probability  of 
two  or  more  confederacies,  and  of  a  war  be 
tween  them  with  an  uncertain  issue.  To 
effect  it  would  require  taxation  on  a  vast 
scale,  or  the  borrowing  of  money  to  such  an 
extent  as  would  involve  speedy  bankruptcy. 
There  are  now  no  questions  on  which  the 


272 


THE  EXPERIMENT  OF  THE  UNION,  WITH  ITS  PREPAEATIONS. 


Union  could  be  territorially  divided  without 
the  uprising  of  a  great  majority  against  a 
small  minority.  Capital,  in  its  connections 
all  over  the  land,  is  a  bond  of  union.  The 
mouth  and  course  of  the  Mississippi,  the 
avenues  to  the  Pacific,  the  communication 
with  Europe  by  Atlantic  ports,  must  be  open 
to  all.  An  empire  on  the  coast  seems  equal 
ly  impossible  with  a  great  interior  empire. 
The  only  cause  of  essential  change  that 
seems  deserving  of  being  taken  into  ac 
count  is  a  general  loss  of  reverence  on  the 
part  of  thinking  men  for  the  institutions  of 
the  country,  a  wide-spread  conviction  that 
we  have  failed  in  our  experiment.  When 
ever  such  a  humiliating  day  shall  arrive, 
the  same  conviction  might  lead  toward 
peaceable  reforms  and  modifications ;  but  a 
military  despotism,  after  the  experience  of 
France  and  Rome,  and  with  the  political 
leanings  of  our  race,  is  not  likely  to  be  one 
of  them. 

It  is,  however,  possible,  we  admit,  that  at 
tempts  may  be  made  to  substitute  laws  of 
the  Union  for  State  laws  in  some  very  im 
portant  departments  of  legislation,  and  that 
in  case  of  their  success  the  prestige  and  effi 
ciency  of  the  general  government  would  be 
greatly  increased,  to  the  detriment  of  State 
power.  Some  of  us  are  old  enough  to  re 
member  the  time  when  the  Cumberland 
Road  was  a  bone  of  contention  between 
strict  and  free  constructionists ;  but  now 
the  talk  is  to  put  all  telegraphs  and  all 
railroads  under  the  supervision  of  the  Unit 
ed  States,  as,  with  far  less  constitutional 
objection,  banks  of  issue  sustain  relations 
to  the  States  no  longer.  It  might  also 
be  highly  advantageous  if  in  the  depart 
ment  of  international  (or,  if  such  a  word 
might  be  allowed,  interstate)  private  law 
harmony  could  be  introduced,  which  could 
be  effected  only  by  general  agreement  be 
tween  the  States,  or  by  an  alteration  of  the 
Constitution  which  should  invest  Congress 
with  new  law-making  powers.  The  laws 
concerning  marriage,  legitimacy,  divorce,  be 
quests,  guardianship,  the  rights  of  married 
women,  and  the  rights  of  aliens  ought  ra 
tionally  to  be  uniform  through  the  Union. 
This  is  the  direction,  as  we  understand,  that 
the  constitution  of  Switzerland  is  taking. 
From  a  loose  confederation  it  became  a 
strict  one,  a  "  Bundesstaat,"  and  now  still 


newer  powers  in  legislation  are  to  be  or 
have  been  conferred  on  the  central  govern 
ment.  But  what  we  dread  is  that  the  Union 
is  becoming  so  great  a  tree,  with  such  thick 
foliage,  that  the  States,  like  shrubs,  will 
lose  their  healthy  growth  under  its  shade ; 
that  instead  of  being  protected,  they  will 
wither.  If  we  look  at  government  patron 
age,  already  so  vast  a  factor  in  all  political 
calculations  and  bargains,  and  add  the  pos 
sible  enlargement  of  the  sphere  of  United 
States  law,  demanded  with  the  more  reason 
on  account  of  the  great  number  of  the  States, 
and  then  bring  into  account  the  sway  of  an 
ambitious  man  at  the  head  of  the  govern 
ment  taking  advantage  of  some  local  diffi 
culty,  we  shall  not  regard  the  anti-Federalist 
dread  of  consolidation  as  wildly  unreasona 
ble.  Washington  and  Hamilton,  with  their 
compeers,  were  right  in  wanting  a  stronger 
government  in  place  of  the  shackling  old 
Confederation.  That  was  the  only  sound 
statesmanship  at  that  time.  But  when  a 
measure  of  Mr.  Jefferson's  enlarged  our  do 
main,  and  set  the  precedent  for  an  immense 
further  enlargement,  the  danger  took  anoth 
er  direction.  The  very  party  which  felt  the 
apprehension  set  causes  at  work  which  alone 
made  it  to  be  reasonably  apprehended.  There 
is  now  possibility  enough  of  such  enormous 
powers  being  accumulated  at  Washington 
as  ought  to  make  men  look  narrowly  at  that 
tendency.  For  our  part,  at  the  present,  we 
should  rather  endure  some  inconveniences 
from  hasty  or  ill-considered  laws  of  some 
State  or  States  than  seek  a  cure  which 
might  itself  be  a  source  of  ill.  We  would 
print  E  PLURIBUS  in  as  large  letters  as  UNUM. 
At  this  point  of  our  progress  we  pause  a 
moment  to  make  the  remark  that  we  owe 
our  protection  against  the  tendency  to  con 
solidation  to  our  historical  development. 
The  settlement  of  the  country  in  the  first 
instance  by  separate  colonies,  which  were 
kept  apart  long  enough  to  form  distinct 
characteristics  and  to  feel  their  independ 
ence  each  of  the  rest — this  is  obviously  the 
force  that  resists  perfect  fusion  and  com 
pactness.  The  nice  balance  aimed  at  in 
the  Constitution  may  not  last  through  all 
changes  in  society  and  in  public  interests ; 
the  scale  that  holds  the  rights  of  the  Union 
and  that  which  holds  State  power  may  al 
ternately  outweigh  each  other ;  but  the  true 


UNIVERSAL  SUFFRAGE. 


273 


lover  of  his  country  will  aim  to  keep  them 
as  far  as  possible  in  equipoise.  Meanwhile, 
if  uniform  legislation  is  demanded  on  points 
where  all  the  States  ought  to  have  one  pol 
icy,  let  it  be  reached  by  a  common  under 
standing.  But  surely  the  end  of  a  war,  when 
State  power  fell  into  the  background,  and 
the  Union  was,  as  it  ought  to  have  been, 
prominent  before  the  eyes  of  all,  is  no  time 
to  carry  the  old  Federal  principle  to  an  ex 
treme  which  the  venerated  founders  of  the 
Union  never  contemplated. 

The  danger  of  consolidation,  if  there  be 
any,  is  future,  and  must  be  the  result  of 
slowly  moving  causes,  of  long  misgoveru- 
ment,  and  of  a  demand  for  more  energy  and 
uniformity  in  our  system.  The  dangers 
which  many  fear  and  have  feared  from  the 
democratic  cast  of  our  institutions  are,  if 
real,  more  immediate,  because  universal  suf 
frage  is  upon  us,  and  can  never  be  gotten 
rid  of  as  long  as  the  country  shall  endure. 
The  history  of  the  extension  of  the  suil'rage 
iu  this  country  since  the  independence  is  a 
very  instructive  one,  if  it  could  be  set  forth 
in  detail.  It  is  sufficient  here  to  say  that 
most,  if  not  all,  the  older  colonies  had  at 
that  time  in  their  laws  a  qualification  for 
voting  based  on  the  possession  of  land, 
which  continued  in  many  of  them  long 
afterward.  By  degrees  this  became  a  form, 
that  is,  young  men  who  wished  to  become 
qualified  for  voting  received  deeds  of  laud, 
which  were  reconveyed  soon  after  the  elec 
tion  to  the  friend  who  had  helped  them. 
At  length  all  native-born  white  males  twen 
ty-one  years  old  could  vote,  ou  taking  the 
freeman's  oath,  after  a  certain  brief  term  of 
residence  in  a  State  or  town.  Then  natu 
ralized  citizens  received  the  same  privilege. 
Meanwhile  free  blacks,  who  at  one  time 
could  vote  even  in  some  of  the  slave-holding 
States,  as  North  Carolina,  were  deprived  of 
their  privileges  in  some  of  those  which  held 
no  slaves ;  such  was  the  case  in  New  York 
and  Connecticut,  in  the  latter  of  which 
States  a  colored  man  of  great  personal 
worth,  the  owner  of  a  considerable  proper 
ty,  was  disfranchised  by  the  constitution 
of  1817.  Now  at  length  every  where,  if  we 
mistake  not,  colored  persons  are  put  on  an 
equality  with  whites,  and  naturalized  for 
eigners  with  persons  native  born.  The  sin 
gle  exception  known  to  the  writer  is  the 
18 


limitation  of  suffrage  in  Connecticut  to 
those  who  are  able  to  read — a  rule  by  which 
almost  no  one  is  excluded.  So  generally  is 
it  held  that  citizenship  and  the  right  of  suf 
frage  are  co-extensive  that  the  first  now 
passes  with  the  greater  part  of  Americans  as  a 
natural  right,  like  the  right  of  property  or  of 
contract.  There  are  very  many  who  believe 
that  the  earlier  state  of  things  was  far  bet 
ter,  but  very  few  who  believe  that  the  pres 
ent  state  of  things  will  ever  be  altered.  We 
must  carry  it  with  us  through  all  our  na 
tional  existence,  and  endeavor  to  educate 
all  voters  into  the  ability  to  judge  what  is 
best,  and  into  the  spirit  of  conscientious  citi 
zenship  ;  meanwhile,  accepting  the  situation, 
we  may  look  at  the  evils  which  it  brings 
with  it.  These  are  more  apparent  in  large 
towns,  while  in  the  country  a  restriction  of 
the  suffrage  would  make  little  difference. 
They  are  increased  by  the  habit  of  many 
substantial  citizens  of  staying  away  from 
the  polls,  either  owing  to  a  kind  of  despair 
on  account  of  the  small  influence  of  a  single 
vote,  or  to  the  engrossing  interests  of  busi 
ness.  And  thus  whatever  be  the  bad  re 
sults,  the  higher  classes  of  society  are  in  a 
good  degree  responsible  for  them.  They 
are  increased  also  by  the  number  of  foreign- 
born  voters,  who  can  be  led  in  masses  by 
their  more  intelligent  countrymen,  and  who 
thus  render  possible  a  number  of  inferior 
demagogues  ready  to  sell  votes  for  offices, 
and  able  to  make  themselves  necessary  to 
their  parties.  In  this  way  differences  of  na 
tionality  are  perpetuated  long  after  aliens 
have  become  naturalized ;  and  even  the  di 
visions  in  their  old  homes  across  the  water 
survive  their  changes  of  abode.  It  is  sure 
ly  a  most  unnatural  thing  that  there  should 
be  in  communities  where  rights  are  the  same 
for  men  of  every  kind  of  nativity  these  po 
litical  sects,  depending  on  something  re 
nounced  and  abandoned.  Nor  could  we 
find  such  parties  within  parties,  carried 
down  even  to  the  second  or  third  genera 
tion,  unless  the  means  of  combination  lay 
within  the  power  of  men  who  have  their 
own  ends  in  view.  The  voters  themselves 
have  no  need  to  unite  for  self-protection 
against  native-born  Americans,  either  for 
relief  in  taxation  or  for  securing  their  priv 
ileges  in  other  respects.  It  is  the  interest 
of  all  that  these  foreign-born  citizens  should 


274 


THE  EXPERIMENT  OF  THE  UNION,  WITH  ITS  PREPARATIONS. 


grow  rich,  that  their  children  should  be  well 
educated,  that  all  places  of  trust  should  be 
open  to  them,  when  they  are  found  worthy 
of  political  or  social  honors. 

Here,  then,  is  one  danger  and  source  of 
peril,  that  while  native  Americans  act  po 
litically  as  individuals,  the  naturalized  citi 
zens  act  in  masses  under  demagogues  as 
their  leaders,  as  if  they  were  invading  ar 
mies  rather  than  men  seeking  for  homes 
and  for  quiet.  Only  in  one  instance  have 
native-born  citizens  formed  a  political  par 
ty,  and  the  ignominious  failure  in  this  case 
showed  that  it  was  unnatural  and  outland 
ish.  Of  the  religious  factor  in  massing  cer 
tain  classes  of  men  together  we  have  a 
word  to  say  soon;  we  add  at  present  the 
single  remark  that  these  demagogical  influ 
ences  retard  the  assimilation  of  the  new 
comers  to  the  old,  and  prevent  the  com 
plete  harmony  of  the  people. 

In  this  state  of  things,  to  which  universal 
suffrage  gives  rise,  one  party,  at  any  one 
given  time,  will  naturally  attract  the  dema 
gogues  more  than  the  other;  that  is,  one 
will  be,  or  affect  to  be,  more  in  sympathy 
with  the  foreigner  or  the  poor,  or  with  lib 
erty  and  equal  rights ;  the  other,  more  in 
sympathy  with  the  interests  of  property 
and  civil  order.  Both  may  be  intensely  self 
ish  and  equally  one-sided.  But  they  can 
not  co-exist  without  acting  on  one  another. 
They  discover  each  the  other's  arts,  means 
of  success,  and  projects.  Naturally  they 
try  to  counteract  plans  by  similar  plans  of 
a  questionable  character.  They  make  plat 
forms  on  which  they  do  not  intend  to  stand. 
They  propose  candidates  who  are  ignorant 
or  pliable,  instead  of  those  who  are  sturdy 
and  experienced  in  legislation.  There  must 
be  understandings  that  such  and  such  per 
sons  of  service  to  a  party  are  to  be  reward 
ed  in  due  time.  These  and  many  more  of 
the  obvious  evils  of  parties,  such  as  the  cau 
cus  system,  unanimity  forced  by  the  whip, 
as  it  were,  discreditable  compromises,  are 
either  owing  to  the  universality  of  suffrage 
or  are  greatly  increased  by  it ;  and  there  is 
no  present  prospect  of  their  discontinuance. 
We  make  no  complaint  of  parties  as  such ; 
they  are  necessary  and  useful  in  a  free  state ; 
they  act  as  watchmen  and  as  checks  upon 
each  other ;  but  we  maintain  that  the  more 
ignorant  the  constituencies  are,  the  greater 


is  the  tendency  on  their  part  to  misplaced 
confidence  in  designing  men,  to  jealousy  and 
strife  of  classes,  to  the  election  of  inferior 
politicians,  to  the  turning  of  politics  into  a 
trade,  to  rnisgoverument,  and,  in  our  case  at 
least,  to  the  banding  together  of  emigrants 
into  factions  founded  on  their  nationalities. 
Nor  do  we  mean  to  charge  the  mass  of  voters 
in  the  country  with  political  corruption, 
which  would  be  a  slander.  They  want 
good  government ;  they  are  ready  for  sacri 
fices,  as  we  saw  only  a  few  years  since ; 
they  have  no  direct  interest  in  the  results 
which  they  procure ;  they  are  in  great  meas 
ure  far  less  open  to  bribes  than  the  political 
leaders  themselves.  The  great  evil  is  that, 
without  intending  or  foreseeing  it,  they 
raise  up  a  crop  of  politicians  who  are  strik 
ingly  unlike  the  mass  of  such  as  elect  them, 
and  who  are  fast  bringing  the  name  and 
work  of  a  statesman  into  contempt. 

But  if  the  extent  of  the  suffrage  has  so 
much  to  do  with  the  degeneracy  of  political 
men,  and  if  this  can  never  be  abridged,  what 
remedy  is  there,  and  what  need  to  talk  of 
the  evils?  The  remedies  must  be  applied 
in  detail,  or  they  must  be  such  as  will  grow 
out  of  a  greater  general  intelligence,  espe 
cially  on  subjects  of  political  science,  or 
there  must  be  an  increased  moral  and  re 
ligious  purity,  which  will  work  a  ciire  of 
our  evils  in  an  indirect  way.  Of  these  gen 
eral  remedies  we  don't  intend  to  speak.  We 
simply  remark  that  here  and  there  a  cure 
can  be  applied  to  some  of  the  most  glaring 
evils.  If  our  Legislatures  have  been  ex 
posed  to  temptations  by  special  legislation, 
a  remedy  can  be  applied,  as  has  been  done 
in  the  amended  constitutions  of  several  large 
States,  by  taking  away  to  a  great  extent 
from  these  bodies  the  power  of  granting 
special  incorporations ;  if  the  towns,  as  has 
been  done,  abuse  their  charters,  and  come 
under  the  control  of  venal,  corrupt  men, 
their  powers  can  be  abridged  or  controlled ; 
if  judges,  as  now  elected  in  many  States,  are 
inferior  men,  for  this  too,  it  is  to  be  hoped, 
a  cure  may  be  provided.  The  whole  power 
of  burdening  States  and  towns  with  debt, 
as  well  as  the  taxing  power,  ought  to  have 
limits  set  for  them  in  the  States  by  public 
law. 

We  are  reminded  here  of  another  danger 
which  is  thought  to  be  threatened  by  an  in- 


FINANCIAL  PERILS. 


275 


flux  of  foreigners.  This  land,  once  almost 
exclusively  Protestant,  is  the  refuge  now  of 
five  millions  of  Catholics,  more  or  less.  It  is 
odd  enough  that  some  of  those  very  people 
who  saw  in  four  millions  of  slaves  a  provi 
dence  bringing  them  within  the  influence 
of  Christianity,  now  see  a  frowning  provi 
dence  providing  these  Catholics  a  home  in 
a  land  founded  and  nourished  by  Protest 
ant  principles.  There  may  be  great  hopes 
of  converting  this  country  to  the  mediaeval 
religion.  That  religion  will,  of  course,  grow 
by  natural  increase,  and  causes  new  in  our 
age  may  aid  it,  although  what  the  Pope's 
newly  developed  infallibility  will  have  to 
do  with  it  we  fail  to  see.  Of  this  we  are 
sure,  that  if  any  new  vigor  and  spread  of 
the  Catholic  faith,  any  aggressive  action, 
should  appear  in  this  country,  it  would  unite 
all  Protestants  of  all  hues  more  than  any 
thing  else  could  do,  and  would  probably 
promote  among  them  a  catholic  spirit  far 
more  than  it  would  promote  Catholicism  out 
side  of  them. 

Other  evils  which  usher  in  this  second 
century  of  our  national  existence  arise  from 
the  late  war  and  the  financial  measures  of 
the  government.  The  war  was  undertaken, 
we  are  proud  to  say,  without  bitterness,  in 
a  spirit  of  loyalty  toward  the  Union,  and 
with  a  deep  sense  of  the  immense  evils  of  a 
permanent  disruption.  Never  was  a  war 
marked  to  a  greater  degree  by  compassion 
for  the  wounded  or  by  a  more  merciful  treat 
ment  of  prisoners  than  this  of  ours.  And 
when  did  a  nation,  of  its  own  accord,  with 
out  the  force  of  treaty,  forgive  the  authors 
of  a  war  more  generously — we  might  say, 
with  more  dangerous  forgetfulness  of  inju 
ries?  All  classes  who  are  not  ordinarily 
roused  to  excitement  by  a  sense  of  wrong 
joined  in  supporting  it.  The  vast  body  of 
the  religious  people  of  the  North  and  West 
felt  its  necessity  and  justice.  Never  did 
prayer  for  the  country  arise  to  the  God  of 
nations  more  unceasingly  and  more  fervent 
ly  ;  never  did  men,  especially  at  the  West, 
risk  their  lives  with  a  fuller  conviction  of 
the  rightfulness  of  the  struggle.  Such  a 
war,  like  all  wars,  might  have  evils  attend 
ing  it.  Some  of  the  officers  may  have  en 
tered  the  service  to  better  their  political 
chances  in  the  future ;  looseness  of  life  and 
of  principle  may  have  been  learned  by  a 


few;  the  obligations  of  the  citizen  may  have 
been  unlearned  by  a  few  more.  But  it  is 
certain,  we  think,  that  if  the  war  had  ended 
without  leaving  any  other  besides  its  own. 
direct  evils,  its  bearing  on  life  and  manners 
would  have  been,  on  the  whole,  good.  Cer 
tainly  the  winning  side,  AS  it  looks  back  on 
the  morality  of  its  cause  and  of  the  meas 
ures  for  making  it  victorious,  has  no  reason 
for  shame. 

But  war  can  not  stand  alone :  Mars  and 
Mercury  must  go  together;  and  the  con 
trivances  of  the  latter  to  raise  money  are 
more  than  a  counterbalance  to  the  blunt 
honesty  of  the  former.  Whether  the  war 
could  have  been  waged  without  a  suspen 
sion  of  specie  payments,  whether  there  were 
not  reasons  which  justified  that  measure, 
aside  from  the  financial  ones,  we  will  not 
stop  to  ask.  Our  work  is  to  look  at  facts 
and  their  issues.  The  fact  is  that  irredeem 
able  paper  and  a  vast  debt,  beyond  all 
power  of  payment  for  years  to  come,  were 
introduced ;  and  as  the  ease  of  carrying  on 
the  measures  of  government  for  the  time 
banished  anxiety,  the  ultimate  difficulties 
were  not  duly  weighed.  At  the  beginning 
of  the  war  there  was  a  general  settling  of 
balances  between  debtor  and  creditor;  the 
money  so  returned  to  its  owners  was  lent  to 
the  government;  and  when  the  bonds  of 
the  public  debt  had  increased  in  value,  and 
the  confidence  of  capitalists  abroad  in  our 
securities  was  restored,  these  were  sold  at 
an  advantage  to  parties  across  the  water. 
Meanwhile,  especially  after  the  end  of  the 
war,  new  enterprises  were  begun,  some  of 
them  immense  in  extent ;  new  debts  be 
tween  individuals  were  contracted ;  private 
persons  were  eager  to  go  into  enterprises 
which  promised  large  returns ;  banks  were 
willing  to  lend  to  speculators  and  stock 
jobbers  ;  every  body  wanted  to  get  rich 
without  labor  or  capital.  Had  there  been 
no  suspension  of  specie  payments,  but  little 
of  all  this  could  have  taken  place;  had 
there  been  an  honest,  intelligent  attempt 
after  the  return  of  peace  to  resume  specie 
payment  at  some  future  day,  with  the  right 
machinery  for  it,  instead  of  the  puerile 
measures  that  were  actually  adopted,  the 
country  might  now  be  rejoicing  that  the 
unavoidable  crisis  had  passed  over,  and 
might  look  with  rational  confidence  toward 


276 


THE  EXPERIMENT  OF  THE  UNION,  WITH  ITS  PREPARATIONS. 


the  future.  But  this  was  too  great  an  ef 
fort  for  a  speculating  generation,  too  great 
for  political  leaders.  Nearly  the  whole  of 
our  present  evils,  except  those  which  arise 
from  the  reconstruction  of  the  Southern 
States  and  the  character  of  political  advent 
urers  in  that  uncertain  field,  are  the  direct 
or  indirect  results  of  the  condition  of  the 
currency,  of  the  fluctuations  in  the  value 
of  specie  as  measured  hy  the  legal  tender. 
To  this  we  must  ascribe  a  large  part  of  the 
speculations  of  recent  years,  the  necessary 
reactions,  failures,  and  shrinking  of  values, 
the  depression  of  the  mercantile  community 
in  consequence  of  greater  economy  on  the 
part  of  consumers,  and  the  dread  of  the  fu 
ture.  To  this  are  owing  in  a  measure  the 
vast  fortunes  acquired  since  the  war  hegan, 
the  power  of  great  houses  to  depress  and 
drive  out  of  the  field  smaller  ones,  the  im 
mense  extravagance  and  show,  the  almost 
contempt  for  the  virtues  of  thrift,  modera 
tion,  and  forethought — virtues  so  important 
and  efficient  as  even  in  heathen  lands  or 
tinder  bad  governments  to  secure  a  happy, 
unaspiring  middle  class.  To  this,  again, 
we  must  refer  the  uneasiness  and  strikes  of 
laborers,  at  least  in  part,  and  the  general 
feeling  pervading  the  producers  in  one  sec 
tion  of  the  country  that  they  are  oppress 
ed  by  transporters,  and  can  by  legislation 
change  the  laws  of  profits.  To  this,  too, 
in  large  part,  we  must  attribute  that  in 
tensely  excited  worldliness  which  appears 
on  all  sides ;  those  frequent  outbreaks  of 
crime,  especially  of  dishonesty,  which  will 
soon  be  regarded  as  matters  of  course ;  that 
venality,  that  Avant  of  honor,  which  are  in 
juring  our  principles  as  well  as  our  reputa 
tion. 

These  last  vices  call  for  more  extended 
consideration,  for  just  now  they  are  imputed 
to  the  legislature  of  the  nation.  Formerly 
if  there  was  a  member  of  Congress  who 
came  there  with  "  itching  palms,"  he  could 
do  but  little  in  the  way  of  gratifying  his 
propensity.  There  was  nothing  to  steal ; 
there  was  no  chance  for  corrupt  bargains, 
and  there  was  little  suspicion  of  corrupt 
practice.  Our  poverty  was  our  integrity. 
The  new  state  of  things  is  mainly  owing, 
not  to  a  lower  set  of  men  brought  into  the 
service  of  the  country  as  legislators,  not  to 
the  unwillingness  of  Congress  itself  to  ferret 


corruption  out,  but  to  the  means  held  in 
the  hands  of  great  corporations  to  influence 
votes.  These  means,  again,  are  owing  main 
ly  to  the  financial  condition  of  the  country ; 
and  if  there  be  increased  venality — that  is, 
if  Congressmen  half  a  century  ago  would 
have  resisted  similar  temptations  —  this, 
again,  is  mainly  owing  to  the  overstimulus 
of  the  covetous  spirit  which  the  last  ten  or 
twelve  years  have  engendered. 

The  suspicions  felt  in  regard  to  the  hon 
esty  and  honor  of  Congress  have  derived 
strength  from  what  has  become  known  and 
what  has  not  been  discovered.  At  first 
there  seemed  to  be  an  unwillingness  to 
probe  an  ulcer;  then  the  facts  that  came 
to  light,  while  revealing  crime  on  the  part 
of  a  few,  involved  many  in  suspicion ;  and 
finally  the  disclosures  of  the  winter  of  1874- 
75  made  it  seem  as  if  the  money  paid  to 
agents  at  Washington  for  a  subsidy  to  a  line 
of  steamboats  must  have  passed  into  many 
hands.  Here,  then,  we  have  guilt  charged 
on  a  very  few,  suspicion  resting  on  many : 
and  this  is  just  the  worst  state  of  things 
possible.  If  forty  members  of  a  political 
body  were  found  to  have  taken  bribes  and 
were  expelled,  it  would  be  better  for  the 
country  or  State  than  if  five  were  detected 
and  two  hundred  were  under  suspicion,  al 
though  the  suspicion  might  be  wholly 
groundless ;  for  a  general  distrust  of  men 
in  public  stations  is  most  disheartening  and 
demoralizing.  Unjust  doubt  of  human  char 
acter  in  general  destroys  the  motives  to 
probity  arising  from  example,  if  it  be  not 
already  the  fruit  of  a  corrupt  heart. 

And  here  we  can  not  refrain  from  saying 
a  word  on  the  conduct  of  public  journals  as 
it  respects  the  charges  against  public  men. 
Our  leading  journals  contain  men  in  their 
editorial  corps  who  may  compare  advan 
tageously  with  any  members  of  Congress. 
But  some  of  them,  in  their  anxiety  to  give 
the  first  news,  are  not  equally  anxious  to 
find  out  whether  it  be  true  or  not;  they 
trust  too  implicitly  to  the  reports  of  corre 
spondents  ;  or  they  have,  perhaps,  grudges 
Avhich  make  them  unfair.  To  be  fair  would 
be  to  be  moderate.  It  would  not  do  to  be 
gentlemanly,  for  strong  words  would  need 
to  be  weighed.  When  we  read  the  vilifica 
tions  of  Congress  and  other  political  bodies, 
one  thing  at  least  we  are  sure  of,  that  the 


NEED  OF  POLITICAL  REFORM. 


277 


writers  ought  to  be  believers  in  the  doc 
trine  of  total  depravity,  for  seldom  were 
such  charges  made  even  by  stiff  Calvinists 
against  individual  men  as  these  journals, 
otherwise  most  respectable,  sometimes  make 
upon  large  bodies  of  leading  politicians.  It 
is  much  to  be  regretted  that  individual 
character  should  be  attacked  without  the 
best  reasons ;  for  while  it  is  of  very  little 
importance  that  this  or  that  man  keeps  his 
hold  on  the  public  confidence,  it  is  of  im 
mense  importance  that  our  representative 
system  should  be  trusted  in.  When  that  is 
thought  to  be  venal  we  lose  the  hope  of 
good  government,  and  our  reverence  for  in 
stitutions,  so  much  prized  once,  vanishes ; 
we  become  ashamed  of  our  country,  make  a 
feebler  resistance  to  causes  of  disorganiza 
tion,  and  fall  into  despair. 

In  asking  ourselves  what  means  lie  with 
in  our  reach  that  we  may  recover  ourselves 
from  evils  partly  temporary,  partly  arising 
out  of  our  political  system,  we  look  first  at 
the  possibility  that  the  sentiment  of  honor 
may  be  purified  and  quickened.  It  has  been 
thought  by  De  Tocqueville  that  for  the 
growth  of  honor  in  a  country  there  must  be 
men  of  rank  and  birth,  who  are  enabled  by 
their  position  and  traditions  to  know  what 
is  honorable,  and  who  would  sink  into  con 
tempt  within  their  own  class  if  they  fell  be 
low  the  standard.  To  the  English  idea  of 
honor  belong  especially  the  virtues  of  cour 
age,  truth,  and  straightforwardness;  or  more 
generally  honor  consists  in  a  nice  sense  of 
personal  rights,  of  that  which  is  due  to  oth 
ers  and  owed  by  them  to  ourselves.  Is  it 
too  much  to  hope  that  a  noble  and  manly 
literature  in  the  future  may  raise  the  stand 
ard  of  character  through  the  whole  people, 
so  that  a  truckling,  deceitful,  dodging  poli 
tician  shall  be  thoroughly  despised  on  all 
sides,  and  be  obliged  to  renounce  his  po 
litical  hopes  on  account  of  his  meannesses  ? 
Is  it  too  much  to  hope  that  such  a  principle 
of  honor,  without  the  pride  that  often  goes 
with  it,  may  be  incorporated  into  our  law 
of  social  morality ;  and  that  religion,  which 
has  a  most  intimate  and  inseparable  con 
nection  with  genuine  morality,  may  take  up 
this  principle  also,  and  may  leaven  society 
with  it,  so  that  a  trick  or  a  lie  may  be  utter 
ly  abhorred  by  merchants,  by  politicians,  by 
young  men  entering  into  life,  by  all  who 


can  corrupt  others  or  be  corrupted  them 
selves  ?  O  for  more  men  in  public  life 
with  the  character  of  him  of  whom  the  poet 
speaks : 

"  Who  never  sold  the  truth  to  serve  the  hour, 
Nor  paltered  with  Eternal  God  for  power ; 
Who  let  the  turbid  streams  of  rumor  flow 
Through  either  babbling  world  of  high  or  low; 
Who  never  spoke  against  a  foe !" 

And  even  if  this  sentiment  should  not  al 
ways  put  on  its  most  spiritual  and  ideal 
form,  if  reputation  rather  than  character 
and  reality  of  life  should  be  its  aim,  if  it 
should  occasionally  resort  to  that  barba 
rous,  revengeful,  and  unmeaning  practice 
of  dueling  which  has  now  happily  become 
almost  obsolete,  could  this  be  a  worse  evil 
than  that  truth  and  honesty  should  not  be 
brought  into  greater  respect  than  they  seem 
to  have  now  ? 

Of  course,  with  the  feeling  that  there  must 
be  a  higher  tone  of  character,  in  case  our 
politics  are  to  be  redeemed  from  their  deg 
radation,  must  be  united  the  removal  of 
those  demoralizing  influences  growing  out 
of  the  war,  of  which  we  have  already  spok 
en  at  length.  When  the  time  will  come  for 
this  reform  is  still  uncertain.  Such  is  the 
want  of  uprightness  at  present  in  making 
pledges  that  we  can  put  no  full  confidence, 
either  in  the  party  heretofore  dominant  or 
in  that  which  expects  soon  to  be  dominant, 
that  opinions  or  platforms  or  declarations  of 
Congress  and  of  law  in  regard  to  specie  pay 
ments  will  be  respected.  But  a  time  for  this 
must  come,  we  know,  first  or  last.  When 
that  time  comes,  and  when  the  race  diffi 
culties  shall  be  settled,  much  of  our  ground 
of  fear  for  the  future  will  be  removed.  The 
question  then  remaining,  which  can  not  be 
settled  now  with  entire  certainty,  because 
we  can  not  accurately  separate  temporary 
political  evils  from  permanent  ones,  is  no 
less  a  one  than  this,  Is  there  such  a  poison 
in  the  political  system  that  there  is  no  cure 
for  it  ?  Must  the  Union,  made  less  than  a 
hundred  years  ago,  go  to  pieces  or  run  into 
a  degenerate  form  of  polity  within  the  next 
hundred  years  ?  The  question  depends  upon 
the  general  good  sense  and  uprightness  of 
the  people,  whether,  if  evils  arise  that  can 
be  removed,  they  will  remove  them,  or,  if 
those  evils  are  owing  to  some  radical  cause, 
they  will  be  ready  for  a  radical  cure.  All 


278 


THE  EXPERIMENT  OF  THE  UNION,  WITH  ITS  PREPARATIONS. 


our  future,  then,  hangs  on  the  strength  of 
the  moral  and  religious  causes  at  work  or 
that  can  be  used  for  the  elevation  of  the 
American  character.  And  in  the  prospect 
there  is,  aside  from  religious  faith  and  hope, 
the  consoling  thought  that  the  great  mass  of 
the  people  is  not  corrupt ;  so  that,  as  a  good 
constitution  of  body  resists  and  overcomes 
disease,  so  a  sound  general  character  of  the 
nation  may  contain  in  itself  a  self-reforming 
power.  No  one,  we  think,  ought  to  doubt 
that  there  is  a  latent  force  that  can  resist 
political  evils  and  preserve  the  system  who 
thinks  what  was  endured  in  the  late  war, 
and  with  what  readiness  the  people  bore 
their  burdens.  We  are  more  afraid  of  the 


centres  of  wealth  than  we  are  of  the  scat 
tered  country  population,  of  the  temptation 
to  be  rich  than  of  the  middle  and  poorer 
class,  of  the  half-cultivated  and  self-indul 
gent  than  of  those  whose  advantages  for 
education  have  been  small,  of  morals  im 
ported  from  Europe  than  of  emigrants  from 
Europe.  Dangers  we  have  of  our  own,  to 
gether  with  some  of  those  that  stand  in 
the  path  of  older  communities,  and  seem  to 
threaten  the  very  existence  of  modern  so 
ciety.  But  we  have  hopes,  too,  of  our  own 
which  the  rest  of  the  world  does  not  share. 
God  grant  that  these  hopes  may  not  be 
mere  visions,  and  that  no  new  darkness 
may  cloud  our  future ! 


X. 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS. 


THE  conception  of  a  community  so  gen 
erally  educated  that  each  one  of  its 
members  should  know  and  fulfill  all  the  du 
ties  of  a  good  citizen,  should  obey  the  laws 
without  constraint,  and  practice  humanity, 
honesty,  and  propriety,  should  be  trained  to 
virtue,  and  cultivate  self-control,  is  one  that 
has  suggested  itself  to  most  eminent  legis 
lators  from  the  dawn  of  history,  and  is,  in 
deed,  so  engaging  a  notion  as  to  commend 
itself  to  every  intelligent  mind.  The  igno 
rant  must  be  governed  by  rude  violence ;  the 
cultivated  rule  themselves ;  and  the  fertile 
fancies  of  the  Greek  thinkers  were  early 
filled  with  projects  for  enforcing  a  univers 
al  education.  None  of  them,  however,  suc 
ceeded  except  perhaps  the  Spartan  legisla 
tor.1  The  idea  made  no  strong  impression 
upon  the  Romans.  It  was  adopted  by  the 
Israelites  and  the  early  Christians,  and  was 
almost  perfected  in  China.  The  Arabian 
caliphs  founded  a  school  in  every  village.2 
Charlemagne  and  Alfred  strove  to  teach  the 
savage  Germans  and  Saxons.  The  Papal 
Church  of  the  Middle  Ages  taught  in  its 
monasteries ;  and  the  private  schools  of  Eri- 
gena,  Gerbert,  Abelard,  Duns  Scotus,  and  a 
series  of  early  school-masters  saved  educa 
tion  from  sinking  into  monastic  dullness. 
But  the  true  parent  of  the  modern  system 
of  teaching  was  the  Reformation.  Luther 
urged  upon  Germany  the  necessity  of  gen 
eral  instruction,3  Calvin  filled  his  followers 
with  mental  activity,  and  it  was  in  the 
Protestant  states  of  Germany  that  the  gov- 


1  Plutarch,  Numa,  asserts  that  "the  fair  fabric  of 
justice"  raised  by  Numa  passed  away  rapidly  because 
it  was  not  founded  upon  education.  Education  was 
the  leading  principle  of  the  institutions  of  Zaleucus 
and  Pythagoras.  Plato  in  the  Republic,  Aristotle  in 
his  Politics,  enforce  the  same  conception. 

3  Renan,  Averroes,  chap,  i.,  describes  the  flourish 
ing  literary  condition  of  Spain  under  the  Arabs.  And 
Charlemagne  perhaps  emulated  the  free  schools  of 
Haroun-al-Raschid.  See  Eginhard,  Vita  Caroli  Imp., 
c.  33. 

3  Luther  said  if  he  were  not  a  preacher,  he  would  be 
a  teacher;  and  he  thought  the  latter  the  more  impor 
tant  office,  since,  he  lamented,  it  was  easier  to  form  a 
new  character  than  to  correct  one  already  depraved. 


ernments  first  assumed  the  task  of  educating 
all  the  people,  and  of  fulfilling  that  concep 
tion  of  the  duty  of  legislators  which  had 
dawned  upon  the  active  intellects  of  Greece. 
The  government  became  the  school-master, 
the  nation  a  community  of  pupils.  Prussia, 
Saxony,  and  several  of  the  lesser  states  have 
carried  on  the  theory  to  a  wide  limit.  No 
one  is  suffered  in  Prussia  to  go  without  an 
education.  In  many  districts  it  is  impossi 
ble  to  find  a  person  who  can  not  read  and 
write.  Yet  it  must  be  remembered  that  it 
is  only  since  the  beginning  of  the  present 
century  that  Prussia  has  made  its  chief  ad 
vance  in  education ;  that  it  was  after  the 
disasters  and  the  shame  of  the  Napoleonic 
invasion  that  the  king,  the  queen  Louisa, 
and  the  minister  Stein  renewed  the  public 
schools,  emulated  the  zeal  of  Pestalozzi  and 
Zeller,  and  forged  that  intellectual  weapon 
which  was  to  cleave  the  armor  of  their  tri 
umphant  foes,  for  it  is  allowed  that  the 
common  schools  and  their  teachers  have 
chiefly  produced  the  unity  and  progress  of 
the  German  race. 

The  idea  of  popular  instruction  was 
brought  to  the  New  World  by  our  ances 
tors  in  the  seventeenth  century,  and  has 
here  found  its  most  appropriate  home.  Pu 
ritan,  Hollander,  Huguenots,  and  Scots  or 
Scottish  -  Irish,  they  had  seen  that  most 
of  their  sufferings  and  persecutions  had 
sprung  from  ignorance  and  blind  fanati 
cism.  They  had  become  in  Europe  the 
most  intellectual  and  studious  of  its  peo 
ple,  and,  amidst  the  bleak  forests  of  New 
England  and  the  middle  colonies,  planted 
almost  at  their  first  landing  the  printing- 
press  and  the  school.  Knowledge  they 
thought  the  proper  cure  for  social  evils. 
It  was  the  school-master  and  the  school- 
house,  they  believed,  that  could  alone  save 
them  from  sinking  into  barbarism,  and  re 
vive  a  more  than  Attic  refinement  in  the 
dismal  wilderness.  Massachusetts  and  Con 
necticut  early  passed  laws  that  might  seem 
severe  even  to  our  present  conception  of  the 
duties  and  powers  of  the  State.  Every 


280 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS. 


father  of  a  family  was  obliged  under  a 
considerable  penalty  to  see  that  his  chil 
dren  were  taught  to  read  and  write,  and 
were  instructed  in  the  elements  of  morals 
and  religion.  The  provision  was  apparent 
ly  enforced,  and  it  is  possible  that  the  peo 
ple  of  New  England  in  the  seventeenth  cen 
tury  were  better  educated  than  those  of  any 
European  nation.  In  the  present  century 
Germany  has  outstripped  Massachusetts. 
But  the  honorable  race  is  still  to  be  run, 
and  it  may  be  hoped  that  the  next  and  all 
succeeding  centuries  will  witness  a  gener 
ous  strife  among  the  nations  which  can  do 
most  to  cultivate  the  popular  intellect.  As 
school-masters  alone  can  legislators  hope 
to  be  successful.  Mental  equality  is  the 
foundation  of  popular  sovereignty,  and  we 
must  conclude  with  the  Greek  philosopher 
that  no  political  institutions  can  be  made 
lasting  without  the  cement  of  a  common 
education. 

In  the  American  plan  of  education  the 
national  government  has  no  further  share 
than  to  give  liberally  from  its  public  domain 
to  the  State  or  Territorial  schools,  and  by 
its  Educational  Department  at  Washington 
to  collect  and  distribute  important  informa 
tion.1  Each  State  controls  its  schools  in  its 
own  way,  directs  the  course  of  education 
and  the  formation  of  the  school-districts, 
sometimes  prescribes  what  is  to  be  taught, 
provides  the  way  in  which  the  school  funds 
are  to  be  raised,  and  governs  by  general 
laws.  The  local  municipalities  levy  the 
school  taxes  and  elect  the  school  officers. 
These  officers  appoint  the  teachers  and  fix 
their  salaries,  build  school -houses,  govern 
and  support  the  schools.  Thus  the  people 
of  each  school -district  choose  their  own 
school  officers,  and  the  schools  are  wholly 
under  popular  rule — the  true  source  of  their 
rapid  growth  and  general  excellence. 

In  no  part  of  the  Union  has  education 
been  so  carefully  and  assiduously  cultivated 
as  in  New  England,  and  nowhere  have  its 
results  been  so  important  and  remarkable. 
Wealth,  industry,  and  good  order  have  fol 
lowed  in  its  train.  Massachusetts,  although 


1  Theory  of  Education,  Washington,  1874,  p.  10, 
etc.  The  generosity  of  the  general  government  to  the 
public  schools  has  never  wavered,  and  but  for  its  fore 
sight  and  liberality  they  could  never  have  spread  so 
rapidly  over  the  new  Territories. 


its  soil  is  sterile  and  its  climate  severe,  main 
tains  a  larger  population  in  proportion  to 
its  territory  than  any  other  State.  All  New 
England  is  prosperous  beyond  example ;  and 
it  has  ever  been  the  custom  of  its  chief 
statesmen  to  attribute  this  rapid  progress 
and  general  activity  to  the  common  schools. 
Of  the  early  New  England  teachers  Ezekiel 
Cheever,  almost  in  the  dawn  of  its  history, 
holds  a  conspicuous  place.  Cotton  Mather 
compliments  him  as  the  civilizer  of  his  coun 
try.  He  was  a  scholar,  learned,  accurate, 
judicious;  a  severe  and  unsparing  master, 
tall,  dignified,  and  stern.  He  taught  in  the 
middle  of  the  seventeenth  century  in  Con 
necticut,  and  was  afterward  transferred  to 
Boston,  where  he  died  at  ninety-four.  He 
was  the  founder  of  schools,  and  three  gen 
erations  of  intelligent  men  were  formed  by 
his  careful  hand.  He  gave  the  Latin  school 
at  Boston  its  early  excellence,  and  his  ardent 
labors  as  a  school-master  for  seventy  years 
justify  Cotton  Mather's  unstinted  praise. 
"Educated.brain,"  we  are  told,  "is  the  only 
commodity  in  which  Massachusetts  can  com 
pete  with  other  States,"  and  to  its  long  line 
of  eminent  school  -  masters  New  England 
owes  its  wealth  and  progress.  Yet  it  has 
only  been  by  a  slow  and  often  doubtful  toil 
that  in  its  natural  home  American  education 
has  attained  its  final  excellence.  The  wild 
new  land  before  the  Revolution  was  incapa 
ble  of  reaching  more  than  the  elements  of 
knowledge.  When  it  became  free,  its  emi 
nent  men  were  all  the  firmest  friends  of  ed 
ucation.  The  two  Adamses  and  their  asso 
ciates  in  all  the  New  England  States  felt 
that  their  labors  in  the  cause  of  freedom 
were  incomplete,  and  even  useless,  unless 
they  could  teach  all  the  people  the  duties 
of  good  citizens.  But  even  in  Massachusetts 
until  1834  the  common  schools  had  been 
comparatively  neglected,  their  means  of 
support  were  insufficient,  the  teachers  were 
often  incompetent,  the  school -houses  rude 
and  inconvenient.  But  in  New  England  the 
principle  had  always  been  admitted  that  it 
was  the  duty  of  the  State  to  educate  its 
children,  and  in  1834  a  fund  of  $1,000,000  was 
raised  in  Massachusetts  to  aid  the  towns  in 
their  educational  labors.  From  that  time  a 
steady  progress  has  been  observed  not  only 
in  Massachusetts,  but  through  all  New  En 
gland.  Gifted  and  laborious  educators  have 


NEW  ENGLAND  AND  NEW  YORK. 


281 


given  their  lives  to  the  perfection  of  the 
common  -  school  system.  Mann,  Barnard, 
and  their  able  coadjutors  have  raised  the 
New  England  States  to  a  high  rank  among 
the  communities  that  teach  the  people.  A 
normal  school  was  opened  in  1839  at  Lex 
ington  ;  Massachusetts  has  now  six.  Con 
necticut  and  Rhode  Island  have  made  equal 
progress.  Yet  it  was  only  a  few  years  ago 
that  Connecticut  still  demanded  rates,  and 
that  the  school-houses  of  Rhode  Island  were 
still  imperfect.1  In  some  districts  of  New 
England  poverty  and  the  thinness  of  the 
population  prevent  the  perfection  of  the 
system.  In  Madawaska,  Maine,  where  the 
currency  is  in  articles  of  trade,  and  the  brief 
summer  scarcely  supplies  the  people  with 
necessary  food,  they  are  aided  by  the  gener 
osity  of  their  fellow-citizens  and  are  wholly 
exempted  from  school  taxes. 

Massachusetts  expends  more  money  upon 
its  schools  than  any  other  State  in  propor 
tion  to  its  population.  Its  teachers  are  bet 
ter  paid,  its  school  buildings  generally  more 
complete,  and  its  people  more  carefully  in 
structed.  Of  292,481  persons  in  the  State 
between  the  ages  of  five  and  fifteen  in 
1873,  the  average  attendance  at  school  was 
210,248,  or  more  than  seventy  per  cent.3 
The  rate  of  attendance  constantly  increases, 
new  schools  are  founded  every  year,  new 
buildings  provided,  and  the  normal  schools 
and  colleges  send  out  annually  a  succession 
of  well-trained  teachers.  The  whole  popu 
lation  of  Massachusetts  is  probably  a  mill 
ion  and  a  half.  They  laid  out  last  year  in 
the  various  expenses  of  the  public  schools 
$6,180,848  64,  or  about  twenty-one  dollars 
for  each  person  of  school  age.  A  cheaper 
mode  of  education  could  in  no  way  be  de 
vised.  In  private  schools  the  cost  of  in 
structing  as  many  children  would  be  four 
or  five  fold,  and  the  public  schools  of  Mas 
sachusetts  are  already  better  than  any  pri 
vate  schools,  or  are  rapidly  becoming  so. 
But  even  in  Massachusetts  a  rigid  compul 
sory  law  is  plainly  necessary.  Its  unedu 
cated  population  give  rise  to  three-fourths 
of  its  crime,  and  an  influx  of  foreigners  has 

1  The  fine  engravings  of  new  school  buildings  that 
adorn  the  latest  educational  report  from  Connecticut 
are  worthy  of  general  study.  In  fact,  all  the  educa 
tional  reports  of  the  various  States  are  full  of  interest. 

3  Secretary's  Keport,  1873-74,  p.  113. 


already  filled  it  with  a  dangerous,  because 
uncultivated,  class.  Connecticut,  which 
has  recently  set  in  action  its  compulsory 
law,  is  probably  in  advance  of  any  other 
State  in  the  rate  of  attendance.1  It  has 
long  been  a  centre  of  manufactures  and  of 
inventive  progress.  Its  wealth  and  influ 
ence  increase  rapidly,  and  its  capitalists 
have  discovered  that  the  public  school  is 
the  sure  path  to  good  morals  and  order 
.among  those  who  labor.  Hence  they  en 
courage  education,  and  press  on  the  im 
provement  of  all  the  instruments  of  pub 
lic  teaching. 

In  New  York  the  growth  of  the  common- 
school  system  has  been  slow,  and  its  advan 
tages  only  reluctantly  admitted.  I  shall  re 
view  its  progress  briefly,  since  in  no  State 
has  the  struggle  for  victory  been  more  la 
borious  or  the  triumph  of  the  friends  of 
knowledge  more  complete.2  There  was 
always  a  desire  for  education  prevalent 
among  its  people,  even  when  they  were 
no  more  than  a  band  of  trappers  and 
traders,  and  an  accomplished  school-mas- 
tsr  was  one  of  the  earliest  importations 
from  the  shores  of  Holland.  The  free 
school  still  exists,  founded  by  the  Reform 
ed  Dutch  Church,  in  the  city  of  New  York, 
not  long  after  Boston  had  been  planted  on 
its  three  mountains.  The  Dutch  clergy 
man  usually  kept  a  school,  and  the  Dutch 
immigrants  were  probably  not  altogether 
illiterate.  But  in  the  opening  of  the  sev 
enteenth  century  the  idea  of  a  common  ed 
ucation  for  all  the  people  was  still  a  phan 
tasm  and  a  Utopian  vision  ;  it  was  scarcely 
thought  possible,  or  even  desirable,  to  teach 
the  laboring  classes  or  to  raise  a  whole  na 
tion  to  an  equality  of  knowledge.  Through 
the  colonial  period,  and  for  a  long  time  aft- 
ter  the  Revolution,  the  people  of  New  York 
possessed  no  means  of  education  except  a 
village  school  and  an  incompetent  teach- 


1  Connecticut  attributes  its  inventive  genius  to  the 
public  schools  established  by  its  "fathers."    See  Re 
port  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  (Eaton),  1872, 
p.  47,  and  Connecticut  Report  of  Board  of  Education, 
1874.    Of  the  effect  of  the  compulsory  law,  says  one 
school  visitor,  "  In  one  of  the  largest  villages  I  found 
the  increase"  (in  attendance)  "was  sixty-seven  per 
cent." 

2  Randall,  Hist.  Common   Schools  of  New  York. 
Boese,  Hist.  School  System  of  the  City  of  New  York. 
New  York  State  Reports.    New  York  City  Reports. 


282 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGKESS. 


er,  a  college  and  a  few  classical  seminaries, 
and  its  chief  political  leaders,  as  the  State 
increased  rapidly  in  wealth  and  population 
from  1787  to  the  close  of  the  century,  felt 
the  pressing  want  of  some  method  of  gen 
eral  instruction. 

George  Clinton,  Governor  of  New  York  in 
1795,  suggested  and  laid  the  foundation  of 
its  common  schools.  He  was  one  of  those 
discreet  and  rational  intellects  that  had 
sustained  his  country  through  the  Revo 
lution  with  unchanging  firmness,  and  had 
learned  amidst  its  perils  the  value  of  men 
tal  progress.  Like  Washington,  Jefferson, 
or  Adams,  he  had  discovered  that  an  igno 
rant  people  could  not  be  a  free  one ;  that 
the  education  of  the  wealthy  class  alone 
was  fatal  to  human  equality ;  and  in  his 
message  to  the  Legislature  of  1795,  Clinton 
recommended  to  the  people  "  the  establish 
ment  of  common  schools  throughout  the 
State."  It  was  a  period  when  such  a  sug 
gestion  was  so  new  and  so  surprising  as  to 
have  little  chance  of  general  approval,  and 
the  conception  of  a  State  expending  its 
revenues  in  teaching  was  scarcely  heard 
of  out  of  Saxony  and  Prussia.  New  En 
gland  had  in  part  developed  the  idea,  but 
to  the  people  of  New  York  it  was  altogether 
novel.  The  State  was  poor,  and  still  in  its 
feeble  infancy;  the  savages  still  occupied  a 
large  part  of  its  domain  west  of  Albany ;  its 
chief  city  was  yet  a  small  though  rapidly 
advancing  town  ;  no  great  canal  had  joined 
the  Hudson  to  the  lakes,  and  the  wealth  of 
a  continent  had  not  yet  found  its  natural 
outlet  to  the  sea.  But  Clinton's  suggestion 
was  at  once  adopted  by  the  intelligent  Leg 
islature,  and  a  sum  of  $50,000  was  set  aside 
to  be  divided  among  the  towns  and  coun 
ties  in  proportion  to  the  number  of  their 
electors,  and  each  county  was  required  to 
raise  by  taxation  a  sum  of  money  from  ev 
ery  town  equal  to  one-half  the  amount  al 
lowed  by  the  State.  Such  was  the  founda 
tion  of  the  common-school  system,  and  for 
a  time  it  flourished  with  singular  success. 
In  1798,  in  sixteen  of  the  twenty -three 
counties,  1352  schools  were  already  opened, 
and  59,660  children  had  received  in  them  at 
least  some  share  of  the  public  tuition.  But 
the  limit  of  the  appropriation  expired  in 
1800,  the  schools  were  suffered  to  languish, 
and  the  system  was  practically  abandoned. 


Soon,  however,  two  remarkable  men  took 
up  the  cause  of  education,  and  forced  it 
upon  the  attention  of  the  people.  Jede 
diah  Peck,  of  Otsego,  a  native  of  Connecti 
cut,  and  Adam  Comstock,  of  Saratoga,  de 
serve  to  be  remembered  among  the  chief 
benefactors  of  New  York.  Peck  was  a 
plain  uneducated  farmer,  a  religious  en 
thusiast,  who  exhorted  and  prayed  with 
the  families  he  visited ;  was  modest,  meek, 
diminutive  in  size,  and  almost  repulsive  in 
appearance ;  yet  his  active  labors  in  the 
cause  of  knowledge  show  that  he  had  not 
only  cultivated  himself,  but  was  incessant 
ly  teaching  others.  Comstock,  not  more 
highly  educated,  aided  him  with  equal 
zeal.  They  asserted  every  where  that  free 
dom,  morality,  and  religion  could  only  be 
supported  by  general  intelligence.  They 
pressed  their  theme  upon  the  Legislature 
and  the  people.  Peck  was  anxious  that  a 
school  fund  should  be  provided,  like  that 
of  his  native  State,  Connecticut,  and  he 
found  a  ready  ally  in  Governor  Clinton, 
who  in  1802  again  urged  upon  the  Legis 
lature  the  renewal  of  the  common  schools. 
But  the  people  were  no  longer  willing  to  be 
taxed  for  the  diffusion  of  knowledge.  Po 
litical  troubles  were  impending,  the  State 
was  poor,  and  all  that  the  friends  of  educa 
tion  could  obtain  was  a  grant  of  the  pro 
ceeds  of  certain  lotteries,  known  as  "  Liter 
ature  Lotteries,"  or  the  sales  of  the  State 
lands,  and  three  thousand  shares  of  the 
capital  of  the  Merchants'  Bank  of  the  city 
of  New  York,  to  found  the  nucleus  of  the 
common-school  fund.  Twice  Mr.  Peck's  bill 
to  authorize  the  towns  to  tax  themselves 
for  school  purposes  failed  in  the  Legisla 
ture.  But  a  strong  impulse  toward  gener 
al  education  had  now  been  awakened  in 
England  by  the  success  of  the  Laucaste- 
rian  system :  the  Dissenters,  and  chiefly 
the  Methodists,  had  lent  their  influence  to 
a  new  effort  to  teach  the  poorer  classes,  and 
the  movement  was  already  felt  in  the  New 
World.  The  city  of  New  York  in  1805 
founded  its  free -school  society,  and  the 
Mayor,  De  Witt  Clinton,  with  many  other 
patriotic  citizens,  gave  his  aid  to  the  cause 
of  the  popular  education  with  valuable  as 
siduity.  The  Lancasterian  system  was  in 
troduced,  and  the  free  schools  made  consid 
erable  progress.  De  Witt  Clinton,  whose 


ESTABLISHMENT  OF  THE  COMMON-SCHOOL  SYSTEM  IN  NEW  YORK.      283 


sincere  zeal  for  science,  art,  literature,  and 
freedom  has  affected  the  prosperity  of  his 
native  State  more,  perhaps,  than  any  other 
cause,  and  who  lived  to  prepare  and  per 
fect  a  great  engineering  work,  which  for 
that  early  period  seems  almost  incredible, 
must  also  be  ranked  among  the  most  emi 
nent  of  the  friends  of  the  common  schools. 
He  was  never  weary  of  urging  forward 
mental  progress,  and  filling  the  minds  of 
his  contemporaries  with  the  conception  of 
a  complete  form  of  national  education. 

Peck,  Comstock,  and  Clinton  at  last,  aft 
er  a  brave  contest  against  ignorance,  were 
successful,  and  in  1812  a  bill  passed  the 
Legislature  of  New  York  founding  anew  a 
common-school  system  that  was  to  remain 
in  action  until  1842.  A  sum  was  given  to 
every  town  for  school  purposes.  The  town 
was  obliged  to  raise  an  equal  amount  by 
taxation.  No  district  was  to  be  left  with 
out  its  school-house,  and  no  village  without 
its  teacher.  The  commissioners  recom 
mended  the  plan  to  the  people  by  point 
ing  to  the  necessary  connection  between 
knowledge  and  virtue,  and  by  invoking  the 
sacred  name  and  authority  of  Washington. 
It  was,  in  fact,  in  a  period  of  singular  gloom 
and  public  danger  that  the  machinery  of 
public  education  was  first  set  in  motion  in 
New  York.  A  barbarous  war  was  raging 
on  the  frontier  and  over  the  seas ;  English 
cruisers  swept  the  commerce  of  the  republic 
from  the  ocean,  and  American  privateers  re 
taliated  with  more  than  common  success. 
Poverty  once  more  pressed  upon  the  people. 
Yet  in  periods  of  public  danger  men  see 
more  clearly  their  true  interests,  and  amidst 
the  perils  of  war  our  ancestors  founded  the 
fairest  of  the  fabrics  of  peace.  Peck,  Clin 
ton,  Comstock,  were  sustained  by  their  fel 
low-citizens,  and  in  1813  Gideon  Hawley 
became  the  superintendent  of  the  common 
schools  of  New  York.  He  was  a  young  law 
yer,  active,  intelligent,  and  cultivated  in 
letters  ;  and  for  eight  years  his  energy  and 
zeal  kept  alive  the  onward  progress  of  edu 
cation.  Peace  had  returned;  the  vast  re 
sources  of  the  State  were  slowly  developed ; 
the  savages  were  removed  from  the  interior 
counties;  the  famous  wheat  fields  of  the 
Mohawk  and  the  Genesee  rose  into  won 
derful  productiveness ;  a  vast  system  of 
internal  improvements  was  projected  by 


Clinton  that  was  to  prove  the  source  of 
boundless  progress  to  the  nation  as  well  as 
the  State.  Yet  the  labors  of  the  friends  of 
education  will  probably  outlive  the  mate 
rial  achievements  of  this  busy  period.  And 
it  is  as  educators  that  Hawley,  Peck,  and 
Clinton  may  be  remembered  in  distant  ages 
as  the  founders  of  the  prosperity  of  New 
York. 

The  common  schools  advanced  in  general 
favor  amidst  much  opposition.  Hawley's 
vigorous  hand  kept  them  from  falling  into 
decay,  as  they  had  fallen  in  1800.  In  1819 
there  were  already  nearly  6000  school-dis 
tricts,  and  it  was  estimated  that  almost 
250,000  children  had  been  placed  upon  their 
lists.  In  1820,  of  302,703  children  of  the 
proper  age,  271,877  were  taught  in  the 
schools.  The  number  was  still  greater  in 
1821.  Yet  here  the  valuable  labors  of  Gid 
eon  Hawley  came  to  an  end ;  a  political  op 
position  removed  him  from  office,  a  person 
of  inferior  talents  was  put  in  his  place,  and 
thus  New  York  repaid  the  services  of  its 
great  benefactor  by  a  cruel  ingratitude. 
But  the  immense  fabric  which  he  had 
helped  to  rear  could  not  now  be  torn 
down,  and  De  Witt  Clinton,  the  Governor 
of  the  State,  resolutely  pressed  on  the  cause 
of  education.  The  control  of  the  schools 
was  transferred  to  the  Secretary  of  State, 
Yates,  an  intelligent  and  able  man.  The 
number  of  districts  in  1822  was  7051,  and 
351,173,  out  of  357,000  children,  had  been 
taught  during  the  year  in  the  public  schools. 
Joseph  Lancaster  visited  the  United  States 
in  1818,  and  had  been  received  by  De  Witt 
Clinton  with  signal  interest,  and  his  meth 
od  of  teaching  was  at  that  time  the  popular 
one  ;  his  presence  at  least  gave  new  cour 
age  to  the  friends  of  knowledge,  and  the 
genius  of  Pestalozzi  and  the  example  of 
European  educators  were  felt  in  New  York. 
It  was  said  that  its  education  was  even 
more  general  than  that  of  Connecticut, 
which  had  a  larger  school  fund,  and  where 
the  common-school  system  had  been  longer 
in  use. 

Yet  the  idea  of  a  free  and  public  educa 
tion  for  all  classes  of  the  people,  a  common 
source  for  all  of  equality  and  union,  had  not 
yet  been  openly  avowed,  and  the  division 
of  castes  was  still  maintained  in  the  public 
schools.  Those  children  whose  parents  were 


•2H4 


EDUCATIONAL  PEOGRESS. 


too  poor  to  pay  the  rates  were  called  charity 
scholars ;  in  some  districts  they  seem  not  to 
have  been  admitted  at  all  to  the  schools. 
The  right  of  every  child  to  a  free  and  full 
education  by  the  community  was  seldom  al 
lowed.  It  may  well  be  supposed,  too,  that 
the  instruments  of  education  were  at  this 
early  period  in  its  course  (1822)  very  imper 
fect  and  rude.  The  school-houses  were  oft 
en  bare  log-huts  in  the  country,  or  narrow 
and  pestilential  rooms  in  the  cities  and 
towns  ;  the  teachers  were  uncultivated  and 
incompetent ;  the  school-books  worthless  and 
worn ;  the  whole  fabric  of  education  a  vast 
misshapen  pile  that  needed  the  skill  of  a 
master-architect  to  found  it  securely.  Such 
a  man  was  De  Witt  Clinton.  To  no  single 
intellect  is  New  York  so  widely  indebted 
for  its  progress,  vigor,  and  refinement ;  and 
in  every  part  of  his  native  State  some  trace 
of  Clinton's  energy  and  foresight  may  be 
found.  He  had  just  completed  the  great 
canal  which  had  tested  for  so  many  years 
his  courage  and  endurance  amidst  ceaseless 
opposition  and  unsparing  assaults;  he  had 
seen  the  waters  of  Lake  Erie  mingle  with 
the  Hudson ;  he  had  been  every  where  the 
founder  of  libraries,  colleges,  academies  of 
design,  and  centres  of  art;  and  now  he  had 
been  chosen  Governor  by  a  spontaneous  im 
pulse  of  a  grateful  people.  One  of  his  latest 
labors  was  to  perfect  the  public  schools. 
He  urged  (1826)  the  founding  of  schools  for 
teachers,  the  extension  of  the  course  of 
study,  the  creation  of  school  libraries,  the 
increase  of  teachers'  salaries,  careful  inspec 
tion,  the  higher  education  of  women.  None 
of  those  improvements  that  have  since  been 
adopted  seem  to  have  escaped  his  clear 
perception  ;  and  he  founded  all  his  projects 
upon  a  single  principle.  "  I  consider,"  he 
said,  "the  system  of  our  common  schools  the 
palladium  of  our  freedom." 

Not  long  after,  Clinton  died  suddenly.  But 
his  ideas  live  among  us,  and  his  successors 
have  seldom  shown  any  indifference  to  the 
cause  of  popular  education.  The  states 
men  of  all  parties  have  united  in  advancing 
the  popular  intellect.  Spencer,  Marcy,  Dix, 
Flagg,  aided  in  the  organization  of  that  im 
mense  scheme  of  public  instruction  which 
has  ruled  the  fortunes  of  the  State,  and  suc 
cessfully  resisted  the  assaults  of  various 
foes.  In  1832  there  Avere  9690  school-dis 


tricts,  and  514,475  children  had  been  taught 
in  the  public  schools.  Only  about  ten  thou 
sand  of  the  school  age  seem  to  have  lost  the 
advantages  of  education.  But  in  the  city 
of  New  York  the  extraordinary  growth  of 
the  foreign  population  now  began  to  lead 
to  a  struggle  that  was  to  rise  into  singular 
importance.  For  many  years  Ireland  had 
poured  out  its  excess  of  population  upon 
New  York,  and  the  Irish  immigrants  had 
at  first  seemed  willing  and  even  eager  to 
become  thoroughly  American  and  republic 
an.  They  sent  their  children  to  the  public 
schools,  and  were  liberal  and  patriotic  in 
politics.  But  unhappily  a  less  discreet  pol 
icy  was  advocated  by  their  priests,  who 
founded  a  number  of  private  schools,  and 
required  that  they  should  be  supported  by 
a  donation  from  the  public  funds.  The 
Irish  population  do  not  seem  to  have  fol 
lowed  their  guidance  implicitly,  and  have 
always  profited  largely  from  the  system  of 
common  schools.  But  Bishop  Hughes  urged 
on  the  sectarian  contest  with  unyielding 
rigor,  his  priests  and  many  of  his  people 
followed  him,  and  already  in  1840  that  vio 
lent  struggle  had  begun  which  seems  fated 
to  extend  throughout  the  whole  Union  wher 
ever  the  indiscreet  counsels  of  the  papacy 
can  drive  its  Church  into  an  opposition  to 
the  civil  administration. 

The  question  was  whether  the  public 
schools  should  be  converted  into  a  series 
of  sectarian  institutions,  whether  each  sect 
should  have  its  own  schools,  whether  the 
Bible  should  at  least  be  excluded  from  the 
public  teaching,  or  whether  the  common 
schools  should  resemble  the  government  un 
der  which  they  had  grown  up,  and  take  no 
tice  of  no  difference  of  religious  or  secular 
opinion.  In  the  one  case  they  must  be  re 
modeled  upon  the  plan  pursued  in  Europe ; 
in  the  other,  they  must  remain  wholly  Amer- 
ican.  In  one,  separate  churches  or  sects 
would  be  recognized  and  maintained  by 
our  government ;  and  in  the  other,  the  sects 
would  be  held  in  complete  obedience  to  the 
civil  law.  The  question  was  debated  with 
earnestness.  A  single  sect  alone  demanded 
a  change  in  the  principle  of  free  education, 
and  even  of  that  one  many  of  the  most  in 
telligent  members  were  satisfied  with  the 
equity  and  liberality  of  the  American  sys 
tem,  and  the  common  schools  have  retained 


SUCCESS  OF  THE  COMMON-SCHOOL  SYSTEM. 


285 


their  unsectarian  character  in  spite  of  the 
ceaseless  and  often  dangerous  assaults  of 
their  foes.  Still  more  important  advances 
were  now  made  in  the  material  and  nature 
of  public  instruction.  From  1842  the  BJB- 
tem  rose  rapidly  to  a  completeness  which 
had  scarcely  been  looked  for.  The  culti 
vated  zeal  of  the  Hon.  Horace  Mann,  from 
Massachusetts,  lent  new  ideas  and  a  fresh 
impulse  to  education  in  New  York;  and  at 
a  distinguished  convention  of  superintend 
ents  and  others,  held  at  Utica  in  1842,  the 
various  topics  of  the  important  theme  were 
discussed  with  fresh  animation.  It  was 
shown  from  recent  statistics  that  crime  de 
creased  with  the  advance  of  education,  and 
that  the  more  perfect  the  schools,  the  less 
costly  would  be  the  prisons  and  the  alms- 
houses.  It  was  shown  that  knowledge 
should  be  free  to  all  the  people,  and  that 
all  the  people  should,  if  possible,  be  educa 
ted  in  the  same  schools.  The  defects  of  the 
common  schools  were  pointed  out — their 
imperfect  buildings,  uncultivated  teachers, 
worthless  books.  Emerson,  from  Massachu 
setts,  told  of  the  value  of  the  normal  school 
which  had  been  established  in  his  own  State, 
and  showed  that  the  teacher  should  be  the 
highest  and  most  cultivated  of  his  con 
temporaries.  Horace  Mann  enlarged  with 
all  the  eloquence  of  his  intellect  upon  the 
grandeur  of  the  work  in  which  they  were 
engaged.  And  from  the  convention  of  1842 
education  began  to  assume  a  more  scientific 
form  among  us  and  to  penetrate  more  deep 
ly  among  the  people. 

A  normal  school  was  now  (1844)  estab 
lished  at  Albany,  the  first  of  those  excellent 
institutions  Avhich  have  raised  our  public 
teachers  to  a  high  standard,  and  which  seem 
capable  of  being  made  the  source  of  a  great 
moral  advance.  The  aim  of  the  normal 
school  is  to  produce  a  perfect  teacher,  to 
soften  the  manners,  refine  the  taste,  and  cul 
tivate  the  faculties  of  those  intrusted  with 
the  pare  of  children.  Time  has  proved  their 
usefulness,  and  may  raise  them  to  a  still 
higher  excellence.  It  is  not  impossible  that 
our  normal  schools  may  at  last  educate  our 
professors,  and  produce  our  most  active  men 
of  letters.  District  libraries  began  now  to 
be  improved  and  widely  extended,  teachers' 
institutes  were  formed,  the  fabric  of  educa 
tion  was  enlarged  and  amended;  but  the 


system  was  still  in  its  infancy,  and  the  prin 
ciple  of  a  common  education  provided  by  the 
state,  and  possibly  enforced  by  it,  had  not  yet 
become  familiar  to  the  people.  The  school- 
houses  were  still,  in  many  districts,  painful 
ly  rude ;  of  7000  only  2000  had  more  than 
one  apartment,  and  in  some  counties  they 
were  wholly  unfit  for  scholastic  purposes. 
Instead  of  being  the  finest  and  most  impos 
ing  building  in  every  town  and  village,  the 
school-house  was  often  one  of  the  rudest 
and  least  convenient.  In  many  counties 
the  school  rates  were  still  exacted,  and  par 
ents  refused  to  send  their  children  to  schools 
where  they  were  looked  down  upon  by  their 
wealthier  neighbors.  The  principle  of  free 
education  had  not  yet  been  admitted  in  New 
York;  and  when  the  friends  of  education 
pressed  upon  the  State  Convention  of  1845 
the  duty  of  the  Legislature  to  provide  for 
the  instruction  of  the  community  by  a  gen 
eral  taxation,  the  motion  was  defeated,  and 
the  system  of  charity  schools  was  maintain 
ed  for  another  twenty  years.  It  was  not 
until  the  rebellion  and  the  disasters  of  the 
civil  war  had  forced  men  to  see  more  clearly 
their  own  interests  that  an  efficient  and 
universal  system  of  common  schools  \vas 
extended  over  the  State. 

For  fifty  years  the  idea  of  public  educa 
tion  had  been  slowly  unfolding  itself  in  New 
York.  The  finest  intellects  of  the  State  had 
been  employed  upon  its  development ;  from 
Peck  and  Clinton  to  Dix,  Spencer,  Seward, 
Young,  Flagg,  Greeley,  Morgan,  an  endless 
array  of  accomplished  citizens  had  joined  in 
the  school  conventions,  and  lent  aid  to  the 
growth  of  the  intellect.  Already  in  1845 
the  Hon. Horace  Mann  could  say,  "The  great 
State  of  New  York,  by  means  of  her  county 
superintendents,  State  Normal  School,  and 
otherwise,  is  carrying  forward  the  work  of 
public  education  more  rapidly  than  any  oth 
er  State  in  the  Union  or  any  other  country 
in  the  world."  And  the  Hon.  Henry  Bar 
nard,  of  Connecticut,  thought  its  system  su 
perior  in  many  particulars  to  any  other  he 
knew  of.  But  the  county  superintendents 
were  abolished  in  1847,  and  the  common 
schools  began  at  once  to  decline.  Their 
enemies  were  active,  and  a  violent  struggle 
arose  upon  the  question  of  free  education. 
A  free -school  act  was  passed  in  1849,  yet 
still  clogged  by  rate  bills  and  assessments. 


286 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS. 


In  many  instances  in  the  country  wealthy 
property  owners  refused  to  be  taxed  for  ed 
ucation.  The  free  schools  were  assailed  with 
new  energy  by  their  opponents,  and  the  Ro 
man  Catholic  editors  demanded  the  repeal 
of  the  free-school  law.  They  required  the 
schools  "to  be  subject  to  the  clergy;"  oth 
erwise,  said  their  leading  paper,  they  will 
be  "  a  source  of  demoralization  and  public 
nuisances."  A  large  party  joined  the  oppo 
sition  to  the  schools.  But  the  people  rose 
in  their  defense.  Fish,  Hunt,  Phelps,Wool, 
Nott,  Greeley,  and  a  throng  of  able  men  led 
the  party  of  education.  The  elections  of 
1850  decided  the  question  in  their  favor, 
and  in  1851  the  principle  that  the  State 
must  educate  all  its  children  was  sanction 
ed  in  theory  by  the  popular  vote. 

Meantime — for  I  must  pass  rapidly  over 
the  history  of  this  great  struggle  of  the  in 
tellect —  within  the  next  ten  years  the 
school  -  houses  grew  into  convenient  and 
costly  buildings,  supplied  with  all  the  re 
quirements  of  careful  tuition.  The  normal 
school  gave  out  a  succession  of  intelligent 
teachers.  In  1861  there  were  11,400  school- 
districts  and  872,854  pupils ;  but  it  was  no 
ticed  that  the  school  libraries  were  neglect 
ed,  and  the  books  often  wasted  and  destroy 
ed.  One  normal  school  was  not  sufficient  to 
supply  with  teachers  ten  thousand  schools, 
and  the  odious  rates  were  still  exacted.  The 
war  came,  and  the  graduates  of  the  common 
schools  were  found  among  the  foremost  de 
fenders  of  the  Union ;  and  amidst  the  ter 
rors  of  a  civil  convulsion,  roused  by  heroic 
ideas,  the  people  of  the  State  in  1862  threw 
off  forever  all  the  lingering  prejudices  of  the 
past,  and  declared  education  free  to  all  as  the 
light  of  heaven.  The  common-school  idea 
was  adopted  in  all  its  limitless  expansion, 
and  the  State  proclaimed  itself  the  mental 
parent  of  all  its  children.  The  people  ad 
mitted  that  they  had  no  higher  duty  than 
to  see  that  no  one  should  live  among  them 
without  an  education ;  but  it  was  some  time 
before  they  could  learn  that  ignorance  was 
a  crime  against  society.  From  the  declara 
tion  of  the  principle  of  universal  public  in 
struction  the  schools  of  New  York  have  flour 
ished  in  the  midst  of  a  thousand  foes.  The 
great  influx  of  uneducated  foreigners  has 
exposed  them  to  a  mass  of  hostile  voters. 
They  have  been  assailed  by  secular  and  cler 


ical  influences,  and  have  sometimes  suffered 
from  indifference  and  neglect.  But  the  aboli 
tion  of  the  rates  and  the  improvement  of  the 
system  have  drawn  in  a  growing  throng  of 
pupils,  and  already  in  1869, 1,161,155  children 
had  been  taught  in  the  normal  schools,  acad 
emies,  colleges,  and  private  schools  of  the 
State,  and,  what  was  somewhat  dishearten 
ing  to  the  friends  of  education,  300,000  be 
tween  the  ages  of  five  and  twenty-one  had 
attended  no  school  at  all.  An  ominous  cloud 
of  ignorance  had  gathered  under  the  very 
shadow  of  the  common  schools. 

A  compulsory  law,  passed  by  the  Legisla 
ture  of  1874,  has  completed,  at  least  in  the 
ory,  the  public-school  system  of  New  York ; 
and  it  is  probable  that  succeeding  genera 
tions  will  see  nearly  all  their  children  gath 
ered  in  the  school-house  and  the  academy. 
Nor  does  any  where  a  more  effective  and 
imposing  machinery  for  general  education 
exist,  nor  does  any  community  expend  its 
money  more  bountifully  upon  the  elevation 
of  the  popular  intellect.  New  York  gives 
$11,000,000  annually  to  public  instruction. 
A  free  college  in  the  city  of  New  York  is 
filled  with  the  best  students  of  the  public 
schools.  A  fine  normal  school  for  female 
teachers  adorns  the  metropolis ;  and  in  ev 
ery  part  of  the  State  the  normal  colleges 
produce  every  year  a  great  number  of  ac 
complished  instructors.  The  school-houses 
in  the  cities  are  often  palaces  of  education, 
filled  with  the  latest  improvements  in  the  art 
of  teaching.  The  teachers'  salaries  are  slow 
ly  advancing ;  the  reputation  of  the  profes 
sion  rises  with  the  higher  cultivation  of  its 
members.  Yet  it  must  still  be  allowed  that 
some  errors  have  crept  into  the  system,  and 
possibly  the  whole  theory  of  education  may 
yet  be  in  its  infancy.  The  school-houses  in 
the  country  districts  are  too  often  imper 
fect,  unadorned,  and  rude.  They  should  al 
ways  be  centres  of  taste,  comfort,  and  con 
venience.  In  the  city  schools  too  many 
branches  of  knowledge  are  taught  at  once. 
It  would  be  wiser  to  perfect  each  scholar  in 
the  simpler  elements.  If  religion  can  not 
be  taught  in  the  schools,  the  moral  nature 
should  be  especially  instructed,  and  no  pupil 
should  leave  the  public  care  without  having 
acquired  the  conception  of  kindness,  gentle 
ness,  modesty,  as  well  as  mental  power.  In 
this  the  example  of  the  teacher  is  the  chief 


EDUCATION  IN  THE  SOUTH. 


287 


guide,  and  the  highest  literary  culture  and 
the  purest  characters  should  alone  be  suf 
fered  to  form  the  dispositions  of  the  young. 
Republican  simplicity  should  be  inculcated 
from  the  cradle — a  contempt  for  European 
follies  and  the  glitter  and  display  of  for 
eign  barbarism.  It  may  be  hoped,  too,  that, 
through  special  schools,  trades,  industry, 
and  all  branches  of  labor  will  form  at  last 
a  part  of  the  education  of  every  American. 

Pennsylvania,  like  New  York,  has  passed 
through  a  long  struggle  to  reach  its  present 
educational  advantages.  It  has  also  adopt 
ed  the  common-school  system  in  its  widest 
limit.1  Its  school  property  is  of  great  value ; 
it  expends  more  than  $8,000,000  annually 
upon  its  schools;  it  has  no  general  school 
fund,  and  derives  all  its  school  moneys  from 
taxation.  It  has  seven  State  normal  schools 
and  a  great  number  of  excellent  technical 
schools  and  private  colleges.  This  wonder 
ful  community,  enriched  by  the  boundless 
gifts  of  nature,  is  also  one  of  the  most  wide 
ly  educated.  The  spirit  of  Franklin  has 
ever  filled  it  with  mental  activity.  New 
Jersey  is  already  emulating  Pennsylvania 
and  New  York.  Its  common  schools  are 
fast  rising  in  excellence.  The  four  Middle 
States  (for  even  Delaware  has  shown  marks 
of  progress)  have  already  joined  in  a  gener 
ous  enthusiasm  for  knowledge. 

But  if  we  turn  to  the  Southern  portion 
of  the  Union,  the  prospect  is  less  encoura 
ging.  It  is  not  that  the  first  settlers  of  the 
South  were  less  intelligent  or  cultivated 
than  those  of  the  North.  Some  of  them 
were  Huguenots,  learned,  thoughtful,  heroic 
in  their  devotion  to  their  faith ;  some  were 
Scottish -Irish;  some  Quakers,  or  Friends. 
The  most  intellectual  races  of  Europe  were 
represented  on  our  Southern  coasts.  And 
after  the  Revolution,  Washington,  Jefferson, 
Henry,  Lowndes,  Gadsden,  and  Rutledge 
would  have  held  it  their  noblest  mission  to 
spread  knowledge  among  the  people.  But 
slavery  intervened.  The  great  designs  of 
Jefferson  and  Gadsden  were  never  to  be  per 
fected.  With  slavery  a  notion  grew  up  that 
knowledge  was  only  the  privilege  of  the 
ruling  class,  and  that  tradesmen,  mechanics, 

1  Pennsylvania  Report,  1873,  p.  12.  Only  one  dis 
trict,  a  small  one,  was  without  its  common  schools  in  a 
population  of  4,000,000.  Pennsylvania  has  adopted  the 
system  of  free  education  in  its  widest  extent 


and  slaves  were  better  left  in  ignorance. 
While  the  Northern  States  seized  upon  the 
mighty  engine  of  education  to  win  ease  and 
industrial  progress,  the  Southern  States  suf 
fered  their  free  schools  to  perish,  and  even 
for  their  higher  education  looked  to  the 
North  or  to  Europe.  The  rebellion  threw 
open  the  South  to  a  new  intellectual  move 
ment  ;  a  system  of  common  schools  has  been 
introduced  into  every  Southern  State  ;  the 
colored  and  even  the  white  laborers  of  the 
South  are  said  to  be  anxious  to  make  use  of 
this  opportunity  to  raise  themselves  by  an 
intelligent  education  to  the  condition  of 
men.  Yet  we  are  told  by  the  report  of  the 
Commissioner  of  Education  that  the  com 
mon  schools  are  not  favored  by  an  influen 
tial  class  of  the  people.  They  seem  to  lan 
guish  in  most  of  the  Southern  States.1  The 
condition  of  the  Southern  people  is  one  of 
extreme  ignorance.  Of  the  5,643,534  persons 
in  the  Union  wholly  "illiterate,"  4,117,589 
are  found  in  the  Southern  States.  Of  course 
these  "  illiterates"  are  nearly  all  native  born. 
The  subject  is  one  that  may  well  employ 
all  the  intelligence  and  observation  of  the 
South,  for  it  is  education  alone  that  can  give 
good  order  and  prosperity  to  its  people. 
Virginia,  Tennessee,  and  Kentucky  are  al 
ready  laboring  to  provide  a  general  and  ef 
fective  system  of  instruction.  It  is  certain 
that  the  extension  of  common  schools  over 
the  whole  South  and  a  general  education 
of  its  people  would  double  the  value  of  its 
lauds,  and  foster  more  than  any  thing  else 
foreign  immigration. 

But  if  the  common-school  system  has  been 
forced  to  make  its  way  slowly  against  the 
opposition  of  caste  and  sectarianism  in  the 
North  and  East,  and  was  nearly  banished 
from  the  South  by  the  long  prevalence  of 
slavery,  in  the  new  States  and  Territories 
of  the  West  and  the  Pacific  coast  it  has 
won  an  almost  immediate  popularity.3  Here 
among  the  settlers  of  the  wilderness  its 
value  was  at  once  perceived.  The  school- 

1  So  in  Georgia  they  were  closed  in  1872.    Eeport  of 
the  Commissioner  of  Education  (Eaton),  1873,  p.  69. 
And  in  Texas  in  1873  they  were  "  abolished,"  and  have 
scarcely  been  re-established. 

2  Yet  even  in  the  Western  States  the  labors  of  a 
series  of  patriotic  men  alone  have  saved  the  common 
school  and  university  funds,  and  made  education  free. 
SeeTenbrook,  American  State  Universities,  p.  141,  and 
p.  118-120. 


288 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS. 


house,  the  church,  the  newspaper,  tele 
graph,  and  railway  have  grown  up  togeth 
er.  Nowhere  has  the  American  plan  of 
education  been  found  so  perfectly  suited  to 
the  wants  of  a  progressive  people.  No 
where  were  ever  such  vast  and  complete 
educational  systems  so  rapidly  perfected 
as  in  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Michigan,  or 
in  the  newer  States  of  the  northwest. 
Through  all  this  wide,  populous,  and  pro 
ductive  territory,  the  granary  of  half  the 
world,  caste  and  sectarianism  have  been 
laid  aside  forever ;  by  a  spontaneous  move 
ment  of  the  people  education  has  been  made 
free  to  all;  such  great  sums  are  lavished 
upon  the  teachers  and  their  schools  as  nat 
urally  startle  our  European  contemporaries, 
and  the  money  of  the  people,  which  in  Eu 
rope  has  been  expended  usually  upon  priests 
and  kings,  has  here  been  devoted  to  the  cul 
tivation  of  those  who  earned  it.  Ohio  spends 
nearly  ten  millions  of  dollars  annually  upon 
its  public  schools,  Indiana  and  Illinois  to 
gether  a  sum  not  much  less.  The  fair,  con 
venient,  primary  school  house  shines  out 
upon  the  prairie  and  in  the  forest;  the 
higher  school  houses  of  Chicago  or  Cincin 
nati  are  unsurpassed  in  New  York  or  Bos 
ton  ;  the  science  of  teaching  is  carefully 
studied  in  a  host  of  teachers'  institutes, 
and  with  republican  liberality  the  West 
and  the  great  Northwest  care  for  all  their 
children.1  This  remarkable  enthusiasm  for 
education  penetrates  all  the  nation ;  it  has 
become  the  distinguishing  principle  of 
American  progress.4  In  the  heart  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains,  and  in  the  midst  of  the 
gold  and  silver  bearing  peaks  of  Arizona 
and  Colorado,  the  free  school  is  the  sentinel 
of  civilization.  In  Tucson  or  Denver  the 
love  of  knowledge  has  survived  the  preva 
lence  of  what  is  usually  thought  the  stron 
ger  passion,  and  the  cities  of  the  miners  are 
seldom  without  their  public  school.  The 
most  splendid  of  our  high  school  buildings 
is  said  to  be  that  of  Omaha,  seated  on  a  lofty 
bluff  over  the  Missouri.  California  has  pro 
duced  a  system  of  education  so  complete 
and  valuable  as  may  well  serve  as  a  model 
for  all  older  communities;  its  teachers  are 

'  In  all  these  States  a  sectarian  party  exists,  but  the 
majority  favor  free  education. 

3  See  Ed.  Report,  1873.  Minnesota  and  Iowa  are 
filled  with  the  educational  spirit. 


made  examples  of  propriety  and  tenderness, 
its  scholars  are  taught  integrity  and  moral 
excellence ;  sectarianism  and  caste  are  for 
bidden  to  divide  the  people,  and  the  pros 
perous  State  is  already  feeling  in  all  its 
industrial  pursuits  the  happy  influence  of 
the  common  school. 

Thus  the  American  system  of  education 
pervades  and  covers  every  section  of  the 
Union.  By  the  spontaneous  impulse  of  the 
people  it  has  been  made  the  foundation  of 
our  political  institutions.  It  has  grown  up 
with  little  direction  from  the  general  gov 
ernment.  It  has  flourished  in  the  cities 
and  in  the  wilderness ;  it  spreads  its  golden 
links  from  ocean  to  ocean,  and  holds  in  its 
embrace  the  destinies  of  the  republic.  A 
few  statistics  will  show  how  immense  is  its 
influence  and  how  important  its  results. 
By  the  census  of  1870  it  appears  that  an 
army  of  nearly  200,000  teachers  conduct  the 
public  schools  of  the  Union ;  of  these,  109,000 
are  females.  The  number  of  schools  was 
125,000,  and  has  no  doubt  largely  increased. 
Fifty-eight  millions  of  dollars1  were  raised 
in  1870  by  taxation  to  educate  the  people — 
a  sum  nearly  as  great  as  the  annual  cost  of 
a  European  army.  There  are  also  endow 
ments  and  other  sources  of  revenue,  making 
the  whole  amount  spent  upon  the  common 
schools  $64,000,000.  The  number  of  pupils 
in  1870  was  more  than  6,000,000.  Thus  the 
annual  cost  of  each  scholar  enrolled  Avas 
apparently  only  about  ten  dollars.  Many  of 
these  pupils  have  attended  only  for  a  few 
months  at  the  schools,  others  have  been  ir 
regular  and  inattentive.  Yet  the  fact  that 
6,000,000  children  were  brought  under  the 
control  of  the  common-school  system  in  one 
year,  and  learned  some,  at  least,  of  the  pro 
prieties  of  life,  is  sufficient  to  show  its  im 
mense  influence  upon  the  young ;  and  it 
may  be  estimated  that  at  least  half  the 
number  were  thoroughly  instructed  in  the 
common  branches  of  knowledge. 

When  we  look  over  the  returns  of  our  il 
literate  population,  of  the  great  mass  of  ig 
norance  that  has  grown  up  at  the  side  of  the 
common  schools,  we  might  at  first  conclude 
that  our  popular  system  of  education  had 

1  These  figures  must  now  (1875)  be  largely  increased, 
and  it  is  probable  that  $70,000,000  yearly  are  raised  for 
school  purposes  by  taxation  alone,  and  the  number  ed 
ucated  has  risen  in  proportion. 


EDUCATION  AND  CRIME. 


289 


wholly  failed.  Few  civilized  countries  pre 
sent  a  more  lamentable  scene  of  intense 
and  almost  savage  dullness.  Our  illiterate 
population  over  ten  years  of  age  numbers 
5,600,000.  And  an  unfriendly  critic,  the 
London  Quarterly  Review,  April,  1875,  seizes 
upon  this  singular  contrast  as  a  ground  of 
attack  upon  the  American  system  of  teach 
ing.  Yet  the  assault  fails  wholly.  The 
great  mass  of  our  illiterates  are  in  the  for 
mer  slave  territory,  where  the  common 
schools  were  never  suffered  to  come,  and 
where  a  large  part  of  the  people  were  for 
bidden  by  law  to  learn  even  to  read  and 
write.  Slavery  has  produced  more  than 
4,000,000  of  our  illiterates.1  Of  the  re 
mainder,  who  live  in  the  Northern  and  West 
ern  sections  of  the  Union,  one-half  are  due 
to  the  neglect  of  England  to  educate  its 
poorer  classes.  Our  German  immigrants 
are  nearly  all  well  educated.  The  English 
and  Irish  can  seldom  read  or  write.  Of  the 
1,300,000  illiterates  in  the  Northern  States, 
665,000  are  foreign  born,  and  they  come 
chiefly  from  Great  Britain.  Thus,  excluding 
the  former  slave  territory,  we  have  only 
690,000  native-born  illiterates,  and  of  these 
a  large  number  are  the  children,  no  doubt, 
of  foreign  parents.  If  we  allow  500,000  as 
the  number  of  native-born  Americans  who 
have  escaped  the  influence  of  the  common 
schools,  we  shall  not  possibly  fail  in  liberal 
ity.  The  people  of  the  Free  States  number 
at  least  26,000,000.  Only  one  person  out  of 
fifty,  therefore,  among  us  has  been  untouch 
ed  by  the  influence  of  the  public  school. 
Reaching  over  the  wild  wastes  of  the  new 
States  and  the  thick  crowds  of  our  cities, 
the  common-school  system,  often  imperfect 
and  rude,  has  been  almost  as  thorough  and 
effective  as  the  older  systems  of  Germany 
and  Holland. 

Wherever  it  extends,  crime  diminishes, 
the  morals  of  the  community  improve,  and 
taste  and  culture  flourish  even  in  the  wil 
derness.  An  absurd  charge  is  sometimes 
raised  against  the  public  schools  that  they 
are  "  godless  and  immoral."  Some  recent 
statistics  taken  in  Massachusetts  show  that 
eighty  per  cent,  of  its  crime  is  committed 

1  Compendium  of  the  Ninth  Census,  p.  456,  and  Re 
port  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  (Eaton),  1872. 
In  1870,  of  28,238,941  persons  of  age  to  read  and  write, 
more  than  one-fifth  were  illiterate. 
19 


by  persons  who  have  had  no  education,  or  a 
very  imperfect  one,  that  a  still  larger  pro 
portion  have  learned  no  trade,  and  that  not 
far  from  seventy-five  per  cent,  of  its  crim 
inals  are  of  foreign  birth ;'  intemperance, 
the  natural  resource  of  ignorance,  is  the 
parent  of  the  greater  part  of  this  crime,  and 
ninety-five  per  cent,  of  it  is  hereditary, 
transmitted  from  depraved  and  unculti 
vated  homes.  A  similar  condition  of  things 
exists  in  New  York  and  the  Western  States. 
If  all  the  children  of  the  community  could 
be  well  educated  and  taught  productive 
trades,  crime  would  be  diminished  by  more 
than  one-half;  and  so  effective  already 
have  been  our  common  schools  that  they 
have  reduced  the  criminal  class  among  the 
native  population  to  a  small  figure,  and  se 
cured  the  peace  of  society.  The  reports 
show  that  uneducated  foreigners  produce 
three-fourths  of  the  crime  and  pauperism 
of  our  large  cities.  It  is  plain  that  the 
money  expended  upon  the  public  schools  is 
not  laid  out  in  vain.  The  seventy  millions 
we  give  annually  to  education  is  the  wisest 
outlay  a  nation  ever  entered  upon. 

The  influence  of  the  common  schools 
penetrates  through  all  our  social  system, 
teaches  equality  and  republican  principles, 
offers  the  elements  of  commercial  knowl 
edge,  and  creates  the  reading  public.  The 
press  plainly  lives  in  the  rapid  progress  of 
the  teacher.  Our  common  schools  have 
produced  a  throng  of  readers,  such  as  was 
never  known  before — countless,  bountiful, 
and  never  satisfied.  The  periodicals  and 
newspapers  printed  in  the  United  States 
very  nearly  equal  those  of  all  the  rest  of 
the  educated  world.  In  1870  it  was  esti 
mated  that  7642  were  published  in  Europe, 
Asia,  and  Africa,  and  in  our  own  country 
5871. a  Since  that  time  our  publications 
have  increased,  it  is  supposed,  nearly  to  an 
equality  with  those  of  all  the  world  besides, 
and  our  forty  millions  of  people  read  as  much 
as  all  the  rest  of  the  hundreds  of  millions 
upon  the  same  globe  who  can  read  at  all. 
To  our  free  institutions  much  of  this  in- 


1  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education  (Eaton), 
1871,  p.  649.  Rep.,  1872,  p.  689.  Rep.,  1873,  p.  173.  Of 
102,866  criminals  in  England  only  4297  could  read 
and  write  well ;  only  206  had  had  a  "  superior"  educa 
tion. 

»  Hudson,  Journalism  in  America,  p.  773,  774. 


290 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS. 


quisitive  spirit  is  due  ;  but  to  the  common- 
school  system  we  owe  the  capacity  of  grati 
fying  our  curiosity  and  cultivating  a  general 
knowledge  of  the  condition  of  our  fellow- 
men.  It  is  estimated  that  the  number  of 
copies  of  newspapers  and  periodicals  print 
ed  in  Great  Britain  in  1870  was  350,000,000, 
and  an  equal  number  in  France.1  The 
census  returns  show  that  in  the  same  year 
1,500,000,000  copies  were  printed  in  the 
United  States.  Our  readers  consume  and 
pay  for  a  periodical  literature  twice  as 
great  as  that  of  the  two  populous  centres 
of  European  civilization ;  and  the  census 
reports  show  how  closely  the  progress  of  a 
demand  for  newspapers  is  connected  with 
the  advance  of  the  common  schools.  Where 
there  are  no  public  schools,  there  are  no 
newspapers ;  where  the  teacher  leads  the 
way,  the  press  follows.  In  uneducated 
Georgia,  for  example,2  with  a  population  of 
nearly  1,200,000,  there  are  only  123  newspa 
pers  and  periodicals ;  in  Massachusetts, 
with  a  population  of  nearly  1,500,000,  there 
are  280.  The  circulation  of  the  newspapers 
of  Georgia  is  14,447,388  ;  of  Massachusetts, 
107,691,952.  In  educated  Ohio  the  annual 
circulation  was,  in  1870,  93,000,000  in  a  pop 
ulation  of  2,662,681.  In  uneducated  Texas, 
fivefold  as  large  as  Ohio,  with  a  population 
of  885,000,  the  circulation  was  5,813,432. 
Only  seven  copies  of  a  newspaper  are  print 
ed  yearly  in  Texas  for  each  inhabitant ;  in 
Ohio,  35 ;  in  Massachusetts,  74 ;  in  Ala 
bama,  9;  in  Pennsylvania,  67.  The  total 
number  of  publications  in  North  Carolina, 
we  are  told,  would  allow  only  one  paper  to 
each  inhabitant  every  three  months  ;3  New 
York  prints  113  copies  a  year  for  each  of  its 
people. 

California  stands  next  in  this  proportion, 
and  allows  eighty-two  copies  a  year  to 
each  inhabitant.  Its  people  probably  con 
sume  at  home  more  newspapers  in  propor 
tion  to  their  numbers  than  any  part  of  the 
world — a  proof  that  the  emigrants  to  the 
Golden  State  have  been  well  educated,  and 
their  common  schools  effective.  It  would, 
indeed,  be  ungenerous  to  pursue  further  this 


1  Hudson,  p.  774. 

3  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  1871,  p. 
561-663.  See  Compendium  of  the  Ninth  Census,  p.  510. 

3  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education,  1871,  p. 
559. 


contrast  between  the  literature  and  intelli 
gence  of  the  different  portions  of  our  coun 
try.  Temporary  obstacles  have  divided  us 
in  this  particular.  We  may  reasonably  trust 
that  the  common  schools  will  win  at  last 
an  equal  victory  and  control  in  every  sec 
tion  of  the  Union. 

These  two  great  intellectual  agents,  the 
schools  and  the  press,  indissolubly  united, 
have  produced  the  physical  progress  of  the 
country.  They  have  built  railways,  canals, 
steamers,  telegraphs.  Our  people  converse 
with  each  other  through  their  newspapers, 
and  hold  their  consultations  in  open  day. 
Publicity  has  become  a  part  of  our  national 
life.  Like  the  Roman  patriot  who  desired 
all  his  acts  to  be  seen  and  known  by  his 
countrymen,  we  throw  open  all  our  doors 
and  windows  to  the  public.  All  is  activity 
with  us,  curiosity,  and  vigilance.  It  would 
be  quite  impossible,  indeed,  to  trace  in  a 
few  pages  the  achievements  of  the  common 
schools.  They  have  extended  the  duration 
of  human  life  among  us,1  checked  disease, 
cultivated  cleanliness,  founded  new  States, 
planted  cities,  indicated  the  sites  of  future 
capitals.  The  publisher  finds  the  purchas 
ers  of  his  books  in  their  graduates,  the  mer 
chant  and  manufacturer  depend  upon  their 
silent  energy,  the  churches  are  filled  with 
their  pupils,  and  the  lecture-rooms  gratify 
the  curiosity  excited  in  their  midst.  Mill 
ions  of  active  intellects,  the  offspring  of  the 
public  schools,  listen  to  the  sweet  strains 
of  Bryant,  Longfellow,  and  Whittier,  muse 
with  Bancroft  on  the  thrilling  exploits  of 
freedom,  or  wait  to  hail  the  new  bard  and 
the  rising  thinker,  whether  he  comes  from 
the  Sierras  of  Nevada  or  the  crowded  cities 
of  the  East. 

That  the  common-school  system  is  still 
imperfect  no  one  can  doubt :  it  is  a  vast  ma 
chine,  whose  various  parts  are  capable  of 
ceaseless  improvements.  Truancy  prevails 
to  a  great  degree,  and  can  only  be  removed 
by  a  general  compulsory  law.  The  teachers 
in  many  parts  of  the  country  are  themselves 
imperfectly  trained,  their  salaries  are  often 
miserably  low.  Men  have  not  yet  learned 


i  So  Haushoffer,  Statistik,  p.  200.  Wo  die  Civiliza 
tion  die  griissten  Fortschritte  macht,  beobachtet  man 
auch  die  grosste  Abnahme  der  Sterblichkeit.  We  want 
more  careful  statistics  on  this  Lice  point,  as  on  many 
others. 


INDUSTRIAL  EDUCATION. 


291 


that  it  is  cheaper  and  safer  to  build  school- 
houses  than  ships  and  forts,  and  that  good 
schools  are  always  profitable.  But  the  idea 
is  rapidly  spreading,  and  it  can  not  be  long 
before  our  school-houses  will  be  every  where 
models  of  neatness,  and  our  teachers  at  least 
as  well  paid  as  our  judges  or  constables. 
In  one  direction  the  system  is  destined  to 
make  an  extraordinary  advance.  The  plan 
of  technical  and  industrial  instruction  is 
already  beginning  to  make  great  progress 
among  our  educators.  It  has  long  been 
found  in  Europe  that  the  elements  of  a  trade 
could  be  rapidly  acquired  in  childhood. 
Germany,  Austria,  and  Belgium  have  all 
their  industrial  schools,  where  manufactur 
ing,  masonry,  building,  carpentering,  engi 
neering,  are  taught  practically,  and  where 
young  men,  while  they  study  history  and 
geography,  may  also  learn  a  trade.1  The 
educated  artisans  of  Germany  already  sur 
pass  those  of  all  other  countries.  If  we  wish 
to  preserve  our  equality  with  the  European 
workman  we  must  turn  the  vast  powers  of 
the  common  schools  to  industrial  instruc 
tion.  Already  the  subject  has  met  with 
careful  attention  among  us.  Schools  of  sci 
ence  have  long  been  in  use,  but  they  scarce 
ly  reach  the  industrial  classes.  In  1862 
Congress  gave  a  liberal  endowment  of  land 
to  each  State  to  establish  these  schools  of 
labor.2  New  York  received  990,000  acres, 
Ohio  630,000,  and  every  State  its  share,  pro 
portioned  to  its  population.  Various  excel 
lent  institutions  have  been  founded.  Illi 
nois  has  a  flourishing  industrial  university. 
Michigan  led  the  way  in  opening  these 
schools.3  Nearly  all  the  States  have  em 
ployed  the  national  gift  in  some  useful  man 
ner.  But  the  chief  problem  of  our  future 
educators  will  no  doubt  be  how  to  make  ev 
ery  common  school  the  means  of  spreading 
a  knowledge  of  the  arts,  and  to  join  invari 
ably  with  every  education  some  useful  pur 
suit.  There  is  no  reason  why  our  working 
classes  should  not  also  be  our  most  highly 
educated  classes,  the  most  intelligent,  the 

1  J.  W.  Hoyt,  Report  on  Education,  18TO,  p.  118- 
127,  notices  the  "  building  schools,"  agricultural,  com 
mercial,  etc.,  of  the  Continent.  Lace-making,  clock- 
making,  and  all  the  arts  are  taught. 

3  See  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Education, 
1871,  p.  425. 

3  See  a  careful  account  of  the  Western  higher  schools, 
Tonbrook,  American  State  Universities. 


most  refined.  What  the  republic  requires 
is  the  healthy  mind  in  the  healthy  body ; 
and  regular  physical  labor  should  always  bo 
joined  with  mental.  To  unite  these  condi 
tions  in  our  national  education  will  no  doubt 
be  more  than  ever  the  aim  of  the  teacher. 
Gymnastic  sports  are  useful ;  riding,  leap 
ing,  rowing,  are  not  to  be  neglected  ;'  but 
labor  on  the  farm,  in  the  factory,  with  the 
mason  or  the  mechanic,  will  prove  of  signal 
value  in  producing  health  of  mind  and  body, 
and  the  experience  of  foreign  schools  shows 
that  children  learn  with  eagerness  and  pleas 
ure  the  elements  of  all  industrial  pursuits. 
Every  child  must  at  last  be  taught  some 
useful  trade. 

In  the  higher  grades  of  education  our 
system  is  capable  of  a  wide  improvement. 
Our  method  of  grading  the  schools  is  every 
where  imperfect.  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold  pre 
sents  an  attractive  picture  of  the  organiza 
tion  of  the  higher  schools  of  Prussia."  Step 
by  step  they  rise  from  the  primary  schools, 
through  a  course  of  instruction  suited  to  ev 
ery  pursuit  in  life,  until  they  blend  with  the 
Berlin  University,  the  most  perfect,  it  is  sup 
posed,  of  all  the  means  of  intellectual  im 
provement.3  The  gymnasia,  pro-gymnasia, 
real  schools,  and  upper  burgher  schools  af 
ford  instruction  for  the  merchant  and  the 
scholar.  The  gymnasia  prepare  the  stu 
dents  for  the  university,  the  real  schools  for 
other  pursuits.  In  the  latter  the  modern 
languages  take  the  place  of  the  ancient. 
The  thoroughness  of  the  Prussian  system  is 
due  to  the  strictness  of  the  examinations, 
the  regular  promotion  from  grade  to  grade, 
the  necessity  of  a  university  degree  to  the 
acquisition  of  a  profession  :  and  it  is  certain 
that  our  own  schools  may  well  borrow  the 
strictness  of  the  Prussian.  No  one  should 
be  permitted  to  take  what  is  called  a  "  de 
gree"  without  proper  preparation.  To  win 
a  degree  should  be  made  an  object  of  real 
value  and  interest.  It  should  be  part  of  the 
duty  of  government,  if  it  assumes  the  charge 
of  our  national  education,  to  see  that  it  is 

1  In  London  it  is  even  proposed  to  teach  swimming 
to  the  school-children. 

"  Higher  Schools  and  Universities  in  Germany,  p.  7. 
"  I  believe,"  he  says  (p.  44),  "  that  the  public  schools 
are  preferred  in  Prussia  on  their  merits,"  etc.  This 
feeling  must  also  become  prevalent  with  us. 

3  "  The  most  distinguished  and  influential  university 
in  the  world,"  says  Mr.  Hoyt.  Report,  p.  349. 


292 


EDUCATIONAL  PROGRESS. 


well  done,  to  enforce  thoroughness,  and  pro 
vide  for  an  adequate  return  for  its  outlay ; 
and  this  in  Prussia  is  secured  by  a  system 
of  rigorous  examinations. 

It  is  somewhat  mortifying  to  be  assured 
that,  after  all  our  generous  outlay  upon  our 
common  schools,  we  are  still  surpassed  in 
some  particulars  by  the  Europeans,  and  that 
even  our  costly  school  buildings  in  Boston 
and  New  York  are  excelled  by  those  of  Ber- 
lin, Vienna,  and  London.1  The  village  school- 
houses  of  Switzerland  are  said  to  be  un- 
equaled  in  grace  and  simplicity.  They  are 
surrounded  by  gardens  or  play-grounds,  and 
imbedded  in  flowers.  In  London,  where 
land  is  cheap,  a  large  play-ground  is  pro 
vided  for  the  children ;  and  several  of  its 
new  school-houses  are  so  convenient  and 
admirable  that  they  may  instruct  even  our 
most  successful  builders.  And  of  the  for 
eign  teachers,  especially  those  of  Germany, 
we  are  told  that  they  are  graduates  of  a  uni 
versity,  acquainted  with  the  whole  range  of 
letters  and  science,  and  carefully  instructed 
in  the  art  of  teaching ;  that  they  have  giv 
en  themselves  to  their  profession  from  early 
youth  Avith  ardor,  and  improve  each  year  by 
active  practice.  They  form  a  dignified  com 
munity  of  state  officials.  They  have  usu 
ally,  at  least  in  the  higher  grades,  adequate 
salaries,  and  a  pension  in  sickness  or  old 
age.  In  Holland  the  teachers  have  already 
become  the  most  respectable  class  in  the 
community;  and  in  Prussia  their  value  is 
allowed  by  a  most  intelligent  government. 
Yet  we  can  have  no  doubt  that  many  of  our 
American  teachers  already  equal  in  attain 
ments  even  those  of  Holland,  and  that  our 
great  army  of  instructors  is  rapidly  improv 
ing  in  discipline  and  skill.  Our  teachers 
are  already  often  the  purest  and  wisest  part 
of  our  people.  When  their  profession  is 
made  a  safe  and  profitable  one  they  will 
seldom  leave  it.  Our  best  teachers  already 
give  their  whole  lives  to  their  pursuit,  and 
it  is  chiefly  those  who  are  badly  paid  who 
seek  some  other  means  of  living.  It  must 
be  the  aim  of  our  system  to  make  the  teach 
er's  employment  permanent. 

1  Massachusetts  Report,  1873-74,  p.  35.  Mr.  Phil- 
brick'H  .criticism  is  often  just,  but  I  fear  his  notion  of 
the  happy  condition  of  the  European  teacher  is  not 
well  founded.  In  Prussia  the  primary  teachers  are 
badly  paid. 


The  tendency  of  American  education  is 
evidently  to  constant  and  valuable  prog 
ress.  Our  schools  and  teachers  are  far  bet 
ter  than  they  were  ten  or  twenty  years  ago. 
Our  school  buildings  are  finer  and  more  com 
plete,  in  general,  than  those  of  any  European 
nation,  except,  perhaps,  Switzerland  and  a 
part  of  Germany.1  Of  infinite  grace  and  va 
riety,  these  palaces  and  cottages  of  educa 
tion  adorn  all  our  laud.  Normal  schools  are 
springing  up  in  all  the  States  with  singular 
rapidity;  practical  learning  is  making  con 
stant  advances  among  us.  We  have  already 
discovered  the  defects  of  our  system,  and  are 
laboring  to  amend  them.  But  the  question 
is  already  presented  to  us  whether  the  na 
tional  government  shoiild  not  provide  for 
the  common  welfare  by  insisting  upon  the 
general  education  of  the  vast  mass  of  our 
illiterates.  In  the  instance  of  the  colored 
people,  it  seems  a  duty  imposed  upon  the 
nation  to  educate  them  all ;  and  the  im 
mense  influx  of  uncultivated  foreigners  and 
the  large  body  of  uneducated  whites  at  the 
South  demand  some  immediate  remedy  for 
a  pressing  danger.  The  safety  of  the  gov 
ernment  requires  that  it  should  enforce  and 
support  every  where  popular  instruction. 
Where  a  State  fails  to  educate  its  people, 
the  national  government  has  plainly  a  right 
to  interfere,  and  a  general  system  of  public 
instruction  might  be  formed  which  would 
enforce  every  where  thorough  and  practical 
teaching,  uniformity  in  study,  and  mental 
equality  throughout  the  nation.  Our  col 
leges  and  universities  must  finally  form  a 
part  of  the  national  system,  and  offer  a  free 
education  in  the  highest  branches  to  every 
intelligent  citizen. 

The  extraordinary  cheapness  of  the  Amer 
ican  school  system,2  its  effectiveness,  its  ad 
mirable  influence  upon  morals  and  public 
order,  its  equity  and  liberality,  have  been 


1  A  great  mass  of  information  may  be  found  in  the 
reports  of  Mr.  Eaton,  the  National  Commissioner  of 
Education,  and  the  value  of  his  bureau  is  already  ap 
parent.    It  has  spread  many  striking  facts. 

2  The  elegance  and  convenience  of  such  buildings 
as  the  Worcester  High  School,  the  Omaha  palace,  with 
its  Mansard-roof  and  graceful  spires,  the  New  York 
Normal  School,  or  the  infinite  series  of  magnificent 
school  buildings  reaching  from  ocean  to  ocean,  would 
scarcely  seem  to  admit  of  the  idea  of  cheapness,  yet 
the  cost  of  a  single  Versailles  or  Blenheim  would  sur 
pass  all  that  we  have  laid  out  thus  far  on  school- 
houses. 


EDUCATIONAL  PROSPECTS. 


293 


proved  in  every  part  of  the  Union,  and,  like 
a  prudent  family,  the  nation  educates  its 
children  in  common.  The  chief  excellence 
of  our  system  is  that  it  teaches  pure  repub 
licanism.  In  private  schools  and  colleges 
the  principle  of  human  equality  upon  which 
our  country  leans  for  safety  is  sometimes  for 
gotten.  Foreign  impulses,  frivolities,  fash 
ions,  barbarisms,  may  at  times  corrupt  our 
youth,  and  reach  even  the  pulpit  and  the 
press.  But  the  public  schools  bravely  re 
pel  the  wave  of  European  reaction,  and  are 
founded  upon  the  immutable  principles  of 
1776.  In  the  public  schools  Samuel  and 
John  Adams,  Jefferson,  Washington,  and 
Franklin  speak  to  us  with  the  fresh  ardor 


of  the  dawn  of  freedom,  inculcate  a  rising 
humanity,  and  demand  for  their  new  repub 
lic  a  plain  advance  over  the  savage  blind 
ness  of  the  past.  So  long  as  our  public 
schools  flourish,  the  country  is  safe.  So 
long  as  American  ideas  are  taught  by  ac 
complished  and  patriotic  teachers  to  each 
new  generation,  the  republic  will  ever 
live.  When  falls  the  common-school  sys 
tem,  freedom  perishes  and  reason  dies. 
Possessed  of  this  admirable  instrument,  we 
may  teach  with  irresistible  clearness  the 
principles  of  1776,  and  the  second  century 
of  the  republic  may  witness  a  rapid  growth 
of  knowledge  among  us  unequaled  among 
nations. 


XL 


SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS. 


I.-THE  EXACT  SCIENCES. 

THE  condition  of  the  British  dependen 
cies  in  North  America  during  the  seven 
teenth  and  eighteenth  centuries  was  by  no 
means  favorable  to  the  growth  among  their 
inhabitants  of  a  high  order  of  intellectual 
culture,  whether  literary,  aesthetic,  or  scien 
tific.  During  a  large  portion  of  this  pe 
riod,  the  colonies  were  but  feeble  and  iso 
lated  settlements  dotted  at  wide  intervals 
along  a  sea-coast  a  thousand  miles  in  length, 
and  separated  from  each  other  by  vast 
stretches  of  unbroken  forest.  Even  when 
in  the  lapse  of  time  these  natural  barriers 
had  been  more  or  less  completely  broken 
down,  and  the  infant  communities  began  to 
mingle  with  each  other  along  their  bound 
aries,  the  territory  redeemed  to  civilization 
formed  still  but  a  narrow  fringe  along  the 
margin  of  a  wilderness  of  unknown  extent, 
and  its  occupants  continued  every  where, 
except  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of 
the  original  centres  of  population,  to  be  sub 
ject  to  all  the  hardships  and  privations  of 
a  pioneer  life.  To  these  natural  disadvan 
tages  must  be  added  the  anxieties  and  oft 
en  serious  molestations  arising  out  of  the 
immediate  contact  of  the  colonies  upon  their 
extended  frontier  with  the  aboriginal  inhab 
itants  of  the  continent — tribes  of  savages 
with  whom  their  relations  were  always  pre 
carious  and  often  hostile ;  and  out  of  the 
wars  in  which  Great  Britain  was  more  or 
less  constantly  engaged  with  the  Continent 
al  powers  which  had  also  their  outposts  on 
these  shores.  These  were  strifes  in  which 
the  colonies  became  embroiled  in  spite  of 
themselves,  and  in  which,  while  they  had 
every  thing  to  suffer,  they  had  nothing 
whatever  to  gain.  When  along  with  these 
things  we  consider  the  absence  upon  this 
continent,  during  the  entire  period  preceding 
our  Kevolutionary  struggle,  of  all  the  aids 
indispensable  to  the  prosecution  of  original 
research  by  the  scholar  or  man  of  science — 
as,  for  instance,  libraries,  archives,  collec 
tions,  museums,  laboratories,  observatories, 
universities,  and  eyen  living  expositors  of 


the  knowledge  already  existing — it  should 
surprise  us  not  so  much  that  in  the  early 
dawn  of  the  republic  our  people  had  not  yet 
won  for  themselves  a  lofty  name  for  their 
achievements  in  letters  or  in  science  as  that 
they  should  have  been,  as  they  were  in  fact, 
generally  well  educated  in  the  rudiments 
of  knowledge,  so  that  such  a  thing  as  gross 
ignorance  was  hardly  known  among  them. 

In  any  review  of  the  progress  of  science, 
therefore,  during  the  first  century  of  the  re 
public,  the  period  which  lies  between  the 
declaration  of  independence  and  the  close  of 
the  eighteenth  century  may,  without  dan 
ger  of  any  important  omission,  be  passed 
over  in  silence.  There  were  men,  it  is  true, 
in  the  colonies  and  in  the  newly  emanci 
pated  States  whose  native  abilities  and  dis 
tinguished  attainments  as  astronomers  or 
physicists  won  for  them  a  reputation  which 
in  their  time  reached  to  other  lands,  and 
which  has  since  come  down  to  us;  but 
these,  though  they  were  masters,  were  not 
originators,  and  their  names  are  but  inci 
dentally  connected  with  the  history  of  sci 
ence.  Of  this  class  David  Eittenhouse  is 
an  honorable  example.  His  scientific  activ 
ity  is  illustrated  in  his  numerous  communi 
cations  to  the  American  Philosophical  So 
ciety,  of  which  he  was  a  member,  and  in  the 
presidency  of  which  he  succeeded  Franklin 
— communications  which  display  not  only 
a  powerful  but  also  a  remarkably  versatile 
mind ;  and  his  singular  ingenuity  and  ex 
traordinary  mechanical  skill  are  attested  by 
his  orreries,  still  to  be  seen  in  the  College 
of  New  Jersey  and  the  University  of  Penn  syl- 
vania,  which,  according  to  the  account  giv 
en  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Philosophical 
Society,  show  the  movements  of  the  heav 
enly  bodies  for  a  period  of  five  thousand 
years,  and  their  positions  in  each  year, 
month,  day,  and  hour,  with  such  accuracy 
as  not  in  all  this  time  to  differ  sensibly  from 
those  given  by  the  astronomical  tables. 

Toward  the  close  of  the  century  the  cele 
brated  Priestley,  whose  discoveries  entitle 
him  to  a  high  place  among  the  original  in- 


ENCOUKAGEMENT  BY  THE  GOVERNMENT. 


295 


vestigators  of  his  day,  made  our  country  his 
home ;  but  as  the  successes  to  which  his 
fame  is  due  were  achieved  before  he  left  his 
native  country,  and  as  his  later  years  were 
mainly  occupied  with  the  profitless  task  of 
defending  a  no  w  long  exploded  theory,  which 
his  own  discoveries  had  already  rendered  in 
defensible,  and  which  his  contemporaries 
were  every  where  even  then  abandoning,  he 
can  not  be  counted  as  having  materially 
contributed  to  the  advancement  of  science 
in  America.  Another  illustrious  name  be 
longs  to  this  time,  which  should  have  been 
ours,  but  which  was  lost  to  us  by  influences 
not  wholly  unlike  those  which  gained  us 
Priestley.  Benjamin  Thompson,  afterward 
Count  of  Rumford,  was  an  American  who 
early  in  life  abandoned  a  home  and  a  coun 
try  which  his  fellow-citizens  had  made  in 
tolerable.  Received  into  the  service  of  a 
foreign  prince,  his  force  of  character,  activ 
ity  of  intellect,  and  singularly  practical 
turn  of  mind  at  once  commanded  apprecia 
tion,  and  secured  to  him  a  position  which 
enabled  him  to  achieve  a  noble  reputation 
not  only  as  an  efficient  administrative  offi 
cer  and  a  zealous  philanthropist,  but  also  as 
an  original  and  sagacious  scientific  investi 
gator.  To  Rumford  belongs  the  immortal 
honor  of  having  boldly  announced,  before 
the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  a  truth 
which  the  world  was  not  very  ready  to  re 
ceive  till  near  the  middle  of  the  nineteenth, 
a  truth  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  the 
mechanical  theory  of  heat,  and  through  that 
theory  leads  to  the  grandest  generalization 
in  the  history  of  science — the  truth  that 
heat  is  a  mode  of  motion.  Now  that  this 
truth  has  come  to  be  universally  admitted, 
America  may  be  justly  proud  that  its  dis 
covery  was  made  by  one  of  her  own  sons.1 

Before  proceeding  with  the  history  of  sci 
ence  in  America  during  the  nineteenth  cen 
tury,  it  might  be  proper,  would  space  per 
mit,  to  notice  the  extent  to  which  its  growth 
has  been  encouraged  by  the  fostering  hand 
of  the  government,  and  the  modes  in  which 

1  Bacon  and  Locke,  it  is  true,  spoke  of  heat  as  mo 
tion  ;  but  with  them  the  view  was  a  pure  hypothesis ; 
with  Rumford  it  was  a  demonstrated  certainty.  Speak 
ing  of  the  paper  in  which  it  was  communicated  to  the 
Royal  Society,  Professor  Tyndall  saya:  "Rumford  in 
this  memoir  annihilated  the  material  theory  of  heat 
Nothing  on  the  subject  more  powerful  has  since  been 
written." 


this  encouragement  has  been  shown,  and  also 
to  enumerate  the  principal  organizations 
through  which  its  votaries  have  endeavored 
to  promote  its  progress  by  associated  effort, 
and  the  channels  of  publication  through 
which  the  results  of  their  labors  have  been 
given  to  the  world.  With  these  materials 
an  interesting  chapter  might  be  written,  for 
which,  however,  we  can  find  no  place  here, 
That  the  government  of  the  United  States, 
though  it  has  as  yet  made  no  systematic  and 
permanent  provision  for  promoting  scientific 
investigation,  has  not  been  wanting  in  lib 
erality  when  solicited  to  lend  its  occasional 
aid  to  special  objects  of  scientific  interest, 
will  be  evident  when  we  call  to  mind  the 
Wilkes  exploring  expedition  of  1838,  the 
Lynch  Dead  Sea  exploration  of  1848,  the 
solar  parallax  expedition  under  Gilliss  in 
1849,  the  expedition  of  the  Polaris  in  1871, 
and  the  more  recent  provision  for  the  dis 
patch  of  parties  to  distant  parts  of  the 
world  to  observe  the  transit  of  Venus  of 
1874.  But  besides  these  instances,  in  which 
the  advancement  of  science  for  its  own  sake 
has  been  the  exclusive  aim  of  Congressional 
appropriations,  many  other  examples  may 
be  mentioned  in  which  legislation  has  been 
indirectly  favorable  to  the  same  end.  The 
Coast  Survey  is,  from  the  necessity  of  things, 
a  scientific  institution  and  a  school  for  train 
ing  scientific  men.  The  same  is  true  of  the 
public  survey  of  the  great  lakes,  of  the 
boundary  commissions,  of  the  exploring  ex 
peditions  in  the  heart  of  the  continent,  of 
the  Naval  Observatory,  of  the  Nautical  Al 
manac  Office,  and  of  the  special  commissions 
from  time  to  time  created  for  investigating 
experimentally  certain  questions  regarded 
as  practical,  which  have  nevertheless  im 
portant  scientific  relations,  such  as  the  heat 
developed  in  the  combustion  of  coal,  the  te 
nacity,  rigidity,  and  other  useful  qualities  of 
different  descriptions  of  iron  and  steel,  the 
causes  producing  the  explosions  of  steam- 
boilers,  and  others  of  like  character. 

Though  we  can  attempt  no  history  of  sci 
entific  associations  or  organizations,  there  is 
one  exception  which  may  properly  be  made 
to  this  rule.  The  Smithsonian  Institution 
is  an  organization  unique  in  its  character, 
which  for  the  past  thirty  years  has  held  a 
peculiar  relation  to  the  science  of  the  coun 
try,  of  which  it  has  been,  also,  one  of  the 


SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS. 


most  powerful  promoters.  In  the  language 
of  the  will  of  its  founder,  an  Euglish  gentle 
man  of  wealth  who  had  never  visited  this 
country,  it  has  for  its  large  and  liberal  ob 
ject  "  the  increase  and  diffusion  of  knowl 
edge  among  men."  The  fund  from  which  it 
derives  its  revenue  is  bequeathed  in  trust  to 
the  United  States  of  America,  and  its  affairs 
are  administered  by  a  Board  of  Regents  ap 
pointed  principally  by  the  Senate.  During 
the  infancy  of  the  institution  there  was  at 
one  time  danger  that,  instead  of  being  made 
an  instrumentality  for  the  increase  of  knowl 
edge  by  the  encouragement  of  original  re 
search,  it  would  become  merely  a  depository 
of  objects  of  interest  in  natural  history  or 
archaeology,  and  of  books  of  general  litera 
ture,  exhausting  itself  thus  in  the  creation 
of  a  museum  and  a  library.  To  this  it  was 
proposed  to  add  a  show  of  diffusing  knowl 
edge  by  means  of  popular  lectures  delivered 
annually  in  Washington  during  the  winter. 
Such  lectures  were,  in  fact,  given  down  to 
about  1860 ;  but  the  danger  menaced  by  the 
other  part  of  the  project  was  averted  by  the 
earnest  zeal  and  conclusive  logic  with  which 
the  purposes  of  the  founder  were  set  forth 
and  defended  by  the  able  secretary  of  the 
institution,  Professor  Joseph  Henry.  Thus 
for  a  long  period  of  years  the  institution  has 
employed  all  its  available  income  in  defray 
ing,  in  whole  or  in  part,  the  expense  of  orig 
inal  investigations,  and  in  publishing  the 
results  of  these,  and  of  any  others  independ 
ently  made  which,  after  careful  examination 
by  expert  judges,  have  appeared  to  be  sub 
stantially  valuable  contributions  to  knowl 
edge.  Under  the  title  of  Smithsonian  Con 
tributions  to  Knowledge  there  have  now  been 
published  nineteen  large  quarto  volumes, 
embracing  elaborate  monographs  on  a  large 
variety  of  subjects  in  exact  science,  in  nat 
ural  history,  in  ethnology,  and  in  linguistics, 
including  among  them  the  important  astro 
nomical  researches  of  Walker,  Newcomb, 
and  Stockwell,  the  ingenious  discussions  of 
rotary  motion  by  General  Barnard,  the  elab 
orate  investigations  of  terrestrial  magnetism 
by  Bache,  the  grammar  and  vocabulary  of 
the  Dakota  language  by  Riggs,  and  the 
explorations  of  the  North  American  earth 
mounds  by  Squier  and  Davis. 

In  addition  to  its  usefulness  in  provoking 
scientific  research,  of  which  it  would  be  dif 


ficult  to  measure  the  value,  the  institution 
has  also  fulfilled,  and  is  now  fulfilling,  a 
most  important  function  in  acting  as  the 
organ  of  a  widely  extended  system  of  scien 
tific  exchanges  between  our  own  and  foreign 
countries.  Its  correspondents  and  agents 
are  scattered  every  where  throughout  the 
civilized  world.  Plants,  minerals,  books, 
specimens  in  natural  history,  objects  of  ar 
chaeological  interest — every  thing,  in  short, 
which  belongs  to  the  material,  or  is  service 
able  for  the  illustration,  of  science  is  through 
its  instrumentality  expeditiously  forwarded 
to  the  remotest  destination,  without  any  ex 
pense,  except  that  which  attends  the  local 
delivery,  to  sender  or  receiver.  No  such 
agency  any  where  else  exists.  The  degree 
to  which  it  is  promotive  of  scientific  activ 
ity,  not  only  by  stimulating  individual  ef 
fort,  but  by  bringing  distant  individuals 
into  frequent  communication  with  each  oth 
er,  and  inducing  systematic  co-operation, 
need  hardly  be  insisted  on. 

In  passing  now  to  the  proper  history  of 
science  itself,  it  is  necessary  to  remark  that 
of  a  subject  occupying  so  broad  a  field  only 
the  merest  outline  can  here  be  given,  and 
that  that  outline  can  embrace  only  such 
portion  of  this  history  as  is  properly  Amer 
ican.  Convenience  also  suggests  that  each 
department  of  science,  or  group  of  allied 
sciences,  should  be  considered  separately. 

In  the  pure  mathematics  our  country  has 
an  honorable,  if  not  a  very  extensive,  record. 
The  number  of  men  who  deserve  to  be  call 
ed  truly  eminent  as  mathematicians  in  any 
country  or  in  any  age  is  always  compara 
tively  small,  and  the  number  of  those  whose 
eminence  is  due  to  real  originality  of  genius 
is  smaller  still.  It  accordingly  happens  that 
of  those  who  are  most  spoken  of  in  their  own 
time  for  the  presumed  profundity  of  their 
mathematical  knowledge  or  their  ingenu 
ity  in  the  use  of  mathematical  methods  the 
larger  proportion  leave  behind  them  no  per 
manent  monuments  of  this  imagined  and 
perhaps  real  greatness.  Among  the  men 
distinguished  for  their  mathematical  ability 
whom  our  country  has  produced  there  are 
nevertheless  a  few  whose  published  works 
have  been  substantial  contributions  to  the 
advancement  of  their  favorite  science,  and 
have  won  for  them  a  celebrity  destined  to  be 
enduring.  In  this  honorable  record  no  name 


ASTRONOMICAL  DISCOVERY. 


297 


stands  higher  than  that  of  Nathaniel  Bow- 
ditch,  whose  voluminous  and  lucid  commen 
tary  on  the  Mecanique  Celeste  of  Laplace  not 
only  eclipsed  the  multitude  of  his  previous 
admirable  performances,  but  drew  from  ana 
lysts  and  physical  astronomers  of  the  highest 
eminence  abroad  most  enthusiastic  expres 
sions  of  commendation.  Professor  Benjamin 
Peirce,  of  Harvard  University,  a  pupil  and 
friend  of  Bowditch,  still  in  the  vigor  of  life, 
stands  hardly  second  to  his  master  in  the 
originality  and  value  of  his  contributions  to 
mathematical  literature.  His  Analytic  Me 
chanics,  which  is  professedly  an  attempt  to 
consolidate  the  latest  researches  and  the  most 
exalted  forms  of -thought  of  the  great  geom 
eters  into  a  consistent  and  uniform  treatise, 
is  more  than  it  professes  to  be.  It  is  rather 
an  attempt — successfully  accomplished — to 
carry  back  the  fundamental  principles  of 
the  science  to  a  more  profound  and  central 
origin,  and  thence  to  shorten  the  path  to 
the  most  fruitful  forms  of  research.  The 
most  remarkable  and  most  original  of  Pro 
fessor  Peirce's  publications  is  the  descrip 
tion  of  a  new  mathematical  method,  called 
by  him  "  Linear  Associative  Algebra."  This 
method  seems  to  be  a  step  in  the  direction 
of  quaternions,  but  a  larger  one.  It  there 
fore  oversteps  the  power  of  human  concep 
tion  to  grasp  its  essence,  while  its  visible 
machinery  is  algebraic,  and  in  the  modes 
of  its  use  it  has  analogies  both  with  alge 
bra  and  with  quaternions.  The  method  is 
of  too  recent  origin  to  have  been  largely 
developed  in  its  capabilities  or  tested  in 
its  applications. 

Of  other  eminent  mathematicians  whose 
labors  deserve  a  more  extended  notice  our 
limits  allow  but  a  mere  mention.  The  alge 
bra  of  Professor  Theodore  Strong,  the  mem 
oir  on  "  Musical  Temperament"  by  Professor 
A.  M.  Fisher,  the  essay  of  Professor  A.  D. 
Stanley  on  the  "  Calculus  of  Variations," 
Professor  Patterson's  "  Calculus  of  Opera 
tions,"  Professor  Newton's  memoirs  on  ques 
tions  of  higher  geometry  and  on  transcend 
ental  curves,  General  Alvord's  "  Tangencies 
of  Circles  and  Spheres,"  Professor  Ferrel's 
"  Converging  Series,"  and  his  investigation 
of  the  movements  of  the  atmosphere,  Gen 
eral  Barnard's  "Theory  of  the  Gyroscope" 
and  "Problems  in  Rotary  Motion,"  are  all 
valuable  contributions  to  mathematical  sci 


ence.  The  "Problems"  last  named  treat 
chiefly  of  the  earth's  rotation,  and  the  re 
sulting  precession  of  the  equinoxes,  em 
bracing  a  discussion  of  the  relation  to  pre 
cession  of  the  earth's  internal  structure, 
and  refuting  conclusively  the  deductions  of 
a  very  celebrated  investigation  of  this  sub 
ject  by  the  late  W.  Hopkins,  while  demon 
strating,  on  other  grounds  than  his,  the  ex 
istence  of  a  thick  rigid  crust. 

ASTRONOMY. 

There  are  several  distinct  departments  of 
astronomical  science  which  are  often  pur 
sued  independently  of  each  other.  The  eld 
er  Herschel  occupied  himself  chiefly  with 
discovery  ;  Tycho  Brahe,  with  the  accurate 
determination  of  the  places  of  known  ob 
jects.  Our  gifted  countryman,  Mitchell,  was 
especially  interested  in  devising  new  meth 
ods  of  observation  and  record ;  our  esteem 
ed  fellow-citizen,  Mr.  Rutherfurd,  with  the 
application  of  photography  to  astronomy. 
Some  astronomers,  like  Newton,  Lagrange, 
and  Laplace  at  an  earlier  period,  or  like  Ad 
ams,  Leverrier,  Peirce,  Newcornb,  and  Stock- 
well  in  our  own  time,  have  engaged  in  the 
theoretic  investigation  of  the  laws  of  celes 
tial  motion,  and  of  the  action  of  the  heaven 
ly  bodies  on  each  other.  Others — and  the 
number  is  large,  including  at  present  De 
la  Rue,  Huggius,  Lockyer,  Faye,  and  Secchi 
abroad,  and  Young,  H.  Draper,  and  Lang- 
ley  among  ourselves — have  been  busied  in 
the  fascinating  study  of  solar  and  stellar 
physics.  Finally,  comets  and  shooting- 
stars,  and  the  recently  detected  connection 
between  these  two  seemingly  very  differ 
ent  classes  of  bodies,  have  been  a  subject 
of  long-continued  study,  fruitful  of  inter 
esting  results,  to  a  series  of  observers, 
among  whom  are  most  prominent  at  pres 
ent  Professor  Schiaparelli,  of  Milan,  and 
Professor  Newton,  of  our  own  country. 

In  connection  with  discowy,  an  interest 
ing  chapter  might  be  written  on  the  his 
tory  of  the  agencies  to  which  discoveries 
are  mainly  due,  that  is,  of  observatories — a 
history  which  the  limitation  of  our  space 
necessarily  excludes.  Half  a  century  ago 
such  a  thing  as  an  astronomical  observato 
ry  was  unknown  in  the  United  States.  At 
present  the  number  is  considerably  greater 
than  the  necessity.  Though  the  work  of 
the  observatory  is  the  basis  on  which  the 


298 


SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS. 


theory  of  the  existing  universe  must  rest,  it 
is  not  a  work  which  needs  to  be  indefinitely 
repeated.  With  the  very  superior  instru 
ments  which  the  skill  of  recent  times  has 
furnished,  a  few  observatories,  judiciously 
distributed  over  the  earth's  surface,  are  all 
that  the  physical  astronomer  requires. 
There  are  at  present  in  the  United  States 
not  fewer  than  thirty  astronomical  obser 
vatories,  probably  more.  If  so  many  had 
been  needed,  they  would  still  in  many  cases 
have  been  founded  in  vain,  since  no  suitable 
provision  has  accompanied  their  erection 
for  maintaining  them  subsequently  in  use. 
Some  of  them,  connected  with  the  colleges 
of  the  country,  have,  perhaps,  been  made 
sufficiently  useful  for  purposes  of  instruc 
tion  to  justify  their  erection ;  but  it  is  per 
fectly  clear  that  the  founders  in  general 
have  been  laboring  under  the  delusion  that 
an  observatory  when  once  brought  into  ex 
istence  will  somehow  work  itself.  It  has 
accordingly  happened  that,  except  in  the 
case  of  the  Naval  Observatory,  at  Washing 
ton,  that  of  Harvard  University,  and,  in  its 
earlier  period,  that  of  the  Cincinnati  Obser 
vatory,  the  responsibility  for  the  use  of  the 
instruments,  provided  at  great  expense  in 
these  various  establishments,  has  fallen  upon 
men  overburdened  with  heavy  duties  as  in 
structors,  occupying  the  greater  part  of  their 
time  by  day,  and  rendering  continuous  sys 
tematic  observation  by  night  physically  im 
possible.  Notwithstanding  these  disadvan 
tages,  several  of  the  gentlemen  here  referred 
to  have  found  time  in  the  midst  of  their  dis 
tractions  to  render  so  signal  services  to  as 
tronomical  science  as  to  connect  their  names 
permanently  with  the  history  of  its  prog 
ress.  There  exists,  however,  no  adequate 
provision,  and  in  general  no  provision  at 
all,  for  the  training  of  observers  and  the 
support  of  observation  ;  and  hence  much 
of  this  costly  apparatus  has  been  hitherto 
comparatively  useless  for  the  purposes  of 
practical  astronomy.  Still  less  has  there 
been  a  provision  for  what  is  now  the  most 
urgent  necessity  of  the  science — the  encour 
agement  and  maintenance  of  a  class  of  as 
tronomers  of  a  superior  order  of  scientific 
culture,  devoted  to  the  study  and  recon 
struction  of  theory.  This  is  a  considera 
tion  to  which  the  benefactors  of  this  no 
blest  of  sciences,  who  have  provided  it 


with  so  many  instruments  of  magnificent 
proportions  as  monuments  of  their  liber 
ality  speaking  to  the  eye,  would  do  wisely 
in  the  future  to  turn  their  attention. 

Some  of  the  most  interesting  of  the  as 
tronomical  discoveries  of  the  century  have 
been  due  to  the  keen-sightedness  of  Ameri 
can  observers.  The  great  telescope  of  the 
Cambridge  Observatory  was  mounted  in  the 
summer  of  1847.  On  the  16th  day  of  Sep 
tember,  1848,  it  was  the  means  of  rendering 
for  the  first  time  visible  to  human  eyes  the 
eighth  satellite  of  the  planet  Saturn — the 
eighth  in  the  order  of  discovery,  though 
the  seventh  in  the  order  of  distance  from 
the  planet.  Five  satellites  of  this  planet 
had  been  discovered  in  the  seventeenth  cen 
tury  ;  two  more,  very  close  to  the  ring,  were 
seen  in  1789  by  Sir  William  Herschel,  who, 
as  illustrated  in  this  example  and  in  sever 
al  others,  seems  to  have  been  endowed  with 
an  almost  preternatural  keenness  of  vision ; 
but  his  observations  were  not  confirmed  un 
til  his  son,  more  than  forty  years  after  (1836), 
rediscovered  one  of  them,  and  caught  a  sin 
gle  doubtful  glimpse  of  the  other.  Ten 
years  later  (1846)  Mr.  Lassell,  of  Liverpool, 
recovered  the  remaining  one.  The  new  sat 
ellite  discovered  by  the  Messrs.  Bond  is  faint 
er  than  either  of  these  two  extremely  diffi 
cult  objects,  though  more  distant  from  the 
planet  than  any  other,  except  that  known 
as  lapetus.  Between  this  satellite  and  Ti 
tan,  the  next  interior,  a  wide  gap  had  been 
noticed  to  exist,  Titan  revolving  around 
the  primary  in  a  little  less  than  sixteen 
days,  and  lapetus  in  more  than  seventy- 
nine.  Bond's  satellite,  which  has  received 
the  name  Hyperion,  has  a  period  of  a  little 
over  twenty-one  days,  so  that  it  is  compar 
atively  near  to  Titan,  and  leaves  still  a  large 
seemingly  unoccupied  space  between  itself 
and  lapetus.  It  is  remarkable  that  Hype 
rion  was  noticed  by  Mr.  Lassell  on  the  18th 
of  September,  only  two  days  after  its  dis 
covery  by  Bond. 

The  most  wonderful  object  in  the  uni 
verse,  as  well  to  the  physical  astronomer  as 
to  the  observer  who  surveys  the  heavens 
only  for  the  gratification  of  his  curiosity,  is 
the  double  or  multiple  ring  surrounding  the 
planet  Saturn.  The  ring  is  certainly  dou 
ble,  a  wide  space  separating  the  inner, 
broader,  and  brighter  from  the  outer,  uar- 


SATURN'S  RINGS. 


299 


rower,  and  less  bright.  Small  stars  have 
sometimes  been  seen  between  the  ring  and 
the  planet.  Some  very  good  observers  have 
occasionally  noticed  what  appeared  to  be 
lines  of  division  in  the  breadth  of  both  the 
rings,  and  these  appearances,  together  with 
the  deductions  of  theory  as  to  the  conditions 
necessary  to  the  stability  of  the  system,  have 
led  to  the  general  belief  that  the  rings  are 
not  rigid  solids.  Until  the  year  1850,  how 
ever,  only  two  rings  had  been  suspected  to 
exist,  unless  by  occasional  and  temporary 
subdivision.  But  on  the  llth  of  November 
in  that  year  there  was  noticed  by  the  Messrs. 
Bond  a  shadowy  appearance  interior  to  the 
broad  ring,  which  led  them  to  suspect  the 
existence  of  a  third  and  almost  nebulous 
ring,  having  a  breadth  about  two-thirds  as 
great  as  that  of  the  narrow  or  outer  ring. 
Subsequent  observations  confirmed  them  in 
this  belief;  and  the  same  appearances  were 
later  noticed  by  Dawes  and  Lassell  in  En 
gland.  An  interesting  question  hereupon 
arose  as  to  whether  this  dusky  ring  was  of 
recent  formation,  or  had  been  noticed  but 
not  understood  before.  It  was  ascertained 
that  Galle  had  mentioned  appearances  of  a 
similar  kind  in  a  memoir  published  in  1838 ; 
and  Father  Secchi  testified  that  such  had 
been  noticed  in  the  observatory  at  Rome  as 
early  as  1828.  Mr.  Otto  Struve  also  adduced 
evidences  from  the  observations  of  J.  Cas- 
sini  in  1715,  and  those  of  Halley  in  1720  and 
1723,  that  the  obscure  ring  had  been  no 
ticed  by  those  observers,  and  assumed  by 
them  to  be  a  belt  upon  the  planet  itself. 
Mr.  Struve  created  some  excitement  in  the 
astronomical  world  by  stating  that  on  a 
comparison  of  the  measurements  of  the  ap 
parent  distance  between  the  inner  edge  of 
the  broad  bright  ring  and  the  planet's  disk 
made  by  his  father  in  1826  and  by  himself 
in  1851,  together  with  an  examination  of 
similar  measurements  by  Huyghens,  Cas- 
sini,  Bradley,  Herschel,  Encke,  and  Galle, 
he  was  satisfied  that  the  inner  edge  of  the 
bright  ring  is  gradually  approaching  the 
planet,  while  the  total  breadth  of  the  two 
rings  is  constantly  increasing.  This  propo 
sition  was  too  startling  to  meet  with  ready 
acceptance  by  astronomers  generally,  and 
up  to  the  present  time  the  question  remains 
where  Struve  left  it,  with,  however,  an  ap 
parently  growing  disposition  to  accept  his 


conclusions.  If  it  is  true  that  the  ring  is 
slowly  subsiding  toward  the  planet,  the  hy 
pothesis  is  not  without  plausibility  that 
Bond's  dusky  ring  may  be  composed  of 
loosely  scattered  fragments,  which,  from 
causes  possible  to  assign,  have  been  accel 
erated  in  their  descent  beyond  the  general 
mass. 

The  astronomical  discovery  next  in  inter 
est  deserving  mention,  as  an  American  con 
tribution  to  science  during  the  century,  was 
remarkably  enough  made  in  the  immediate 
neighborhood  of  the  observatory  which  the 
successes  of  the  Messrs.  Bond  had  already 
made  famous.  Mr.  Alvan  Clark  had  just 
completed  the  great  telescope  of  eighteen 
and  a  half  inches  designed  for  the  Univer 
sity  of  Mississippi,  and  now  at  Chicago, 
when  on  the  night  of  January  31, 1862,  his 
son,  Mr.  Alvan  G.  Clark,  directing  the  instru 
ment  toward  Sirius,  the  brightest  of  the 
fixed  stars,  detected  almost  in  contact  with 
it  a  minute  point  of  light  which  he  recog 
nized  immediately  as  a  companion  star. 
Curiously  enough,  a  well-founded  suspicion 
had  long  been  entertained  that  this  star  is 
double.  Minute  as  are  the  annual  proper 
motions  of  the  fixed  stars  in  the  heavens, 
they  are  in  general  uniform  and  well  ascer 
tained.  But  the  motion  of  Sirius  was  long 
ago  discovered  by  Bessel  to  be  affected  by 
an  irregularity  such  as  would  be  produced 
by  the  action  of  some  other  body  revolving 
with  it  around  a  common  centre.  The  or 
bit  of  the  imaginary  attendant  star  had,  in 
fact,  been  inferred  by  Peters,  of  Altona,  and 
Safford,  then  of  the  Cambridge  Observatory. 
No  scrutiny  with  instruments  then  existing 
had,  however,  been  successful  in  detecting 
this  attendant,  when  the  newly  finished 
glass  of  Mr.  Clark  made  it  visible  without 
effort.  After  its  discovery  it  was  seen  with 
the  Harvard  equatorial  and  others  of  less 
power,  but  not  till  1866  with  the  9i-inch  Mu 
nich  glass  of  the  Naval  Observatory.  This 
admirable  discovery,  or  more  properly  the 
construction  of  a  glass  capable  of  making  a 
discovery  so  difficult,  was  rewarded  by  the 
Academy  of  Sciences  of  France  by  the  pres 
entation  to  Mr.  Clark  of  the  Lalande  Medal 
— a  prize  annually  decreed  to  the  author  of 
the  most  interesting  discovery  of  the  year. 

Several  comets  have  been  discovered  by 
American  astronomers,  among  which  may 


300 


SCIENTIFIC  PEOGRESS. 


be  mentioned,  the  first  of  1846,  discovered 
February  26,  1846,  by  William  C.  Bond,  of 
which  the  elliptic  elements  were  determined 
by  Peirce,  giving  a  period  of  ninety-five 
years.  The  comet  known  by  the  name  of 
Miss  Maria  Mitchell  was  first  seen  by  her  on 
October  1, 1847,  at  her  private  observatory 
in  Nantucket.  Two  days  later  it  was  also 
seen  by  De  Vico  at  Rome,  and  Mr.  H.  P. 
Tuttle  at  Cambridge.  The  comet  1862,  III., 
which  was  discovered  by  Mr.  Tuttle  July 
18, 1862,  and  by  Mr.  Thomas  Simons,  of  Al 
bany,  on  the  same  evening,  but  later,  be 
longs  to  the  August  stream  of  meteoroids. 
An  interesting  fact  in  regard  to  Miss  Mitch 
ell's  comet  is  that,  four  days  after  its  discov 
ery,  it  passed  centrally  over  a  fixed  star  of 
the  fifth  magnitude  without  in  the  slightest 
degree  obscuring  it.  For  a  brief  time  the 
star  was,  in  fact,  so  truly  in  the  centre  of 
the  nebulosity  that  it  appeared  like  the 
proper  nucleus  of  the  comet. 

Of  the  swarm  of  minute  planets  which 
occupy  the  place  between  Mars  and  Jupi 
ter,  where  the  law  of  Bode  indicates  a  mem 
ber  of  the  solar  system  to  be  missing,  about 
one-third  have  been  discovered  by  American 
observers.  It  is  remarkable  that  all  of  this 
numerous  group,  now  amounting  to  no  few 
er  than  153,  belong  to  the  nineteenth  centu 
ry,  the  first  to  be  detected  having  been  dis 
covered  on  the  evening  of  the  first  day  of 
the  century,  January  1,  1801,  by  Piazzi,  at 
Palermo.  Three  others  were  discovered 
within  the  seven  years  next  succeeding, 
after  which  nearly  forty  years  elapsed  with 
out  adding  to  the  number.  Up  to  the  close 
of  1850  the  total  number  known  amounted 
to  thirteen  only.  Within  the  twenty-five 
years  which  have  since  elapsed  there  have 
been  discovered  140  more,  or  about  six  per 
annum.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  discovery 
in  recent  years  has  been  greatly  facilitated 
by  the  Berlin  star  maps  and  other  celestial 
charts,  in  which  every  star  down  to  the 
ninth  magnitude  is  set  down.  When  an  ob 
ject  is  seen  which  is  not  in  the  map,  there 
fore,  the  probability  is  great  that  it  is  an  as 
teroid,  and  the  question  will  be  settled  by  a 
second  observation  on  the  following  night, 
or  even  a  few  hours  later  on  the  same  night. 
The  first  American  astronomer  to  detect  an 
asteroid  previously  unknown  was  Mr.  James 
Ferguson,  of  the  Naval  Observatory,  by  whom 


the  thirty-first  of  the  series,  now  known  as 
Euphrosyne,  was  found  on  September  1, 
1854.  Two  others  were  subsequently  dis 
covered  by  him,  making  three  in  all.  Be 
sides  these,  there  have  been  discovered  one 
by  Searle,  two  by  Tuttle,  sixteen  by  Watson, 
and  twenty-two  by  Peters,  making  a  total 
of  forty-four,  all  discovered  within  a  period 
of  about  twenty  years. 

Practical  Astronomy. — The  automatic  reg 
istration  of  time  observations  by  means  of 
electro -magnetism  is  an  improvement  in 
practical  astronomy  due  to  American  inge 
nuity.  The  merit  of  its  first  suggestion  has 
been  somewhat  in  dispute,  but  the  earliest 
experimental  demonstration  of  its  feasibil 
ity  was  certainly  made  by  Professor  John 
Locke,  of  Cincinnati,  who  in  1848  intro 
duced  a  clock  provided  with  a  suitable 
mechanism  into  the  circuit  of  the  electric 
telegraph  between  Cincinnati  and  Pitts- 
burg.  The  distance  is  four  hundred  miles, 
and  the  experiment  was  continued  for  two 
hours,  during  which  the  beats  were  regu 
larly  registered  at  every  station  through 
out  the  whole  line.  The  application  to 
astronomical  observation  immediately  fol 
lowed.  In  recognition  of  the  value  of  this 
invention,  Congress  awarded  to  Dr.  Locke 
the  sum  of  ten  thousand  dollars,  and  or 
dered  a  clock  of  the  same  description  to 
be  constructed  for  the  Naval  Observatory. 
As  a  recording  instrument,  the  ordinary  tel 
egraphic  register  of  Professor  Morse  was 
at  first  employed.  More  convenient  forms 
of  apparatus  were  subsequently  devised  by 
Professor  Mitchell,  Mr.  Joseph  Saxton,  of  the 
Coast  Survey,  and  Messrs.  W.  C.  and  George 
P.  Bond,  who  introduced  the  regulator  which 
has  since  been  so  almost  universally  em 
ployed  in  these  instruments,  known  as 
Bond's  spring  governor.  More  recently 
(1871)  a  printing  chronograph  has  been  in 
vented  by  Professor  George  W.  Hough,  of 
the  Dudley  Observatory,  which  records  to 
the  hundredths  of  a  second,  and  saves  to 
the  observer  who  employs  it  the  labor  and 
time  required  for  deciphering  and  record 
ing  in  figures  the  indications  of  the  regis 
ter  in  common  use.  The  electro-magnetic 
method  of  recording  transits  was  adopted 
without  delay  in  the  observatories  of  the 
United  States,  and  soon  after  found  its  way 
into  those  of  Great  Britain  and  the  conti- 


IMPEOVEMENT  OF  INSTRUMENTS. 


301 


nent  of  Europe,  where  it  was  known  as  the 
American  method.  Of  its  great  value  in 
promoting  accuracy  it  is  not  necessary  to 
speak ;  but  only  those  who  have  had  expe 
rience  in  observation  can  adequately  ap 
preciate  the  degree  to  which  it  has  lighten 
ed  the  labor  of  the  observer.  Previously  to 
its  introduction  the  clock  divided  with  the 
object  viewed  the  observer's  attention,  and 
the  necessity  for  unceasing  vigilance  was 
exhausting  in  the  extreme.  If  nothing  else 
had  been  gained  by  it  but  this,  the  benefit 
would  be  incalculable. 

The  introduction  of  the  electric  chrono 
graph  into  observatories  furnished  a  very 
simple  means  of  determining  differences  of 
longitude  between  any  two  places  connect 
ed  by  a  telegraphic  wire.  These  determi 
nations  are  made  by  comparing  the  exact 
times  of  transit  of  a  given  celestial  object 
over  the  meridians  of  both  places,  a  single 
clock  giving  the  times  for  both,  or  by  trans 
mitting  time  signals  alternately  in  opposite 
directions  compared  with  the  clocks  at  both 
ends.  The  earliest  observations  of  this  kind 
were  made  in  January,  1849,  between  Wash 
ington  and  Cambridge,  Massachusetts.  The 
method  has  since  been  brought  into  very 
extensive  use  throughout  the  world.  In 
1867,  and  again  in  1871  and  in  1872,  it  was 
employed  to  determine  the  difference  of 
longitude  between  Greenwich  and  Wash 
ington,  by  means,  in  the  first  instance,  of 
the  Anglo-American  cable,  and,  in  the  sec 
ond  and  third,  of  the  French,  from  Brest  to 
St.  Pierre,  and  Danbury,  Massachusetts.  It 
may  be  interesting  to  compare  the  results 
thus  obtained  with  those  of  the  great  chron- 
ometric  expeditious  of  1849  and  1855  be 
tween  Cambridge  and  Liverpool — expedi 
tions  which,  in  the  words  of  Mr.  W.  C.  Bond, 
"for  the  magnitude  and  completeness  of 
their  equipments  have  not  been  equaled  by 
any  of  the  similar  undertakings  of  Euro 
pean  governments.  Even  the  'Expedition 
Chrouometrique'  of  Struve  was  on  a  scale 
much  less  extensive."  In  1855  fifty -two 
nautical  chronometers  were  transported  six 
times  between  Cambridge  and  Liverpool, 
giving  nearly  three  hundred  individual  lon 
gitude  determinations.  The  difference  of 
longitude  obtained  was  4k.  44m.  31.8s.  Pre 
vious  expeditious  had  given  4/i.  44m.  30.6s., 
showing  a  difference  between  the  two  of  | 


1.2s.  The  cable  results  (omitting  hours  and 
minutes)  were  :  1867,  31.00s. ;  1871,  30.96s. ; 
1872,  30.99s.,  the  largest  discrepancy  being 
only  four  one-hundredths  of  a  second. 

In  observing  for  longitude,  the  velocity 
of  propagation  of  electric  impulses  in  the 
wires  of  the  circuit  becomes  a  matter  re 
quiring  attention,  and  thus  the  telegraph 
has  become  the  means  of  throwing  light 
upon  this  interesting  question  in  physics. 
The  results  obtained  have  differed  very 
widely,  being  dependent  on  difference  of 
material  of  the  conductor,  difference  of  cross- 
section,  and  largely  upon  differences  of  sur 
rounding  conditions.  In  the  ordinary  iron 
wires  of  the  American  telegraphic  lines  the 
velocity  seems  not  to  exceed  fifteen  or  six 
teen  thousand  miles  per  second. 

Improvement  of  Instruments. — Until  about 
1850  the  observatories  of  the  United  States 
were  furnished  with  instruments  of  foreign 
manufacture  exclusively.  Since  that  time 
the  telescopes  of  American  opticians  have 
rivaled,  if  they  have  not  surpassed,  in  ex 
cellence  those  of  the  most  celebrated  con 
structors  of  the  Old  World.  The  12Knch 
equatorial  of  the  Michigan  University  is  one 
of  many  admirable  instruments  produced 
by  Mr.  Henry  Fitz,  of  New  York,  an  ingen 
ious  artisan,  who  was  removed  by  a  prema 
ture  death  just  as  his  reputation  had  been 
firmly  established,  and  as  he  was  preparing 
for  a  bolder  attempt  than  any  of  those  in 
which  he  had  been  previously  so  successful 
— the  construction  of  an  objective  of  twen 
ty-four  inches  aperture.  Mr.  Charles  A. 
Spencer,  of  Canastota,  New  York,  in  the  year 
1848  suddenly  acquired  an  extraordinary 
celebrity  for  superior  skill  in  constructing 
objectives  for  microscopes.  Having  proved 
himself  to  be  without  a  superior  in  this 
field,  he  turned  his  attention  to  the  con 
struction  of  telescopes  with  a  success  no 
less  signal.  One  of  the  most  remarkable 
examples  on  record  of  a  career  commenced 
without  previous  preparation,  rather  late 
in  life,  in  a  most  difficult  art,  and  leading 
in  the  end  to  the  highest  eminence,  is  to  be 
found  in  the  history  of  Mr.  Alvan  Clark,  of 
Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  who  undertook 
in  1844,  without  thought  of  going  further, 
to  assist  his  sou,  a  lad  of  seventeen,  in  the 
grinding  of  a  metal  speculum.  The  earlier 
years  of  Mr.  Clark  had  been  spent  upon  a 


302 


SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS. 


farm.  After  the  age  of  twenty-two  he  had 
occupied  himself  with  engraving  for  cali 
co-printing,  and  subsequently  with  portrait 
painting,  which  pursuit  he  followed  for  ten 
years  with  eminent  success.  In  assisting 
his  son,  his  object  was  to  further  the  aspi 
ration  of  the  youth  to  become  a  professional 
optician,  and  this  he  hoped  to  accomplish 
by  himself  learning  in  order  that  he  might 
teach.  After  several  experiments  with  met 
als,  he  was  encouraged  by  Professor  Peirce 
to  undertake  a  refractor.  The  son  hesita 
ted  ;  the  father  allowed  himself  to  be  per 
suaded,  and  his  boldness  was  rewarded  by 
such  a  degree  of  success  as  to  lead  him  grad 
ually  to  abandon  all  other  occupations  and 
to  become  a  professional  optician  himself. 
The  great  excellence  of  his  work  was  first 
justly  appreciated  by  Mr.  W.  R.  Dawes,  of 
Haddeuham,  England,  a  distinguished  as 
tronomer,  possessed  of  a  keen  vision,  and  a 
critical  judge  of  instruments.  Mr.  Dawes 
had  purchased  two  or  three  glasses  of  seven 
or  eight  inches  aperture  of  Mr.  Clark,  and 
had  made  him  well  known  in  England  be 
fore  his  own  countrymen  became  aware  how 
superior  an  artisan  they  had  among  them. 

In  February,  1860,  the  sum  of  $10,000  was 
appropriated  by  the  trustees  of  the  Univer 
sity  of  Mississippi  to  defray  the  expense  of 
an  object-glass  for  an  equatorial  telescope 
to  be  placed  in  the  observatory  of  that  in 
stitution.  The  writer  of  this  article  was 
intrusted  with  the  responsibility  of  select 
ing  the  artisan  in  whose  hands  this  impor 
tant  work  should  be  placed.  His  choice  fell 
upon  Mr.  Clark,  and  instructions  were  given 
that  the  glass  should  be  made  of  sufficient 
size  to  exhaust  the  entire  appropriation. 
According  to  a  scale  of  prices  which  Mr. 
Clark  had  arranged,  a  glass  worth  $10,000 
should  measure  about  seventeen  and  a  half 
inches.  The  diameter  was  more  than  twice 
as  great  as  that  of  any  which  Mr.  Clark  had 
made  before ;  and  it  was  his  preference  and 
his  proposition  to  prepare  one  of  exactly  the 
size  of  the  Munich  glass  in  the  Cambridge 
Observatory,  viz.,  fifteen  inches,  in  order  that 
he  might  compare  it  with  that  by  placing  it 
in  the  same  tube  and  observing  the  same 
objects  on  the  same  nights.  Mr.  George  P. 
Bond,  then  in  charge  of  the  observatory, 
expressed  his  entire  willingness  to  afford 
this  opportunity  of  comparison,  but  advised 


against  the  limitation  of  size,  saying,  "Al 
ways  improve  if  you  can  upon  the  last  thing 
done."  Mr.  Clark  finally  consented  to  at 
tempt  the  larger  diameter,  and  the  neces 
sary  disks  were  ordered.  They  were  consid 
erably  in  excess  of  the  size  necessary  for  the 
glass  proposed,  and  on  careful  examination 
were  found  to  be  perfect  to  the  extreme 
borders,  so  that  Mr.  Clark  reported  that  it 
would  be  quite  possible  to  grind  them  to  a 
diameter  of  eighteen  and  a  half  inches,  ex 
ceeding  by  an  inch  the  size  which  the  appro 
priation  allowed.  It  seemed  an  unjustifiable 
sacrifice  to  cut  down  to  such  an  extent  a 
material  so  excellent,  and  Mr.  Clark  was  de 
sired,  in  reply,  to  work  the  disks  to  as  large 
a  diameter  as  they  would  bear,  and  assured 
that  the  appropriation  would  be  increased 
accordingly.  Under  these  circumstances  he 
proceeded  with  the  work  with  such  rapidity 
that  in  June,  1861,  he  was  able  to  give  no 
tice  that  the  glass  would  be  ready  for  a  pre 
liminary  examination  in  the  month  of  Au 
gust  succeeding.  The  troubles  of  the  times 
prevented  such  an  examination,  and  no  one 
of  those  with  whom  the  order  for  this  in 
strument  originated  has  ever  had  an  oppor 
tunity  of  looking  through  it.  The  latest 
achievement  of  Mr.  Clark  has  been  the  con 
struction  of  the  grand  26 -inch  objective 
erected  in  1873  in  the  Naval  Observatory  at 
Washington. 

Some  of  the  most  successful  constructors 
of  astronomical  instruments  in  our  country 
are  to  be  found  among  the  astronomers 
themselves.  Mr.  Lewis  M.  Rutherfurd,  of 
New  York,  is  the  originator  of  a  depart 
ment  of  practical  astronomy  requiring  the 
use  of  instruments  specially  adapted  to  its 
purposes ;  and  as  the  most  expeditious  and 
satisfactory  mode  of  providing  these  instru 
ments,  he  resolved  to  construct  them  him 
self.  His  idea  was  to  make  photography 
subservient  to  the  uses  of  astronomy,  and 
especially  of  uranography.  Considering  how 
rare  are  the  occasions  in  which  atmospheric 
conditions  are  altogether  favorable  to  the 
observation  of  difficult  objects  in  the  heav 
ens,  and  how  large  is  the  necessary  con 
sumption  of  time  in  making  measurements 
of  position  and  distance  between  the  objects 
observed,  it  occurred  to  him  that  if  these 
favorable  opportunities  should  be  seized  to 
make  exact  photographic  maps  of  the  groups 


MR.  RUTHERFURD'S  PHOTOGRAPHIC  APPARATUS. 


303 


tinder  examination,  measurements  of  these 
maps  might  take  the  place  of  direct  meas 
urements  of  the  stars,  and  that  thus  a  single 
evening  might  be  made  productive  of  results 
as  numerous  and  valuable  as  those  obtained 
in  many  months  in  the  ordinary  course  of 
observation.  His  first  attempts  at  a  prac 
tical  realization  of  this  idea  were  made  with 
a  reflecting  telescope,  for  the  reason  that  a 
parabolic  speculum  is  free  from  aberration 
both  of  color  and  figure.  The  Cassegraiuian 
form  was  adopted,  as  best  suited  to  the  pur 
pose  ;  but  the  tremors  produced  by  passing 
street  vehicles  were  so  largely  magnified  by 
the  double  reflection  in  this  instrument  that 
he  was  soon  compelled  to  abandon  it  for 
the  refractor.  A  little  experience,  however, 
taught  him  that  the  refracting  telescopes  in 
common  use,  whatever  their  degree  of  excel 
lence  for  purely  optical  purposes,  would  not 
furnish  him  celestial  photographs  exhibit 
ing  the  stars  with  the  degree  of  sharpness 
which  his  plan  required.  Though  the  lumi 
nous  rays  are  well  concentrated,  the  actinic 
rays  are  scattered,  giving  indistinct  images 
of  the  larger  stars,  and  failing  to  exhibit 
minute  ones  at  all.  He  therefore  undertook 
the  construction  of  an  objective  corrected 
for  actinic  effect,  without  regard  to  color. 
The  whole  of  the  work,  theoretic  and  prac 
tical,  was  done  by  himself,  and  about  the  year 
1863  he  completed  an  actin-aplauatic  object 
ive  of  eleven  and  a  quarter  inches  aperture, 
which  gave  results  entirely  satisfactory. 
With  this  he  speedily  obtained  many  sharp 
ly  defined  maps  of  star  groups  upon  glass, 
and  it  remained  only  to  effect  the  intended 
measurements  upon  these  maps.  Here  was 
presented  a  new  mechanical  problem  of  pe 
culiar  difficulty.  No  known  micrometric  ap 
paratus  was  adapted  either  in  form  or  in  di 
mensions  to  effect  these  measurements.  Mr. 
Rutherfurd  met  the  difficulty  with  his  char 
acteristic  ingenuity,  and  with  his  own  hands 
constructed  an  instrument  in  which,  by 
means  of  an  observing  microscope  directed 
toward  the  plate,  and  having  motion  in  two 
'directions  at  right  angles  to  each  other,  the 
co-ordinates  of  position  of  the  objects  ob 
served  may  be  measured  with  a  delicacy 
which  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired.  In  the 
original  form  of  this  instrument  a  microme 
ter  screw  was  depended  on  to  give  these  di 
mensions,  and  an  immense  amount  of  labor 


was  expended  in  the  construction  of  such  a 
screw  and  in  determining  its  error.  The 
investigation  resulted,  however,  in  demon 
strating  that  the  error  of  the  screw  is  not 
constant,  no  matter  how  faultless  the  work 
manship  or  how  excellent  the  material. 
Discarding  the  screw,  therefore,  for  pur 
poses  of  measurement,  Mr.  Rutherfurd  in 
troduces  into  the  instrument,  as  at  present 
constructed,  two  auxiliary  microscopes  trav 
eling  with  the  observing  microscope,  one  in 
each  direction,  and  reading  the  distances 
traveled  upon  fixed  scales  ruled  on  glass. 
In  a  paper  read  before  the  National  Acad 
emy  of  Sciences  in  1866  Mr.  Rutherfurd  gave 
an  account  of  his  method ;  and  at  the  same 
meeting  a  discussion  of  measurements  made 
at  his  observatory  upon  photographs  of  the 
Pleiades  was  presented  by  Dr.  B.  A.  Gould, 
who  reached  the  conclusion  that  the  micro- 
metric  measurements  of  a  single  such  plate, 
with  the  customary  corrections  for  refrac 
tion,  etc.,  would  give  results  aboiit  as  accu 
rate  as  those  obtained  by  Bessel  with  thir 
teen  years'  labor — the  time  employed  by  him 
in  mapping  this  group.  Though  this  meth 
od  has  not  yet  been  adopted  in  public  ob 
servatories,  it  can  not  bo  doubted  that  it  is 
destined  to  be  instrumental  in  the  future  in 
largely  promoting  the  advancement  of  ura- 
nographical  science. 

Another  American  astronomer,  whose  in 
genuity  in  the  construction  of  instruments 
is  no  less  remarkable  than  his  skill  in  the 
use  of  them,  Dr.  Henry  Draper,  has  devoted 
himself  to  the  improvement  of  reflecting 
telescopes.  The  use  of  silvered  glass  for  as 
tronomical  specula  had  been  suggested  by 
Foucault,  as  being  a  material  lighter  and 
less  brittle  than  speculum  metal,  and  as  re 
flecting  a  larger  proportion  of  the  light ; 
and  he  had  practically  illustrated  the  value 
of  this  suggestion  by  actually  grinding  and 
silvering  one  or  two  such  specula  with  his 
own  hands.  With  no  light  to  guide  him  but 
the  knowledge  of  these  facts,  Dr.  Draper  un 
dertook  an  investigation  of  the  best  mode  of 
proceeding  in  the  construction  of  such  spec 
ula,  recording  the  results  of  his  experiments 
as  he  went  on;  and  having  at  length  at 
tained  a  triumphant  success,  he  published 
his  method  among  the  Smithsonian  Contri 
butions,  in  an  elaborate  memoir,  which  has 
become  a  standard  authority  on  the  subject, 


304 


SCIENTIFIC  PKOGRESS. 


and  is  continually  quoted  as  such  at  the 
present  day.  The  telescope  described  in 
this  memoir  is  of  fifteen  and  a  half  inches 
aperture,  and  it  was  for  a  long  time  the 
largest  in  the  country;  but  it  is  now  sur 
passed  by  one  of  twenty-eight  inches,  also 
constructed  by  Dr.  Draper,  and  mounted  in 
his  observatory  equatorially  under  a  dome. 
With  both  these  telescopes  Dr.  Draper  has 
taken  splendid  photographs  of  the  moon, 
one  representing  the  satellite  in  the  third 
quarter,  which  has  borne  an  enlargement  to 
fifty  inches  in  diameter ;  and  also  the  spec- 
troscopic  photographs  of  Alpha  Lyra?,  men 
tioned  later  in  this  article. 

Physical  Astronomy. — No  incident  in  the 
history  of  astronomy  has  ever  excited  more 
universal  interest  than  the  detection,  in  Au 
gust,  1846,  by  a  method  purely  mathematical, 
of  a  planet  which  had  been  previously  lurk 
ing  unseen  upon  the  confines  of  the  system 
ever  since  the  creation.  This  marvelous 
achievement,  of  which  the  history  is  too 
well  known  to  need  repetition  here,  was 
simultaneously  accomplished  by  two  foreign 
astronomers,  and  does  not  belong  to  Ameri 
can  science.  But  it  is  a  curious  fact  that 
the  planet  thus  discovered  fell  immediately 
after  into  the  hands  of  American  astrono 
mers,  and  that  they  have  made  it  practically 
their  own  ever  since.  Owing  to  the  exceed 
ingly  slow  motion  of  the  body,  the  elements 
of  its  orbit  could  not  be  determined  from 
the  observations  of  a  few  months.  Assum 
ing  the  orbit  to  be  circular,  several  Europe 
an  astronomers  reached  early  and  concur 
rently  the  conclusion  that  its  mean  distance 
from  the  sun  is  less  than  the  discoverers  had 
supposed  by  between  five  and  six  hundred 
millions  of  miles.  But  the  first  approxi 
mately  correct  theory  of  its  motions  was 
wrought  out  by  Professor  Sears  C.  Walker, 
of  the  Naval  Observatory  at  Washington,  in 
February,  1847.  When  Herschel  discovered 
the  planet  Uranus  in  1781,  Lexell  was  ena 
bled  to  determine  its  orbit  by  means  of  ob 
servations  made  of  the  same  body  (supposed 
then  to  be  a  fixed  star)  by  Bradley  and  Mayer 
nearly  thirty  years  before  ;  and  the  number 
of  such  previous  accidental  observations  of 
this  body  which  have  since  been  discovered 
amounts  to  no  less  than  nineteen.  It  was 
naturally  hoped  that  the  examination  of 
star  catalogues  of  earlier  years  would  fur 


nish  some  similar  help  to  the  solution  of  the 
problem  presented  by  Neptune.  Of  these 
catalogues,  however,  most  were  for  one  rea 
son  or  another  useless  in  this  inquiry.  One 
only  offered  a  possibility  that  the  newly 
discovered  body  might  have  been  by  good 
fortune  recorded  in  it.  This  was  the  Hls- 
toire  Celeste  of  Lacaille,  embracing  50,000 
stars ;  and  Mr.  Walker  soon  discovered  that 
Lacaille  had  swept  over  the  probable  path 
of  the  planet  on  two  days  nearly  following 
each  other — the  8th  and  10th  of  May,  1795. 
Having,  therefore,  from  the  observations 
made  at  Washington,  combined  with  those 
received  from  Europe,  computed  as  well  as 
he  could  the  place  of  the  body  for  these 
dates,  varying  the  elements  so  as  to  include 
the  entire  region  within  which  it  could  pos 
sibly  have  been  at  that  time,  he  selected 
from  Lalaude  all  the  stars  within  one  de 
gree  of  the  computed  path.  There  were 
nine  of  these,  but  among  the  nine  one  only 
seemed  likely  to  be  the  planet.  The  ques 
tion  then  presented  itself,  Is  this  star  still 
in  the  place  in  which  Lalaude  saw  it  ?  Two 
days  after  this  question  had  been  raised  by 
Mr.  Walker,  the  telescope  of  the  Washing 
ton  Observatory  was  directed  to  the  spot, 
and  found  it  vacant.  Assuming,  therefore, 
this  missing  star  to  have  been  the  planet, 
Mr.  Walker  computed  an  elliptic  orbit  which 
represented  with  gratifying  precision  all  the 
modern  observations.  The  elliptic  elements 
first  obtained  were,  however,  only  approxi 
mate.  In  order  to  their  more  exact  deter 
mination  it  was  necessary  that  the  theory 
of  the  perturbations  should  be  revised. 
Here  Professor  Peirce,  of  Harvard  Universi 
ty,  lent  his  powerful  assistance,  and  with 
the  perturbations  furnished  by  him,  and  re 
vised  normal  places,  Walker  computed  an 
ephemeris  of  the  plaiiet  which  he  published 
in  the  Smithsonian  Contributions.  The  only 
attempt  at  a  theory  of  Neptune  made 
abroad  was  by  Kowalski,  of  Kasan,  Russia, 
in  1855 ;  but  this,  though  formed  on  a  much 
larger  number  of  recent  observations,  did 
not  represent  the  motions  of  the  body  more 
exactly  than  that  of  Walker. 

The  ephemerides  founded  on  these  early 
theories  were  affected  more  or  less  with  er 
ror.  Toward  1865  the  errors  were  increasing 
with  rapidity,  and  it  was  evident  that  with 
out  a  new  determination  of  the  orbit,  they 


KEWCOMB'S  THEORY  OF  NEPTUNE. 


305 


would  reach,  before  the  end  of  the  century, 
the  serious  amount  of  5'  of  longitude.  Pro 
fessor  Simon  Newcomb,  of  the  Naval  Ob 
servatory,  Washington,  now  addressed  him 
self  to  the  laborious  task  of  reconstructing 
the  theory  from  the  foundation.  His  re 
sults  are  published  in  the  Smithsonian  Con 
tributions,  and  embrace  (1)  a  determination 
of  the  elements  of  the  orbit  from  observa 
tions  extending  through  an  arc  of  40° ;  (2) 
an  inquiry  whether  the  mass  of  Uranus  can 
be  determined  from  the  motion  of  Neptune ; 
(3)  an  examination  of  the  question  whether 
these  motions  indicate  the  action  of  an  ex 
tra-Neptunian  planet ;  (4)  tables  and  formu 
las  for  finding  the  place  of  Neptune  at  any 
time,  but  more  particularly  between  the 
years  1600  and  2000. 

In  the  computation  of  the  tables  the  ele 
ments  adopted  are  not  the  mean  elements, 
but  their  values  at  the  present  time  as  af 
fected  by  secular  inequalities  and  inequali 
ties  of  long  period,  particularly  that  of  4300 
years  arising  out  of  the  near  approach  of 
the  mean  motion  of  Uranus  to  twice  and  a 
half  that  of  Neptune,  these  being  adapted 
to  give  the  place  of  the  planet  with  the 
highest  degree  of  accuracy  during  the  pe 
riod  for  which  the  tables  are  specially  de 
signed,  i.  e.,  till  the  year  2000.  The  work  is 
one  involving  an  enormous  amount  of  labor. 
As  to  the  mass  of  Uranus,  Professor  New- 
comb  concludes  that  no  trustworthy  value 
can  be  deduced  from  the  motions  of  Nep 
tune,  nor,  had  this  body  been  unknown, 
could  even  its  existence  have  been  detect 
ed  from  all  the  observations  of  the  exterior 
planet  hitherto  made.  It  results,  almost 
of  course,  that  no  evidence  yet  appears  of 
the  existence  of  any  still  more  distant  plan 
et  remaining  yet  undiscovered. 

Soon  after  the  publication  of  Professor 
Walker's  "  Elements  of  Neptune,"  Professor 
Peirce,  in  a  communication  to  the  American 
Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences,  after  demon 
strating  that  this  planet,  with  the  mass  de 
duced  from  Bond's  observations  of  Lassell's 
satellite,  and  with  the  orbit  assigned  by 
Walker,  would  fully  reconcile  all  the  mod 
ern  observations  and  all  the  ancient  acci 
dental  ones  better  than  the  hypothetical 
planet  of  Leverrier  or  Adams  (Flamsteed's 
observation  of  1690  being  discordant  with 
Adams  to  the  extent  of  50"  and  with  Lever- 
•20 


rier  to  20",  but  harmonizing  with  the  com 
putation  from  the  Walker  and  Peirce  theo 
ry  within  a  single  second),  ventured  upon 
the  bold  assertion  that  the  planet  actually 
discovered  by  Galle,  searching  under  Lever- 
rier's  direction,  was  not  the  planet  predict 
ed  or  expected,  but  a  very  different  body, 
which  occupied  that  place  at  that  time  only 
by  a  happy  accident.  Leverrier  had  fixed 
the  distance  of  his  planet  from  the  sun  at 
36.154  times  the  earth's  distance,  and  Pro 
fessor  Peirce  demonstrated  that  at  the  dis 
tance  35.3  (at  which  a  planet  would  have  a 
periodical  time  equal  to  twice  and  a  half 
that  of  Uranus)  so  important  a  change  takes 
place  in  the  character  of  the  perturbations 
as  to  make  it  impossible  to  extend  to  the 
space  within  that  distance  any  investiga 
tions  relating  to  the  space  beyond.  The 
observed  distance  is  slightly  over  30 ;  and 
it  appears  that  a  second  similar  peculiarity 
occurs  at  30.4,  where  a  planet  would  have 
a  period  just  double  that  of  Uranus.  The 
perturbations  produced  by  it  on  this  latter 
would,  therefore,  for  a  twofold  reason,  be 
of  very  different  character  from  those  re 
sulting  from  the  supposed  planet  at  the  dis 
tance  of  36.  Though  these  criticisms  of 
Professor  Peirce  are  well  founded,  and  have 
never  been  satisfactorily  answered,  yet  they 
can  not  materially  affect  our  estimate  of 
the  merit  of  Adams  and  Leverrier.  A  plan 
et  such  as  that  indicated  by  their  analysis 
would  have  produced  very  nearly  the  act 
ually  observed  irregularities  of  motion  of 
Uranus,  and  must  have  been  occupying  very 
nearly  the  place  in  the  heavens  of  that  which 
was  actually  found.  Any  planet  capable  of 
doing  this  must  have  been  in  this  neighbor 
hood  at  the  time  of  the  discovery,  and  it 
was  the  merit  of  the  analysis  that  it  indi 
cated  the  quarter  in  which  the  disturbing 
body  was  to  be  looked  for — a  merit  which 
remains,  though  the  actual  planet  differs 
from  the  planet  predicted, in  mass,  distance, 
and  period. 

Besides  his  "Theory  of  Neptune,"  Profess 
or  Newcomb  has  made  numerous  very  val 
uable  contributions  to  physical  astronomy. 
His  "  Investigation  of  the  Orbit  of  Uranus," 
in  the  Smithsonian  Contributions  for  1873,  is 
a  work  of  great  labor,  commenced  as  early 
as  1859,  but  necessarily  deferred  till  after 
the  completion  of  the  "Theory  of  Neptune." 


306 


SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS. 


In  1871  he  published  in  Liouville's  Jour 
nal,  Paris,  a  "  Theory  of  the  Perturbations 
of  the  Moon  produced  by  the  Action  of  the 
Planets."  Of  this  very  able  and  very  orig 
inal  investigation  it  is  sufficient  to  cite  the 
opinion  expressed  by  Professor  Cayley,  pres 
ident  of  the  Royal  Astronomical  Society  of 
London,  who  pronounces  it,  "  from  the  bold 
ness  of  the  conception  and  the  beauty  of 
the  results,  a  very  remarkable  memoir,  con 
stituting  an  important  addition  to  theoret 
ical  dynamics." 

Another  very  interesting  memoir  by  Pro 
fessor  Newcomb  embraces  an  investigation 
of  the  secular  variations  and  mutual  rela 
tions  of  the  orbits  of  the  asteroids,  for  the 
purpose  of  testing  the  question,  from  a  the 
oretic  point  of  view,  whether  the  theory 
of  Olbers,  that  these  bodies  are  the  frag 
ments  of  a  single  shattered  planet,  is  ten 
able  or  not.  Twenty-five  asteroids  are  in 
cluded  in  the  comparison,  and  the  conclusion 
is  unfavorable  to  the  hypothesis  in  question. 

In  the  Washington  observations  for  1865 
there  appeared  an  investigation  by  Profess 
or  Newcomb  of  the  value  of  the  solar  par 
allax,  reached  by  a  discussion  of  the  obser 
vations  made  in  1862  at  six  observatories  in 
the  northern  hemisphere  and  two  in  the 
southern,  and  a  combination  of  these  with 
other  results  furnished  by  micrornetrical 
measures  of  Mars  by  Professor  Hall,  the 
parallactic  equation  of  the  moon,  the  lunar 
equation  of  the  earth,  and  finally  the  tran 
sit  of  Venus  of  1769  recomputed  by  Pro 
fessor  Powalky.  The  inference  is  that  the 
true  parallax  is  8.85",  with  a  probable  error 
of  0.013".  Apparently  the  conclusion  from 
the  transit  of  1874  will  not  be  far  from  8.87", 
a  result  very  near  to  that  previously  ob 
tained  by  Professor  Newcomb. 

The  great  geometers  who  succeeded  New 
ton  in  applying  the  principle  of  gravitation 
to  the  explanation  of  planetary  motions  as 
sume  that  those  minute  inequalities,  of  which 
the  effects  only  become  sensible  after  long 
intervals,  and  produce  considerable  changes 
only  after  many  centuries,  or,  perhaps,  myr 
iads  of  centuries,  are  developed  uniformly 
with  the  time — a  supposition  which  answer 
ed  the  immediate  purpose,  though  it  is  by 
no  means  true.  Yet  a  knowledge  of  the 
laws  which  govern  these  inequalities  is  im 
portant  to  the  settlement  of  a  number  of 


interesting  questions,  especially  such  as  con 
cern  the  stability  of  the  system,  and  the  vi 
cissitudes  of  heat  and  cold  to  which  our  own 
planet  has  been  manifestly  subjected  in  the 
distant  past.  Lagrange  pointed  out  the 
mathematical  criterion  by  which  the  gen 
eral  question  of  stability  might  be  deter 
mined.  Its  application  required  a  knowl 
edge  of  the  masses  of  the  planets.  These 
were  not  accurately  known,  but  by  substi 
tuting  approximate  values  for  them  he  was 
able  to  announce  that  none  of  the  varia 
tions  of  the  planetary  elements  could  go  on 
increasing  forever.  Laplace  went  further 
than  this,  and  proved  that,  provided  the  di 
rection  of  revolution  is  the  same  for  all  the 
planets,  the  stability  of  the  system  is  iude- 
pendeut  of  the  masses.  In  this  case  he 
showed  that  the  sum  of  the  products  of  the 
several  masses  by  the  squares  of  the  eccen 
tricities  and  the  square  roots  of  the  mean 
distances  is  constant,  and  that  if  the  eccen 
tricities  are  small,  the  variations  will  be 
small,  so  that  the  system  will  not  only  be 
stable,  but  will  undergo  no  large  departures 
from  its  mean  condition.  This  is  the  state 
of  things  in  our  solar  system.  The  actual 
condition  of  physical  astronomy  at  present 
has  seemed  to  demand  a  more  complete  in 
vestigation  of  this  intricate  subject,  and 
such  an  investigation  has  been  recently 
undertaken  and  successfully  accomplished 
by  Mr.  J.  N.  Stockwell,  of  Cleveland,  Ohio, 
whose  elaborate  memoir  relating  to  it  has 
been  published  among  the  Smithsonian  Con 
tributions  to  Knoivledge.  The  object  of  the 
investigation  has  been  to  determine  the  nu 
merical  values  of  the  secular  changes  of  the 
elements  of  all  the  planetary  orbits.  The 
elements  considered  are  four :  the  eccentric 
ities  and  inclinations  of  the  orbits,  and  the 
longitudes  of  the  nodes  and  of  the  perihe 
lia.  The  fluctuations  of  value  are  largest 
in  the  case  of  Mercury,  and  smallest  in  the 
case  of  Neptune.  We  are  concerned  chiefly 
Avith  what  relates  to  our  own  planet,  and 
more  especially  with  the  fluctuations  in  the 
eccentricity  of  its  orbit.  This  eccentricity 
may  vary  between  the  limits  zero  and 
0.0694,  involving  a  difference  between  the 
aphelion  and  perihelion  distance  of  the 
earth  from  the  sun  of  13,000,000  miles,  and 
also  a  difference  between  the  duration  of 
the  summer  and  the  winter  half  year,  of  thir- 


PEIRCE,  MAXWELL,  AND  ALEXANDER. 


307 


ty-two  days.  It  can  hardly  now  be  doubted 
that  to  these  changes  of  eccentricity  have 
been  due  the  remarkable  vicissitudes  of  cli 
mate  to  which,  as  geology  informs  us,  the 
earth  has  been  subjected.  At  present  the 
winter  of  the  southern  hemisphere  occurs  in 
aphelion,  and  is  longer  than  the  summer  by 
eight  days.  The  consequence  is  that  the 
south  pole  is  capped  with  massive  ice,  which 
occupies  an  area  of  probably  more  than  2000 
miles  in  diameter.  When  the  eccentricity 
is  maximum,  the  hemisphere  which  has  the 
winter  in  aphelion  is  probably  ice-bound 
nearly  or  quite  down  to  the  tropic. 

The  stability  of  the  Saturuian  system  and 
the  mechanical  condition  of  the  material  of 
Saturn's  rings  form  the  subject  of  an  impor 
tant  memoir  read  \ty  Professor  B.  Peirce  at 
the  meeting  of  the  American  Association  for 
the  Advancement  of  Science  held  at  Cincin 
nati  in  1851.  The  conclusion  arrived  at  is 
that  the  rings  could  not  possibly  be  stable 
unless  sustained  by  the  mutual  attraction 
between  them  and  the  inner  satellites ;  and 
consequently  that,  in  the  absence  of  such  sat 
ellites,  they  could  have  no  existence.  Also, 
that  inasmuch  as  no  solid  material  known  is 
sufficiently  tenacious  to  resist  without  rupt 
ure  the  immense  divellent  forces  to  which  a 
solid  ring  under  such  circumstances  must  be 
subjected,  therefore  the  rings  must  be  fluid, 
and  not  solid.  Laplace  had  recognized  the 
difficulty  attendant  on  the  hypothesis  of  a 
continuous  solid  ring  of  such  breadth,  and 
had  therefore  assumed  that  the  rings,  though 
apparently  presenting  continuous  plane  sur 
faces,  are  nevertheless  divided  into  many 
concentric  and  comparatively  narrow  rings. 
He  also  perceived  that  such  rings  would 
necessarily  be  in  a  condition  of  unstable 
equilibrium  with  the  planet  in  case  their 
centres  of  gravity  should  coincide,  as  would 
seem  from  their  appearance  to  be  most  prob 
able,  with  their  centres  of  figure ;  and  he  ac 
cordingly  supposed  that  there  exist  irregu 
larities  in  the  disposition  of  their  substance 
imperceptible  to  us,  which,  by  displacing  the 
centres  of  gravity,  give  them  the  necessary 
stability.  He  failed  to  show  that  these  two 
hypotheses  can  both  be  true  and  at  the  same 
time  consistent  with  the  optical  phenomena, 
and,  in  fact,  left  the  theory  of  this  system 
incomplete.  In  1857  Mr.  J.  Clerk  Maxwell, 
in  a  prize  essay  presented  to  the  University 


of  Cambridge,  in  England,  investigated  these 
hypotheses  of  Laplace,  and  showed  conclu 
sively  that  they  are  untenable.  On  the  hy 
pothesis  of  fluidity  he  investigated  the  tidal 
movements  which  must  take  place  in  the 
rings,  and  rejected  equally  this  supposition. 
But  his  analysis  did  not  extend  to  the  move 
ment  of  the  rings  in  mass,  and  therefore  it 
is  not  in  conflict  with  the  view  of  Professor 
Peirce.  If  this  be  discarded,  there  remains 
no  other  but  to  suppose  the  rings  to  be  made 
up  of  innumerable  small  discrete  solid  mass 
es  so  near  together  that,  in  a  zone  having 
the  generally  admitted  thickness  of  one  or 
two  hundred  miles,  they  present  to  a  dis 
tant  observer  the  appearance  of  a  contin 
uous  solid.  This  view  is  that  which  is  held 
by  Mr.  R.  A.  Proctor. 

Few  of  our  American  astronomers  have 
contributed  more  abundantly  to  the  litera 
ture  of  the  science  than  Professor  Stephen 
Alexander,  of  Princeton.  In  1843  Professor 
Alexander  presented  to  the  American  Philo 
sophical  Society  an  elaborate  memoir  upon 
the  physical  phenomena  attending  eclipses, 
transits,  and  occupations,  which  excited 
much  interest  in  the  astronomical  world. 
In  1874  there  was  published  among  the 
Smithsonian  Contributions  a  paper  by  the 
same  astronomer,  entitled,  "Exposition  of 
certain  Harmonies  of  the  Solar  System." 
The  design  is  to  show  inductively  a  tendency 
in  nature  to  the  arrangement  of  the  plan 
ets  according  to  a  law  of  distances  from  the 
sun's  centre,  in  which  the  distance  of  each 
succeeding  planet  is  five-ninths  of  that  of 
the  last  preceding,  and  to  explain  the  actual 
departures  from  this  law  in  the  existing  so 
lar  system  by  the  supposition  that  in  one  or 
two  instances  two  planets  (called,  there  fore, 
half-planets)  have  been  formed  in  the  place 
of  one.  The  earth  and  Venus  constitute  a 
pair  of  this  kind.  This  ingenious  specula 
tion  may  be  classed  among  the  curiosities 
of  astronomy,  as  it  does  not  appear  practi 
cable  to  test  its  probability  by  mathemat 
ical  analysis.  Of  the  numerous  other  in 
teresting  astronomical  papers  of  Professor 
Alexander  the  limitations  on  our  space  pro 
hibit  us  from  making  mention. 

In  the  year  1849  Professor  Daniel  Kirk- 
wood,  then  of  Delaware  College,  Newark, 
now  of  the  State  University  of  Indiana,  an 
nounced  a  remarkable  law  connecting  the 


308 


SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS. 


masses  and  distances  of  the  planets  of  the 
solar  system  and  their  periods  of  rotation 
on  their  axes.  To  understand  this,  let  it  be 
premised  that  between  any  two  planets  suc 
ceeding  each  other  in  order  as  numbered 
from  the  sun  outward,  there  is,  when  the 
bodies  are  in  conjunction  at  their  mean  dis 
tances,  a  point  of  equal  attraction,  that  is 
to  say,  a  point  in  which  a  body  free  to  move 
would  be  held  in  equilibria  by  the  opposing 
attractions  of  the  two  planets.  Suppose 
these  neutral  points  to  be  found  for  all  the 
planets  of  the  system,  and  the  distance  be 
tween  the  two  neutral  points  above  and  be 
low  each  planet  to  be  called  the  diameter 
of  the  sphere  of  attraction  of  that  planet, 
then,  according  to  this  law,  it  will  be  true 
that  the  cubes  of  these  diameters  for  any 
two  planets  will  be  to  each  other  as  the 
squares  of  their  respective  numbers  of  rota 
tions  during  one  sidereal  revolution  of  each. 
This  law  was  subjected  to  a  close  examina 
tion  by  Professor  Sears  C.  Walker  in  1850, 
with  a  favorable  conclusion.  It  is  to  be 
observed,  however,  that  the  uncertainty  ex 
isting  as  to  the  masses  of  several  of  the 
planets,  and  as  to  the  periods  of  rotation  of 
some  of  them,  gives  to  this  conclusion  the 
character  of  a  probable  rather  than  of  a 
certain  result.  In  order  to  extend  the'  anal 
ogy  throughout  the  system,  Mr.  Walker  in 
terpolates  a  planet  in  the  region  of  the  aster 
oids  between  Mars  and  Jupiter,  which  he 
places  very  nearly  at  the  distance  given  by 
Bode's  law.  He  finds  also  that  if  there  ex 
ists  a  planet  nearer  the  sun  than  Mercury, 
its  distance  must  be  one-fifth  that  of  the 
earth,  or  about  18,000,000"  miles.  For  the 
doubtful  masses,  Mr.  Walker  finds  that  the 
values  demanded  by  the  law  are  within  the 
limits,  often  pretty  wide,  of  those  actually 
employed  by  different  authorities  in  the  in 
vestigations  of  physical  astronomy  and  in 
the  construction  of  tables.  It  will  only  be 
after  a  higher  degree  of  perfection  shall  be 
attained  in  the  theory  of  every  planet  than 
has  yet  been  reached,  that  the  accuracy  of 
Kirkwood's  analogy  can  be  conclusively 
tested. 

Solar  Physics. — The  physical  condition  of 
the  sun  has  occupied  very  much  of  late 
years  the  attention  of  the  scientific  world. 
Ever  since  the  invention  of  the  telescope 
the  solar  spots  have  been  observed  with 


careful  and  curious  interest,  and  these,  to 
gether  with  the  varying  features  of  the 
photosphere  itself,  when  minutely  examined, 
led  early  to  a  general  though  hardly  univer 
sal  acquiescence  in  the  opinion  expressed  by 
Wilson  in  the  Philosophical  Transactions  of 
1774,  and  adopted  by  Sir  William  Herschel, 
that  the  luminous  surface  which  we  see  is 
not  the  surface  of  a  solid.  The  question 
what  is  beneath  this  surface  remained  a 
subject  of  controversy ;  and  on  any  hypoth 
esis  of  the  state  of  the  sun's  mass,  the  essen 
tial  nature  of  the  spots  and  the  causes  pro 
ducing  them  were  matters  equally  unsettled. 
The  vastly  improved  instruments  of  recent 
years,  the  employment  of  photography  in 
aid  of  observation,  and  above  all,  the  appli 
cation  of  the  spectroscope  to  the  study  of 
the  chromosphere  and  the  photosphere,  have 
shed  a  flood  of  light  upon  this  difficult  sub 
ject,  which  is  likely  soon  to  harmonize  all 
opinions,  though  it  can  hardly  be  said  to 
have  done  so  yet. 

Immediately  after  the  erection  of  the 
great  Munich  achromatic  at  the  Harvard 
Observatory,  this  splendid  instrument  was 
employed  by  Mr.  W.  C.  Bond  in  a  continu 
ous  series  of  observations  of  the  solar  spots 
continued  for  a  period  of  more  than  two 
years,  maps  of  the  spots  being  carefully 
drawn  at  every  observation.  The  results 
are  published  in  full  in  the  Annals  of  the 
Harvard  Observatory,  and  furnish  a  valuable 
means  of  studying  the  varying  aspects  of 
the  spots,  their  growth,  decline,  and  dura 
tion.  More  recently  many  foreign  observers 
have  devoted  themselves  to  the  investiga 
tion  ;  among  whom  may  be  mentioned  Mr. 
De  la  Rue,  Mr.  Balfour  Stewart,  and  Mr. 
Loewy  in  England,  who  have  given  special 
attention  to  the  laws  governing  the  varia 
tions  of  the  total  area  of  sun  spot  and  its 
distribution  over  the  solar  disk;  Mr.  Faye, 
in  France,  and  Father  Secchi,  in  Rome,  who 
have  engaged  not  only  in  observation,  but 
in  speculations  on  theory.  The  British  ob 
servers  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  the 
maxima  and  minima  of  spot  development 
are  periodic,  the  period  coinciding  with  the 
synodical  revolution  of  the  planet  Venus,  to 
the  influence  of  which  body  they  therefore 
ascribe  it.  They  attribute  a  similar  and 
perhaps  as  powerful  an  effect  to  Jupiter; 
but  in  this  case  the  irregularities  are  less, 


SOLAR  PHYSICS. 


309 


on  account  of  the  greater  distance  of  the 
disturbing  body.  Professor  Loomis,  of  New 
Haven,  investigated  the  question  of  the  pe 
riod  of  maximum,  in  a  paper  published  in 
1870,  arriving  at  the  conclusion,  somewhat 
different  from  that  above  mentioned,  that 
the  period  is  determined  by  Jupiter,  and  is 
about  ten  years ;  the  magnitude  of  the  max 
imum  fluctuating,  and  dependent  on  Venus, 
with  irregularities  unaccounted  for  still 
outstanding.  As  to  the  "sun's  physical  con 
stitution,  Professor  Sterry  Hunt  is  the  au 
thor  of  a  theory  which  is  essentially  a  part 
of  his  theory  of  chemical  geology,  according 
to  which  the  solar  sphere  consists  wholly 
of  matter  in  a  gaseous  condition,  all  the  el 
ements  being  mingled  but  not  combined, 
their  affinities  being  held  in  check  by  the 
intensity  of  the  heat.  The  partial  cooling 
of  the  surface  by  radiation  depresses  the 
temperature  to  the  point  at  which  combina 
tion  is  possible,  and  thus  are  formed  vast 
volumes  of  finely  divided  solid  or  liquid 
matter,  which,  suspended  in  the  surround 
ing  gases,  become  intensely  luminous,  and 
form  the  source  of  the  solar  light.  This 
view  is  sustained  also  by  Mr.  Faye  and  by 
Mr.  Balfour  Stewart,  but  is  dissented  from 
by  Father  Secchi,  who  inclines  to  believe 
the  luminous  envelope  to  form  a  kind  of 
liquid  or  viscous  shell.  Recent  observa 
tions  by  Professor  S.  P.  Langley,  with  the 
admirable  13-inch  objective  of  the  Alle- 
ghauy  Observatory,  have  furnished  proba 
bly  the  most  conclusive  evidence  on  this 
subject  which  has  yet  been  obtained,  and 
are  entirely  favorable  to  the  theory  of  Pro 
fessor  Hunt.  Professor  Langley's  papers 
have  been  published  in  the  American  Journal 
of  Science  for  1874  and  1875,  and  are  full  of 
interest  not  only  as  to  the  phenomena  of 
the  spots,  but  as  to  the  minute  features  of 
the  sun's  general  superficies.  Accompany 
ing  his  latest  paper  is  a  magnificent  en 
graved  illustration  from  a  drawing  of  a 
typical  solar  spot  observed  in  December, 
1873.  It  represents  what  is  commonly  call 
ed  the  penumbra  as  being  formed  of  long- 
drawn  luminous  filaments  which  in  their 
curvature  give  evidence  of  gyratory  move 
ments,  indicating  that  the  spots  are  formed 
by  tremendous  vortices  spirally  ascending 
or  descending.  Professor  Langley  remarks 
of  the  apparently  black  centre  or  nucleus 


of  the  spot,  that  he  has  found  it  by  direct 
experiment,  when  all  extraneous  light  is 
excluded,  to  be  not  only  intrinsically  bright, 
but  insupportably  intense  to  the  naked  eye. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  contributions 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  solar  physics  was 
the  discovery  in  1871  by  Professor  C.  A. 
Young  of  that  comparatively  limited  but 
well-defined  solar  envelope  called  the  chro 
mosphere,  where  the  lines  which  in  the  or 
dinary  solar  spectrum  are  black  become  re 
versed,  and  assume  the  brilliant  tints  which 
characterize  the  spectra  of  the  elements  to 
which  they  belong,  as  seen  in  experiments 
artificially  instituted.  Professor  Young's 
preliminary  chart  of  the  lines  thus  seen  and 
its  subsequent  extension  will  be  referred  to 
later. 

A  very  ingenious  device  recently  suggest 
ed  by  Professor  A.  M.  Mayer,  of  Hobokeu, 
for  the  study  of  the  laws  of  the  distribution 
of  heat  upon  the  sun's  surface  is  the  latest 
addition  which  has  fallen  under  our  notice 
to  the  means  of  investigating  the  physical 
condition  of  that  body.  The  double  iodide 
of  copper  and  mercury  becomes  discolored 
when  raised  to  a  certain  ascertained  temper 
ature.  Let  a  thin  paper,  blackened  on  one 
surface  and  coated  with  the  iodide  on  the 
other,  receive  the  solar  image  on  the  black 
ened  side,  the  aperture  of  the  object-glass 
being  reduced  to  such  an  extent  that  no  dis 
coloration  of  the  salt  may  occur.  Then  let 
the  aperture  be  gradually  enlarged.  Pres 
ently  a  spot  will  appear,  which  marks  in  the 
image  the  point  of  maximum  temperature 
in  the  solar  disk.  By  successive  additional 
enlargements  of  aperture  the  spot  on  the 
paper  will  be  correspondingly  enlarged, 
and  its  borders  will  indicate  the  isothermal 
lines  of  the  solar  disk.  Several  interesting 
discoveries  already  made  by  the  application 
of  this  method  our  narrow  limits  will  not 
permit  us  to  notice  here. 

Comets. — In  1843  Professor  Alexander,  of 
Princeton,  presented  to  the  American  Phil 
osophical  Society  an  investigation  of  the 
orbit  of  the  great  comet  of  that  year,  accord 
ing  to  which  it  appeared  that  the  body  must 
almost  have  touched  the  sun,  this  result  be 
ing  explained  on  the  hypothesis  that  the 
centre  of  gravity  of  the  comet  was  not  coin 
cident  with  its  centre  of  figure.  In  1850  he 
published  in  the  Astronomical  Journal  a  mem- 


310 


SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS. 


oir  on  the  classification  and  special  points 
of  resemblance  of  certain  periodic  comets, 
and  the  probability  of  a  common  origin  in 
the  case  of  some  of  them.  Three  classes 
were  distinguished.  The  possible  rupture 
by  the  planet  Mars  of  a  large  comet — that  of 
1315  and  1316 — to  furnish  three  of  the  third 
class,  was  suggested  as  an  example.  This 
hypothesis  was  very  lightly  treated  by  Hum- 
boldt  in  his  Cosmos,  but  it  has  found  unex 
pected  corroboration  in  observations  of  our 
own  time. 

The  orbit  of  the  second  comet  of  1840  was 
computed  by  Professor  Loomis,  and  the  re 
sults  communicated  to  the  American  Philo 
sophical  Society,  in  an  able  paper,  which 
was  published  in  their  eighth  volume. 

In  regard  to  cometary  physics  some  very 
important  speculations,  or,  perhaps,  more 
properly  discoveries,  are  due  to  American 
physicists  and  astronomers.  The  nature  of 
the  appendages  called  tails  and  the  causes 
producing  them  have  been  in  all  ages  sub 
jects  of  perplexing  discussion,  and  have 
given  rise  to  a  variety  of  hypotheses,  many 
of  which  are  more  or  less  wild.  This  char 
acter  can  not  be  attributed  to  the  theory 
presented  in  1859  by  Professor  W.  A.  Norton, 
of  Yale  College,  in  which  the  formation  of 
comets'  tails  is  assumed  to  be  due  to  elec 
trical  repulsion,  exerted  both  by  the  nucleus 
and  by  the  sun,  upon  the  attenuated  matter 
sublimed  from  the  mass  by  the  solar  heat. 
The  particles,  under  the  action  of  these 
forces,  pass  off  in  hyperbolic  orbits.  An  ap 
plication  was  made  of  this  theory  to  the  case 
of  the  remarkable  comet  of  1858,  known  as 
Donati's,  by  Professor  Peirce.  This  comet 
had  been  continuously  observed  and  mapped 
through  all  its  varying  and  wonderful  as 
pects,  during  the  entire  five  months  of  its 
visibility,  by  Mr.  George  P.  Bond,  whose  mon 
ograph  on  the  subject,  published  in  the  An 
nals  of  the  Harvard  Observatory,  with  its 
numerous  and  beautifully  executed  illustra 
tions,  will  always  make  it  an  authority  of  the 
highest  character  on  the  subject  of  comet 
ary  changes.  Professor  Peirce's  analysis  led 
to  results  entirely  in  harmony  Avith  the  hy 
pothesis,  explaining  not  only  the  phenom 
ena  in  general,  but  the  special  aspects,  in 
cluding  the  simultaneous  exhibition  of  one 
or  more  rectilinear  tails,  along  with  the 
principal  tail,  which  was  curved  in  the  form 


of  a  sabre.  He  applied  a  similar  analysis 
to  the  great  comet  of  1843,  with  results 
equally  satisfactory.  Here  also  the  investi 
gation  explained  the  existence  of  two  tails, 
one  of  which  did  not  reach  the  comet's  head. 
The  theory  of  electrical  repulsion  as  applied 
to  comets  was  proposed  by  some  foreign  as 
tronomers,  perhaps  independently,  at  about 
the  same  time  with  the  appearance  of  Pro 
fessor  Norton's  memoir.  It  is  frequently 
spoken  of  abroad  as  Professor  Zollner's  view. 
Auroras. — The  aurora  borealis  has  formed 
the  subject  of  a  pretty  voluminous  litera 
ture,  both  at  home  and  abroad,  during  the 
last  half  century.  All  the  scientific  jour 
nals  teem  with  articles  on  the  subject,  and 
the  transactions  of  societies  contain  numer 
ous  elaborate  memoirs  relating  to  it.  We 
can  mention  but  a  few  of  these  publications, 
and  those  only  briefly.  In  the  first  volume 
of  Transactions  of  the  Connecticut  Acad 
emy  there  appeared  the  results  of  seven 
teen  years'  study  of  auroras  by  Edward  C. 
Herrick,  of  New  Haven,  an  observer  unsur 
passed  for  accuracy  of  observation  and 
soundness  of  judgment.  This  paper  will 
ever  be  a  high  authority  in  regard  to  the 
facts.  Professor  Loomis,  of  New  Haven,  ex 
amined  a  few  years  since  the  question  of 
the  periodicity  of  the  aurora,  and  of  its  rela 
tion  to  the  maxima  and  minima  of  solar  dis 
turbance  as  indicated  by  the  spots,  with 
reference  to  the  possibility  that  both  phe 
nomena  are  dependent  on  a  common  cause. 
He  found  the  periods  nearly  equal,  but  the 
auroral  period  less  regular  than  the  other, 
and  the  coincidences  in  general  only  ap 
proximate.  This  question  was  at  the  same 
time  occupying  Professor  Levering,  of  Har 
vard  University,  who  has  investigated  it,  so 
far  as  records  go,  to  exhaustion.  The  tenth 
volume  of  the  Transactions  of  the  Ameri 
can  Academy  contains  a  catalogue  by  him 
of  every  aurora  to  be  found  in  accessible 
records  from  the  year  502  B.C.  down  to  A.D. 
1868.  The  total  number  is  about  12,000; 
and  this  immense  catalogue  is  carefully  ana 
lyzed  with  a  view  to  determine  the  daily, 
the  yearly,  and  the  secular  periodicity,  if 
such  exists.  The  results,  which  are  not 
only  tabulated  but  expressed  in  curves,  do 
not  exhibit  all  the  regularity  which  might 
be  anticipated,  but  they  show,  nevertheless, 
evidences  of  a  periodicity,  subject  mani- 


METEORIC  ASTRONOMY. 


311 


festly  to  large  disturbances  from  unknown 
causes. 

Meteoric  Astronomy. — To  American  astron 
omers  is  due  the  credit  of  having  first  cor 
rectly  interpreted  the  phenomena  presented 
by  the  frequent  intruders  from  the  regions 
of  space  into  our  atmosphere  called  shoot 
ing-stars.  In  regard  to  the  nature  of  these 
bodies  the  most  widely  various  hypotheses 
had  from  the  earliest  times  been  held  by 
diifereiit  speculators,  none  of  them  support 
ed  by  proofs,  or  resting  on  any  systematic 
observation.  Some  of  the  earliest  conject 
ures  regarding  them  seem  to  have  been 
soundest.  Auaxagoras,  whose  general  views 
of  the  structure  of  the  universe  were  so 
much  in  advance  of  his  time,  supposed  that 
there  are  non- luminous  bodies  revolving 
about  the  earth,  from  which  meteors  may 
proceed,  though  this  idea  is  marred  by  the 
supposition  that  such  bodies  may  have  been 
thrown  off  from  the  earth  itself  by  centrifu 
gal  force.  Diogenes  of  Apollouia,  whose  own 
writings  are  not  extant,  but  who  wrote  on 
cosmology,  is  said  to  have  held  that,  besides 
the  visible  planets,  there  are  other  planets 
which  are  invisible.  These  sagacious  con 
jectures,  however,  were  overborne  by  the 
later  authority  of  Aristotle,  who  inculcated 
the  doctrine  that  shooting-stars  are  terres 
trial  meteors  originating  in  the  atmosphere 
itself — a  doctrine  generally  received  as  the 
most  probable  down  to  the  present  century. 

On  the  morning  of  November  13,  1833, 
there  occurred  one  of  the  .most  wonderful 
displays  of  celestial  pyrotechnics  that  was 
probably  ever  witnessed.  As  observed  in 
the  Eastern  United  States,  it  commenced 
about  midnight  and  continued  for  some 
hours,  increasing  in  magnificence  until  it 
was  lost  in  the  light  of  the  rising  sun.  It 
•was  visible  probably  over  the  greater  part 
of  North  America,  and  was  actually  observed 
at  various  points  from  the  West  India  Isl 
ands  to  Greenland,  and  westwardly  to  the 
one-hundredth  degree  of  longitude.  From 
the  numerous  descriptions  of  this  sublime 
spectacle  with  which,  immediately  after  its 
occurrence,  the  journals  of  the  day  were 
crowded,  it  seems  to  have  presented  the  ap 
pearance  of  a  literal  shower  of  fire,  the  me 
teors  falling  on  all  sides  in  prodigious  num 
bers,  and  many  of  them  exhibiting  a  splendor 
truly  dazzling.  An  important  fact  in  regard 


to  these  meteors  noticed  by  many  observers 
was  the  apparent  divergence  of  their  paths 
from  a  single  radiant  point.  All  accounts 
agreed  in  fixing  this  radiant  in  the  constel 
lation  Leo,  and  in  the  statement  that  it  con 
tinued  to  maintain  its  position  unchanged 
as  the  constellation  advanced  with  the  di 
urnal  motion  of  the  heavens.  This  fact  of 
fered  very  conclusive  evidence  that  the 
source  of  the  meteors  was  foreign  to  the 
earth,  and  that  their  paths,  though  seeming 
ly  divergent,  were  actually  parallel  to  each 
other  and  to  a  line  drawn  from  the  specta 
tor  to  the  radiant,  the  divergency  being 
merely  an  effect  of  perspective.  To  Pro 
fessor  Denison  Olmsted,  of  New  Haven,  be 
longs  the  credit  of  having  first  pointed  out 
the  legitimate  conclusions  to  be  drawn  from 
these  phenomena,  which  he  did  in  a  paper 
published  in  the  American  Journal  of  Science 
in  March,  1834.  Having  first  demonstrated 
the  cosmical  origin  of  the  meteors,  Professor 
Olmsted  proceeded,  with  the  aid  of  such  im 
perfect  data  as  at  that  time  existed,  includ 
ing  observations  of  a  similar  star-shower 
observed  on  the  Eastern  Continent  in  1832, 
and  of  a  much  earlier  one  witnessed  by 
Humboldt  and  Bonpland  in  Cumana,  South 
America,  in  1799,  to  devise  upon  this  basis 
a  theory  adequate  to  account  for  the  facts. 
The  conclusion  reached  by  him  was  that 
the  meteors  must  be  portions  of  a  nebulous 
body  drawn  into  the  earth's  atmosphere  at 
a  point  of  near  approach,  and  inflamed  by 
the  heat  generated  by  the  resistance  of 
the  atmosphere  to  their  motion.  Professor 
Olmsted  did  not  explain  the  meaning  at 
tached  by  him  to  the  term  nebulous.  If  he 
meant  by  it  a  gas,  or  a  finely  comminuted 
and  uniformly  diffused  solid  matter,  his  the 
ory  is  inadmissible.  But  if  he  meant  a  con 
geries  of  loosely  scattered  discrete  bodies, 
the  phenomena  are  in  harmony  with  his 
view ;  and  to  this  extent  the  more  recent 
and  more  exact  investigations  of  Professor 
Newton,  of  Yale  College,  and  Professor  Schi- 
aparelli,  of  Milan,  have  confirmed  his  conclu 
sions.  But  in  assigning  to  the  supposed 
nebulous  body  a  period  of  182  days,  and  in 
his  speculations  as  to  the  density  of  the  con 
stituent  parts  of  the  nebula,  he  was  less 
happy.  He  supposed  the  specific  gravity  to 
be  very  small,  whereas  the  researches  of 
Newton  and  others  conclusively  prove  that 


312 


SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS. 


these  bodies  must  have  the  average  density 
of  our  harder  rocks ;  and  the  numerous  spec 
imens  in  cabinets  of  the  fragmentary  por 
tions  of  them  which  have  forced  their  way 
through  the  atmospheric  shield  by  which 
our  planet  is  protected  against  their  de 
structive  impact  are  many  of  them  largely 
or  wholly  composed  of  metal.  The  intense 
interest  excited  in  all  classes  of  persons  by 
the  meteoric  display  of  1833  turned  the  at 
tention  of  a  multitude  of  observers  in  this 
and  other  countries  to  the  study  of  these 
phenomena — a  study  which  was  pursued 
both  by  the  careful  examination  of  records 
for  the  discovery  of  past  examples  of  similar 
occurrences,  and  by  the  direct  and  continu 
ous  observation  of  the  heavens  themselves. 
The  scientific  journals  of  the  period  bear 
striking  witness  to  the  activity  of  these  in 
vestigators.  One  of  the  most  successful 
among  them  was  Mr.  E.  C.  Herrick,  of  New 
Haven,  at  that  time,  or  later,  librarian  of 
Yale  College,  who  presently  announced  the 
discovery  of  three  or  four  additional  periods 
of  periodical  shooting -star  abundance  or 
star  showers,  viz.,  in  January,  August,  April, 
and  December.  In  regard  to  the  August 
period,  Quetelet,  of  Brussels,  was  afterward 
found  to  have  anticipated  him,  but  his  dis 
covery  of  the  others  was  original.  Since 
that  time  observation  in  many  quarters  has 
been  so  persistent  and  so  fruitful  of  results 
as  to  justify  the  statement  that  there  are 
not  fewer  than  fifty  different  days  in  the 
year  on  which  there  is  a  tendency  to  a  me 
teoric  display  above  the  average. 

As  from  the  examination  of  records,  an 
cient  and  modern,  the  number  of  observed 
returns  of  the  November  shower  was  in 
creased,  two  very  important  deductions  fol 
lowed — first,  the  congeries  of  bodies  fur 
nishing  the  meteors  must  extend  along  its 
own  orbit  to  a  distance  equal  in  longitude 
to  about  one-sixteenth  or  one-seventeenth 
of  an  entire  circumference ;  and  secondly, 
there  must  be  a  continuous  advance  or  pro 
cession  of  the  node,  or  intersection  of  the 
orbit  with  that  of  the  earth,  causing  a  re 
tardation  of  the  display  by  about  a  day  at 
each  return.  The  significancy  of  the  accu 
mulated  data  was  first  shown  by  Professor 
Newton  in  1864,  who,  from  a  comparison  of 
observations  covering  a  period  of  931  years, 
determined  the  length  of  the  cycle  to  be 


33.25  years,  the  annual  mean  procession  of 
the  node  1.711',  the  inclination  of  the  orbit 
about  17°,  and  the  length  of  the  part  of  the 
cycle  within  which  showers  might  be  ex 
pected  2.25  years.  From  these  definitely 
ascertained  results  he  deduced  the  highly 
important  conclusion  that  the  periodic  time 
of  the  group  of  bodies  from  which  the  me 
teors  proceed  must  be  one  of  the  five  follow 
ing,  and  no  other,  viz.,  179.915  days,  185.413 
days,  354.586  days,  376.575  days,  or  33.25 
years.  It  remained  only,  by  applying  the 
principles  of  physical  astronomy,  to  com 
pute  the  amount  of  annual  procession  of 
the  node  for  each  of  these  five  orbits,  and, 
by  comparing  the  results  with  the  observed 
procession,  to  determine  which  of  the  five 
orbits  is  the  true  one.  This  computation 
Professor  Newton  suggested  as  the  experi- 
mentum  crucis  ;  but  delaying  to  apply  it  him 
self,  the  honor  was  snatched  from  him  by 
Mr.  Adams,  of  Cambridge,  England,  who 
demonstrated  that  the  only  orbit  of  the  five 
which  fulfills  the  conditions  is  that  which 
belongs  to  the  period  of  33.25  years. 

Professor  Newton  followed  up  his  success 
with  the  November  meteors  by  investiga 
tions  hardly  less  remarkable  of  the  numer 
ous  irregularly  occurring  bodies  of  this  class 
called  sporadic.  From  a  very  large  number 
of  determinations  of  the  altitudes  of  these 
bodies  above  the  earth,  he  formed  a  table 
arranging  the  observations  in  groups  be 
tween  limits  of  altitude  regularly  increas 
ing,  by  which  it  appeared  that  few  are  seen 
at  heights  greater  than  180  kilometers  and 
few  below  30  kilometers,  the  mean  altitude 
on  the  whole  being  95.55  kilometers.  He 
then,  by  a  course  of  very  ingenious  reason 
ing  and  analysis,  proceeded  to  demonstrate 
that  the  number  of  meteors  which  traverse 
some  part  of  the  earth's  atmosphere  daily, 
and  are  large  enough  to  be  visible  to  the 
naked  eye  (sun,  moon,  and  clouds  permit 
ting),  amounts  to  more  than  seven  and  a 
half  millions.  Including  those  fainter  bod 
ies  of  this  class  which  escape  the  unaided 
eye,  but  may  be  detected  by  the  telescope, 
this  number  must  be  greatly  increased. 
Taking  as  a  basis  of  calculation  the  num 
ber  of  telescopic  meteors  observed  by  Win- 
necke  between  July  24  and  August  3,  1854, 
Avith  an  ordinary  comet-seeker  of  53'  aper 
ture,  the  total  number  per  day  would  seem 


COMETS  AND  METEOROIDS. 


313 


to  be  more  than  400,000,000 — a  number  which 
higher  optical  power  would,  of  course,  cor 
respondingly  increase.  The  following  are 
some  of  the  more  interesting  conclusions 
reached  in  this  investigation :  1.  It  is  im 
possible  to  suppose  that  these  sporadic  me 
teors  proceed  from  a  group  or  ring  at  the 
same  mean  distance  from  the  sun  as  the 
earth.  2.  The  mean  velocity  of  these  me- 
teoroids  considerably  exceeds  that  of  the 
earth  in  its  orbit,  and  hence  the  orbits  are 
not  approximately  circular,  but  resemble 
the  orbits  of  comets.  3.  The  number  of 
meteoroids  in  the  space  through  which  the 
earth  is  moving  is  such  that  in  each  volume 
of  the  size  of  the  earth  there  are  as  many 
as  13,000  small  bodies,  each  one  of  which  is 
capable  of  furnishing  a  shooting-star  visi 
ble,  under  favorable  circumstances,  to  the 
naked  eye. 

The  further  contributions  to  the  theory 
of  shooting-stars  in  which  American  astron 
omers  have  participated  are  those  which 
connect  these  bodies  with  the  comets.  Near 
the  end  of  December,  1845,  Mr.  Herrick  and 
Mr.  Bradley,  of  New  Haven,  watching  the 
Biela  comet  with  the  Clark  telescope  in  the 
observatory  of  Yale  College,  observed  a 
small  companion  comet  beside  the  principal 
one.  The  same  was  seen  two  weeks  later  by 
Lieutenant  Maury  and  Professor  Hubbard 
at  the  Naval  Observatory  at  Washington, 
and  two  days  later  than  this  was  noticed  in 
Europe.  Professor  Hubbard  thereafter  made 
this  body  a  special  study.  At  the  time  of 
the  observations  above  mentioned  the  com 
et  was  receding,  and  each  day  the  pair  pre 
sented  some  novel  phase.  At  one  time  an 
arch  of  light  connected  the  two ;  the  prin 
cipal  one  had  two  nuclei,  and  each  had  two 
tails.  The  smaller  grew  till  it  equaled  the 
larger  in  brilliancy,  then  faded  gradually, 
until,  when  the  comet  was  last  seen  in 
March,  it  was  no  longer  visible.  In  1852 
the  comet  was  very  distant,  but  it  was  still 
double,  the  two  companions  being  a  million 
and  a  quarter  miles  apart.  Since  Septem 
ber  of  that  year  this  remarkable  object  has 
never  been  again  seen.  At  the  return  in 
1859,  it  was  in  conjunction,  or  nearly  so,  with 
the  sun,  and  was  necessarily  invisible.  In 
1866  every  thing  favored  its  visibility,  and 
hundreds  of  observers  swept  the  heavens 
in  search  of  it  without  success.  Another 


return  was  due  in  the  autumn  of  1872.  The 
body  was  not  seen,  but  countless  fragments 
broken  from  its  mass  came  pouring  into  the 
earth's  atmosphere  on  the  night  of  the  27th 
of  November,  producing  a  star  shower  which 
for  an  hour  or  two  almost  rivaled  in  brill 
iancy  that  of  the  13th  of  the  sanie  month 
in  1833.  A  German  astronomer,  Professor 
Kliukerfues,  at  once  conceived  the  notion 
that,  if  this  were  the  comet's  following,  the 
main  body  might  be  seen  in  its  retreat, 
though  we  had  not  seen  it  in  its  approach. 
But  if  so,  it  must  be  seen  in  the  southern 
hemisphere.  He  telegraphed  Mr.  Pogson,  at 
Madras  :  "  Biela  touched  earth  November 
27.  Search  near  Theta  Ceutauri."  Mr. 
Pogson  looked,  and  found  the  comet.  The 
question  is  unsettled  whether  this  was  one 
of  the  two  parts  into  which  the  comet  was 
divided  in  1845.  Professor  Newton  thinks 
it  was  more  probably  a  fragment  thrown 
off  long — perhaps  centuries — before. 

The  comet  of  1862,  III.,  was  discovered  on 
the  18th  July,  1862,  by  Mr.  H.  P.  Tuttle,  of 
Cambridge,  Massachusetts.  It  has  been 
proved  by  Professor  Schiaparelli  that  this 
comet  is  only  a  large  member  of  the  August 
stream  of  meteoroids.  The  comet  of  1866, 1., 
discovered  by  Tempel,  December  19, 1865,  is 
shown  also  by  Schiaparelli  to  be  a  member 
of  the  November  stream.  This  comet  Pro 
fessor  Newton  has  identified  with  one  which 
appeared  in  1366.  From  the  evidence  fur 
nished  in  these  instances,  and  for  other  rea 
sons,  Professor  Newton  and  Professor  Weiss 
regard  all  these  meteoroids  as  sufficiently 
proved  to  be  made  up  of  countless  frag 
ments  detached  from  solid  cometary  masses, 
which  comets  until  thus  entirely  broken  up 
are  only  large  members  of  the  swarms  with 
which  they  move  in  company.  The  cause 
of  the  fracture  is  supposed  by  Professor  A. 
W.Wright,  of  Iowa,  to  be  the  intense  heat 
of  the  sun  as  the  body  approaches  its  peri 
helion.  Professor  Wright  has  recently  ob 
tained  a  gas  from  the  Iowa  meteorite  which 
has  the  same  spectrum  as  that  of  the  com 
ets.  The  comet's  tail,  therefore,  is  a  gas 
eous  emanation  not  to  be  confounded  with 
these  meteoroid  masses. 

Comets  and  meteoroids  having  thus  been 
demonstrated  to  be  generally  identical,  the 
question  of  the  origin  of  all  these  bodies 
has  become  one  of  great  interest.  A  theory 


314 


SCIENTIFIC  PEOGRESS. 


on  this  subject,  put  forth  in  1866  by  Pro 
fessor  Schiaparelli,  of  Milan,  assumed  that 
matter  is  disseminated  throughout  space  in 
all  possible  grades  of  division — embracing, 
in  the  first  place,  immense  suns  or  stars  of 
different  magnitudes;  secondly,  groups  of 
smaller  or  comparatively  minute  stars,  such 
as  those  into  which  many  of  the  iiebuhe  are 
resolved;  then  bodies  so  small  as  to  be  in 
visible  except  when  they  approach  our  sun, 
appearing  then  as  comets ;  and  finally,  "  cos- 
inical  clouds,"  made  up  of  elements  conform 
able  in  weight  to  such  as  we  may  handle  or 
transport  upon  the  earth.  The  elements  of 
these  cosmical  clouds  he  supposes  to  be  so 
distant  from  each  other  that  their  mutual 
attraction  is  insufficient  to  counteract  the 
effect  of  the  sun's  unequal  action  upon  their 
different  members,  so  that  when  drawn  into 
our  system  from  the  regions  of  space,  they 
lose  wholly  their  globular  form,  and  enter 
as  streams,  "wThich  may  possibly  consume 
years,  centuries,  and  even  myriads  of  years 
in  passing  the  perihelion,  forming  in  space 
a  river  whose  transverse  dimensions  are 
very  small  with  respect  to  its  length."  This 
was  the  essential  part  of  a  theory  which 
won  for  its  author  the  Copley  medal  from 
the  Royal  Society — a  theory  of  which  the 
only  part  not  pure  hypothesis  is  the  demon 
stration  that  the  mean  velocity  of  the  me- 
teoroids  exceeds  that  of  the  earth,  and  this 
fact  had  already  been  demonstrated  by  Pro 
fessor  Newton  some  years  before.  The  rest, 
viz.,  all  that  relates  to  the  different  mechan 
ical  conditions  of  matter  in  space,  is  mere 
conjecture,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  it 
continues  still  to  be  held  by  Professor  Schi- 
aparelli  himself.  A  more  probable  theory 
of  the  origin  of  comets  is  suggested  by  a 
very  significant  observation  of  the  sun  made 
by  Professor  Young,  of  Dartmouth  College, 
on  the  7th  of  September,  1871.  An  explo 
sion  was  seen  to  take  place  at  that  time,  by 
which  a  volume  of  exploded  matter  was 
driven  to  a  height  of  200,000  miles,  with  a 
velocity,  between  the  altitudes  of  100,000 
and  200,000  miles,  of  166  miles  per  second. 
The  visible  clouds  consisted  of  hydrogen. 
The  resistance  of  the  solar  atmosphere  pre 
vented  their  complete  separation  from  the 
eun,  but  should  solid  masses  be  projected 
with  an  equal  velocity,  they  must  be  driven 
off  never  to  return.  Professor  Young's  ob 


servation,  therefore,  suggests  an  origin  of 
comets  which  harmonizes  with  the  views 
of  Weiss  and  Newton  as  to  the  source  of 
meteoric  streams ;  and  it  is  in  further  con 
firmation  of  these  views  that  hydrogen  was 
found  by  Graham  in  abundance  occluded  in 
meteoric  masses,  and  that  the  gas  of  the 
Iowa  meteor  gave  to  Professor  Wright  a 
cometary  spectrum. 

METEOROLOGY. 

As  early  as  1743  Dr.  Franklin  made  the 
important  discovery  that  the  atmospheric 
disturbances  known  as  northeast  storms  on 
the  Atlantic  coast  of  North  America  begin 
actually  in  the  southwest.  The  first  fact 
which  drew  his  attention  to  this  seeming 
physical  paradox  was  the  occurrence  of  an 
eclipse  of  the  moon  on  the  21st  of  October 
in  the  year  just  mentioned,  which  a  north 
easter  prevented  him  from  observing  at 
Philadelphia,  although  it  was  seen  to  its 
close  by  his  brother,  at  Boston,  before  the 
storm  began.  This  storm  did  great  dam 
age  along  the  coast,  and,  from  the  accounts 
subsequently  obtained,  it  appeared  that  its 
effects  were  felt  progressively  from  Caro 
lina  to  Massachusetts.  Other  storms  of 
the  same  kind  were  observed  to  advance 
in  the  same  manner,  whence  Franklin  in 
ferred  the  existence  of  a  law,  and  proceeded 
to  inquire  the  cause.  This  he  presumed  to 
be  the  rarefaction  of  the  air  by  the  tropical 
heats  of  the  far  south,  producing  upward 
currents,  with  diminished  pressure  and  a 
consequent  flow  of  air  toward  the  region  of 
rarefaction.  This  inference  of  Dr.  Franklin 
was  the  first  step  toward  a  proper  under 
standing  of  the  law  of  storms  in  the  tem 
perate  zones. 

The  views  then  held  by  Dr.  Franklin  as  to 
the  mechanical  action  of  the  air  in  water 
spouts,  and  as  to  the  identity  of  the  phenom 
ena  with  tornadoes  on  the  land,  were  very 
nearly  those  at  present  entertained.  He 
failed,  however,  to  recognize  the  important 
agency  of  the  heat  set  free  by  condensation 
in  the  whirling  column  in  maintaining  and 
promoting  the  violence  of  the  action,  and  he 
supposed  that  the  height  of  the  column  of 
water  raised  was  limited  to  that  which  the 
static  pressure  only  of  the  atmosphere  is 
capable  of  sustaining  in  a  vacuum.  For  a 
long  period  after  these  observations,  mete- 


METEOROLOGY. 


315 


orological  science  made  very  little  advance 
either  ill  this  country  or  abroad.  The  year 
1814  was  marked  by  the  publication  of  the 
well-known  essay  on  dew  by  William  Charles 
Wella,  which  has  become  a  classic  in  mete 
orological  science,  and  has  been  pronounced 
by  Sir  John  Herschel  a  model  of  experimental 
inquiry.  Dr.  Wells  was  a  native  of  Charles 
ton,  South  Carolina,  and  though  his  life  was 
principally  spent  abroad,  he  belongs  in  a 
certain  sense  to  the  science  of  America.  In 
the  year  1827  Mr.  William  C.  Redfield,  of 
New  York,  published  the  first  of  a  series  of 
papers  in  which  he  announced  and  main 
tained  a  theory  of  the  storms  of  the  Atlantic 
coast,  or,  as  he  called  them,  Atlantic  hurri 
canes,  which  gave  rise  to  much  controversy, 
but  which  has  since  in  substance  been  re 
ceived  as  a  true  statement  of  the  law  gov 
erning  the  great  progressive  storms  of  the 
northern  hemisphere.  Mr.  Redfield  held — 
and  aimed  by  a  laborious  comparison  of  ob 
servations  upon  the  winds,  made  at  numer 
ous  and  widely  distant  points  on  land  and 
at  sea  during  these  storms,  to  prove — that 
the  storm  is  a  vast  whirlwind,  circular  in 
figure,  its  motion  of  gyration  being  to  an 
observer  within  it  from  right  to  left.  While 
such  was  supposed  to  be  the  internal  move 
ment,  the  whole  storm  was  shown  to  have  a 
motion  of  translation  along  a  curved  path, 
convex  toward  the  west,  and  having  usual 
ly  its  vertex  in  about  latitude  37°  or  38°,  en 
tering  upon  the  continent  between  Georgia 
and  Texas,  and  passing  off  on  the  coast  of 
New  England  or  of  British  America.  The 
motion  of  progress  is,  therefore,  the  reverse 
of  that  of  rotation,  and  the  storm  moves  on 
its  path  in  the  same  manner  in  which  a 
wheel  might  be  supposed  to  roll  along  a 
curved  track.  The  birth-place  of  these 
storms  was  supposed  by  Mr.  Redfield  to  be 
the  West  India  Islands  and  the  Caribbean 
Sea,  and,  like  Franklin,  he  supposed  them 
to  be  caused  by  uprising  currents  produced 
by  local  tropical  heats.  As  for  their  prog 
ress,  he  supposed  them  to  be  borne  along 
first  by  the  trades,  and  then  by  the  coun 
ter-trades,  or  prevailing  west  winds  of  the 
higher  temperate  zone. 

To  the  theory  of  Mr.  Redfield  was  opposed 
a  rival  theory,  identified  with  the  name  of  its 
originator,  Mr.  James  P.  Espy,  of  Pennsyl 
vania,  who  published  in  1841  an  essay  en 


titled,  "  The  Philosophy  of  Storms."  As  to 
the  origin  of  storms  the  two  theories  were 
in  harmony ;  but  Mr.  Espy  supposed  the  air 
currents  within  the  storm  to  follow  the  di 
rection  of  radii  of  the  circle  from  the  cir 
cumference  to  the  centre,  instead  of  being 
coincident  in  direction  with  the  circumfer 
ence  itself.  Long-continued  and  extended 
observation  has  shown  that  in  this  he  was 
in  error  ;  and  it  is,  in  fact,  capable  of  a  pri 
ori  demonstration  that  no  two  opposite  at 
mospheric  currents,  drawn  toward  the  same 
point  by  a  local  diminished  pressure,  can 
approach  in  straight  lines  or  meet  each  oth 
er  directly.  From  the  configuration  of  the 
earth,  and  from  its  motion  of  rotation,  of 
which  the  atmosphere  partakes,  such  cur 
rents  must  necessarily  deviate  toward  the 
right,  producing  as  a  result  a  motion  of  gy 
ration.  It  is  evident,  however,  that  Mr. 
Redfield  was  not  wholly  correct.  The  true 
motion  of  the  winds  within  the  storm  is  nei 
ther  rectilinear  nor  circular,  but  spiral,  con 
verging  to  the  centre.  Mr.  Espy  made  an 
important  contribution  to  the  physics  of 
storms  in  pointing  out  the  source  of  the  en 
ergy  which  maintains  them  in  action  after 
the  merely  local  cause  which  originally  pro 
duced  them  has  ceased  to  have  effect.  This 
is  the  immense  liberation  of  the  heat  of 
elasticity  which  takes  place  in  consequence 
of  the  condensation  of  the  aqueous  vapor 
contained  in  the  ascending  air.  As  the  air 
ascends,  it  expands  from  diminished  press 
ure  ;  expansion  reduces  its  temperature  be 
low  the  dew-point ;  condensation  occurs, 
and  the  heat  released  causes  further  expan 
sion.  Thus  the  process  continues  till  the 
moisture  of  the  air  is  exhausted.  The  storm 
would  soon  cease  if  it  were  not  in  this  man 
ner  continually  fed  by  fresh  supplies  of  un- 
condensed  vapor  drawn  in  with  the  air  from 
surrounding  regions.  No  such  storm  can 
endure  upon  deserts  like  those  of  Northern 
Africa.  Mr.  Espy's  merits  were  acknowl 
edged  by  the  French  Academy  of  Science  in 
a  formal  report.  Professor  Loomis,  of  Yale 
College,  has  made  many  valuable  contribu 
tions  to  meteorological  science  in  the  study 
of  particular  storms,  and  more  recently  in  a 
careful  analysis  of  the  weather  maps  which 
have  for  the  last  few  years  been  issued  daily 
from  the  Signal-office  of  the  United  States 
War  Department.  He  has  especially  shown 


316 


SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS. 


that  while  all  our  great  storms  are  cyclonic, 
and  to  that  extent  conformable  to  Mr.  Red- 
field's  theory,  they  are  not  by  any  means,  as 
Mr.  Redfield  had  supposed,  circular.  They 
are  rather  irregularly  elliptical,  having  their 
longer  diameter  generally  north  and  south, 
inclining  most  frequently  to  the  northeast 
and  southwest  direction,  and  they  have  oft 
en  largo  sinuosities  of  outline. 

The  weather  maps  of  the  Signal -office 
just  mentioned,  and  the  system  of  widely 
extended  telegraphic  communication  of  ob 
servations  from  all  points  of  our  national 
territory  to  a  single  central  office  at  Wash 
ington,  by  meana  of  which  the  material  is 
gathered  for  their  preparation,  have  fur 
nished  admirable  means  for  studying  the 
laws  which  govern  atmospheric  changes  on 
this  continent.  The  system  originated  in 
1869,  at  Cincinnati,  with  Professor  Cleve 
land  Abbe,  who  now  conducts  it,  under  Gen 
eral  Myer,  chief  signal  officer.  The  tele 
graphic  prognostications  of  the  weather 
daily  transmitted  for  publication  from  the 
central  office  to  all  the  chief  cities  of  the 
Union  have  proved  to  be  a  very  important 
public  benefit.  Something  similar  to  this 
was  attempted  about  twenty  years  ago  by 
Mr.  Espy,  who  then  held  an  official  appoint 
ment  as  meteorologist  under  the  govern 
ment,  but  the  means  at  his  command  were 
more  limited,  and  his  organization  less  com 
plete.  The  Smithsonian  Institution,  ever 
since  its  establishment,  has  been  active  in 
promoting  meteorological  observation,  and 
has  maintained  constant  communication 
with  several  hundred  observers  in  all  parts 
of  the  United  States.  Previously  to  the  war 
the  secretary,  Professor  Henry,  had  planned 
and  had  partially  put  into  operation  a  sys 
tem  of  weather  bulletins  and  storm  warn 
ings  like  the  present,  which,  in  consequence 
of  the  disturbed  state  of  public  affairs,  was 
necessarily  abandoned  after  the  commence 
ment  of  hostilities ;  and  for  a  number  of 
years  there  wras  maintained  at  the  institu 
tion  a  large  meteorological  wall  map  of  the 
continent  exposed  to  public  view,  on  which 
were  daily  exhibited  emblems  showing  the 
aspect  of  the  weather  and  the  direction  of 
the  wind  at  each  of  a  large  number  of  points 
of  observation  distributed  widely  through 
out  the  country,  as  communicated  by  tele 
graph. 


SOUND. 

The  science  of  acoustics  has  been  great 
ly  advanced  by  the  labors  of  the  physicists 
and  physiologists  of  the  present  century.' 
The  mathematical  theory  of  sound,  the  mode 
of  its  generation  and  propagation,  the  prin 
ciples  of  music,  and  the  laws  of  harmony 
had  been  well  established  by  previous  in 
vestigators.  But  the  experimental  study 
of  the  particular  phenomena  of  vibration, 
of  the  physiology  of  audition,  of  the  ele 
mentary  tones  which  enter  into  the  ordi 
nary  notes  of  music,  of  the  physical  causes 
of  timbre  or  quality  in  sounds,  and  of  what 
ever  else  in  acoustics  is  incapable  of  being 
deduced  abstractly  from  definitions  or  first 
principles,  had  received  comparatively  lit 
tle  attention,  or  had  been  pursued  with 
little  success.  The  recent  progress  of  ex 
perimental  acoustics  has  been  wonderfully 
promoted  by  the  ingenuity  of  the  methods 
employed  in  the  study  of  vibration ;  some 
of  them  graphic,  in  which  the  vibrations 
record  themselves,  and  others  optical,  in 
which  they  present  a  visible  picture  of  their 
phases  to  the  eye.  The  methods  strictly 
acoustic  have,  moreover,  been  greatly  im 
proved  in  the  hands  of  modern  investiga 
tors  ;  as  in  the  case  of  the  sirene  of  Cagniard 
de  la  Tour,  which  has  been  converted  by 
Helmholtz  into  an  instrument  of  largely  in 
creased  capabilities.  The  vibrating  lens  of 
Lissajous,  and  the  revolving  mirrors  and 
manometric  flames  of  Krcnig,  have  furnished 
admirable  means  of  illustrating  the  compo 
sition  and  resolution  of  harmonic  vibrations. 
Professor  Tyudall's  singing  tubes  and  sen 
sitive  flames  have  shown  in  a  striking  man 
ner  the  power  of  one  vibration  to  excite 
or  repress  another.  Recent  comparatively 
simple  forms  of  apparatus  contrived  by 
German  experimenters  have  shown  that 
the  velocity  of  propagation  of  sound  in 
air  or  other  gases  can  be  determined  in 
the  space  of  a  few  feet  with  as  much  accu 
racy  as  has  been  heretofore  attained  in  the 
most  elaborate  and  protracted  observations 
made  in  the  open  air  between  signal  sta 
tions  separated  from  each  other  by  some 
miles. 

No  single  investigator  has  contributed 
more  largely  to  the  advancement  of  acous 
tic  science  than  Professor  Helmholtz,  of 
Berlin.  In  his  great  work  on  tone  sensa- 


ACOUSTICS. 


317 


tion  he  has  given  the  whole  philosophy  of 
composite  waves  and  the  theory  of  audition 
as  founded  on  the  capacity  of  the  ear  to  re 
solve  these  waves  into  their  component  ele 
ments.  He  has  shown  that  within  a  certain 
portion  of  the  structure  of  the  ear  there  are 
found  a  multitude  of  microscopic  stretched 
cords,  each  of  which  is  fitted  to  respond  to 
a  particular  vibration,  just  as  in  a  piano  a 
single  string  will  vibrate  when  its  own  note 
is  sounded,  while  all  the  rest  remain  silent. 
He  has  also  contrived  hearing  tubes  or 
shells,  called  by  him  resonators,  which  pos 
sess  this  same  property  of  separating  an  ele 
mentary  tone  out  of  an  ordinary  composite 
musical  note,  and  by  means  of  a  series  of 
these  he  succeeds  in  discovering  all  the  ele 
ments  of  which  such  notes  are  composed. 
Every  such  elementary  tone  when  separately 
heard  has  precisely  the  same  quality,  wheth 
er  derived  from  a  reed,  a  stringed,  or  a  wind 
instrument ;  and  thus  it  appears  that  the 
quality  or  timbre  of  a  musical  instrument  is 
an  eifect  of  difference  of  composition,  and 
not  of  difference  of  elementary  sound. 

In  the  United  States  the  number  of  inves 
tigators  who  have  occupied  themselves  with 
this  interesting  branch  of  science  is  small. 
Professor  W.  B.  Rogers,  now  of  Boston,  gave 
some  attention  as  early  as  1850  to  the  curi 
ous  phenomena  of  singing  tubes,  that  is,  of 
tubes  which  utter  a  musical  note  on  the  in 
troduction  within  them  of  a  small  gas  flame. 
The  vibration  was  imputed  by  Professor 
Rogers  to  a  periodical  explosive  combustion 
of  the  gas,  extinguishing  the  flame,  which  is 
immediately  re-illuminated.  For  the  pur 
pose  of  demonstrating  this  latter  fact,  he 
employed  as  his  gas  jet  a  tube  bent  twice  at 
right  angles,  which,  by  means  of  a  pulley, 
he  caused  to  revolve  rapidly  around  its  low 
er  limb.  When  this  is  revolved  it  produces 
an  apparent  ring  of  flame  so  long  as  the  tube 
is  silent ;  but  the  moment  the  sound  begins, 
the  ring  breaks  into  a  crown  of  minute 
flames  resembling  a  string  of  pearls. 

Professor  Henry,  in  the  discharge  of  his 
duties  as  chairman  of  the  Light -house 
Board,  has  made  many  experiments  on 
sound,  with  a  view  to  improve  the  system 
of  fog-signals.  Some  of  the  facts  observed 
by  him  are  interesting  contributions  to  sci 
ence.  One  of  these  is  the  remarkable  prop 
erty  manifested  by  powerful  sounds  to  prop 


agate  themselves  laterally,  or  in  directions 
divergent  from  that  to  which  they  are  orig 
inally  confined.  A  steam-whistle,  for  exam 
ple,  blown  at  the  focus  of  a  large  parabolic 
mirror  will  at  moderate  distances  be  better 
heard  in  front  and  in  the  prolonged  axis  of 
the  mirror  than  behind  it ;  but  when  the 
distance  amounts  to  several  miles,  it  is  heard 
as  well  behind  as  before.  In  like  manner, 
if  a  source  of  sound  be  near  a  building,  an 
observer  at  a  distance  on  the  other  side  of 
the  building  may  hear  it  distinctly,  and  yet 
may  entirely  lose  it  as  he  approaches  the 
building.  Another  remarkable  observation 
is  as  to  the  effect  of  winds  on  the  audibility 
of  sounds.  At  any  considerable  distance  a 
wind  blowing  from  the  observer  toward  the 
source  diminishes  the  loudness.  This  is  ex 
plained  by  the  consideration  that  the  lower 
strata  of  the  air  are  retarded  in  their  move 
ments  by  the  friction  of  the  earth,  and  con 
sequently  that  the  fronts  of  the  sound  waves 
become  inclined  to  the  earth's  surface.  But 
as  the  direction  of  sound  propagation  is  nor 
mal  to  the  wave  fronts,  it  happens  that  a 
sound  proceeding  against  the  wind  is  de 
flected  upward  so  that  its  force  passes  above 
the  heads  of  distant  listeners. 

The  only  elaborate  continuous  series  of 
investigations  in  acoustics  which  has  been 
undertaken  in  this  country  has  been  con 
ducted  by  Professor  A.  M.  Mayer,  of  Hobo- 
ken.  The  processes  of  Professor  Mayer, 
which  are  themselves  extremely  ingenious, 
have  led  to  many  results  of  interest  and 
value.  It  is  a  proposition  deducible  from 
theory,  and  was  so  announced  by  Doppler 
more  than  thirty  years  ago,  that  the  undu 
lations  generated  by  a  vibratory  body  in 
motion  will  be  effectively  shortened  in  the 
direction  toward  which  the  body  moves,  and 
lengthened  in  the  opposite  direction.  This 
is  true  as  well  in  optics  as  in  acoustics,  and 
it  is  upon  the  assumption  of  its  truth  that 
Mr.  Huggins  has  founded  his  inferences  as  to 
the  absolute  velocities  with  which  the  fixed 
stars  are  approaching  the  earth  or  receding 
from  it.  It  has  first  been  experimentally 
proved  in  the  researches  of  Professor  Mayer. 

The  double  sirene  of  Helmholtz  affords  a 
convenient  means  of  studying  the  effect  of 
partial  or  complete  interference  between 
sound  waves  which  differ  in  phase  at  the 
point  of  origin,  but  there  has  been  hitherto 


318 


SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS. 


no  instrumental  means  devised  for  deter 
mining  the  amount  of  difference  of  phase 
which  exists  between  two  waves  originating 
in  a  common  phase  at  the  same  origin,  but 
brought  by  different  and  unequal  paths  to 
the  point  of  interference.  This  want  Pro 
fessor  Mayer  has  supplied,  and  in  doing  so 
has  at  the  same  time  provided  the  most  ex 
act  mode  hitherto  devised  of  measuring  the 
wave  length  corresponding  to  any  pitch,  and 
of  ascertaining  the  velocity  of  sound  in  the 
air  or  in  any  gaseous  medium.  The  deter 
minations  are  made  by  means  of  the  ser 
rated  flames  in  Kcenig's  revolving  mirrors, 
and  their  precision  is  secured  by  what  is 
called  a  flame  micrometer — as  ingenious  in 
conception  as  it  is  exact  in  its  indications. 

The  analysis  of  a  composite  note  which 
Helmholtz  accomplished  by  the  use  of  his 
resonators,  combined  with  Kcenig's  mano- 
metric  flames  and  revolving  mirrors,  has 
been  effected  by  Professor  Mayer  directly, 
by  connecting  the  arms  of  a  number  of  steel 
tuning-forks  by  means  of  tightly  stretched 
silk  fibres  with  a  membrane  forming  part 
of  a  reed  pipe.  On  causing  the  pipe  to 
speak,  every  fork  whose  tone  forms  a  part 
of  the  note  immediately  sounds. 

Professor  Mayer  has  also  presented  very 
strong  evidence  to  confirm  the  opinion 
which  many  naturalists  have  entertained, 
that  the  antenna?  of  insects  constitute  for 
them  the  organs  of  hearing,  or  organs,  at 
least,  through  which  they  receive  impres 
sions  for  their  guidance  from  the  vibrations 
of  the  atmosphere ;  he  has  investigated  and 
delineated  the  curves  which  represent  the 
resultant  sound  wave  of  a  composite  note, 
and  has  devised  the  means  of  optically  rep 
resenting  the  movements  by  which  a  single 
molecule  of  an  elastic  vibrating  medium 
must  be  animated  under  the  influence  of 
such  complex  impulses.  The  most  inter 
esting  of  his  contributions  to  this  depart 
ment  of  science  is  found  in  his  determina 
tion  of  the  law  which  connects  the  pitch  of 
a  sound  with  the  duration  of  its  residual 
sensation,  and  in  the  deductions  which  flow 
from  this  law.  It  appears  experimentally 
that  if  a  sound  of  any  pitch  is  suddenly 
arrested  there  follows  a  momentary  disso 
nance,  but  that  if  the  interruption  is  reg 
ular  and  periodic  the  dissonance  diminishes 
with  a  diminution  of  the  intervals  till  it 


finally  disappears ;  also,  that  a  more  rapid 
succession  of  the  impulses  is  necessary  to 
this  disappearance  in  proportion  as  the  pitch 
is  higher.  Professor  Mayer  finds  that  for  a 
tone  produced  by  forty  vibrations  a  second, 
the  residual  sensation  lasts  one-eleventh  of 
a  second,  while  for  one  of  40,000  vibrations 
per  second,  it  lasts  only  one-five-huudredth 
of  a  second.  This  difference  of  duration  of 
the  residual  sensation  is  the  reason  that 
trills  upon  the  upper  notes  are  pleasing, 
while  those  on  the  lower  are  not.  The  ap 
plication  of  these  principles  to  the  study 
of  harmony  and  to  the  means  of  producing 
the  most  agreeable  effects  in  musical  com 
position  is  important. 

LIGHT,  HEAT,  ETC. 

From  the  time  of  Newton  to  that  of 
Young  the  science  of  optics  made  no  ma 
terial  progress.  The  correction  by  Dollond, 
in  1758,  of  one  of  the  few  mistaken  inferen 
ces  of  Newton,  that  the  dispersive  powers  of 
transparent  bodies  are  not  proportional  to 
their  mean  refractive  powers,  however  prac 
tically  important,  was  not  a  large  contribu 
tion  to  theory ;  and  Bradley's  discovery  of 
the  aberration  of  light  belongs  rather  to 
dynamics  than  to  optics.  It  is,  in  fact,  some 
what  surprising  that  this  latter  phenome 
non  had  not  been  recognized  in  anticipation 
of  observation  as  a  physical  necessity,  since 
the  progressive  motion  of  light  had  been 
demonstrated  by  Roemer  half  a  century  be 
fore.  The  first  note  of  returning  activity 
in  the  field  of  optical  investigation  was  giv 
en  by  Dr.  Young  in  the  memoirs  which,  in 
1800  and  the  two  or  three  years  following, 
he  read  before  the  Royal  Society,  reviving 
the  hypothesis  of  Huyghens  that  light  is 
propagated  by  undulations  and  not  by  the 
emission  of  material  particles,  and  support 
ing  this  view  by  evidences  and  reasonings 
so  cogent  as  to  advance  it  to  the  dignity  of 
a  theory.  It  is  a  remarkable  fact,  illustra 
ting  the  tenacity  with  which  even  enlight 
ened  minds  cling  to  opinions  long  received 
without  question,  that  these  able  and  unan 
swerable  papers  failed  to  convince,  or  even, 
as  is  remarked  by  Principal  Forbes,  to  se 
cure  a  single  adherent  among  the  members 
of  the  learned  body  to  which  they  were  ad 
dressed.  The  discovery  by  Malus  in  1808 
of  the  polarization  of  light  by  reflection 


THE  SPECTRUM. 


319 


awakened  a  new  interest  in  optical  ques 
tions,  and  a  large  part  of  the  history  of  this 
science  during  the  first  half  of  the  nine 
teenth  century  is  occupied  with  the  devel 
opment  of  the  consequences  of  this  discov 
ery  by  Fresnel,  Arago,  Brewster,  Seebeck, 
and  others.  Important  contributions  to  the 
mathematical  theory,  left  in  some  respects 
incomplete  by  Fresnel,  were  made  by  Cau- 
chy,  Macculagh,  and  Sir  William  Rowan 
Hamilton.  No  part  of  this  belongs  to  Amer 
ican  science. 

Spectrum. — In  1802  Dr.  Wollaston,  of  Lon 
don,  in  observing  through  a  prism  the  image 
of  an  elongated  and  very  narrow  aperture, 
perceived  it  to  be  intersected  by  well-defined 
straight  lines  perpendicular  to  its  length — 
lines  which  Young  seems  to  have  regarded 
at  first  as  boundaries  between  the  several 
elementary  colors  of  the  spectrum.  Dr. 
Brewster  subsequently  observed  that  cer 
tain  bodies,  solid,  liquid,  and  gaseous,  have 
the  power  of  producing  not  lines  only,  but 
broad  bands  in  the  spectral  image  of  the 
light  transmitted  through  them.  But  the 
most  remarkable  discovery  in  this  branch 
of  investigation  was  made  by  Fraunhofer 
in  1814,  who,  employing  a  telescope  to  aid 
the  observation,  detected  and  was  able  to 
count  nearly  six  hundred  lines  like  those 
seen  by  Wollaston,  fixed  in  position — a  num 
ber  which  Brewster  subsequently  increased 
to  two  thousand,  and  which  later  observa 
tions  have  shown  to  be  practically  unlimit 
ed.  The  earliest  investigations  of  this  cu 
rious,  but,  as  it  has  since  appeared,  highly 
important  class  of  phenomena,  undertaken 
in  the  United  States,  were  made  by  Dr.  John 
William  Draper,  of  New  York,  a  man  whose 
name  occupies  a  very  conspicuous  place  iu 
the  world  as  well  of  letters  as  of  science. 
Dr.  Draper's  labors  in  this  department  were 
spread  over  so  large  a  field  that  it  would  be 
quite  impracticable  to  do  them  justice  in 
the  limited  space  at  our  command.  They 
embraced  at  once  the  physical,  chemical, 
and  thermal  properties  of  light,  and  the  re 
lations  of  this  principle  to  the  organic  world 
and  the  physiology  of  vision.  Ho  was  the 
first  to  apply  the  method  of  photography  to 
the  study  of  the  Fraunhofer  lines.  A  mem 
oir  published  by  him  in  1843  describes 
many  new  lines  in  the  ultra-red  and  ultra 
violet.  The  great  bands  in  the  ultra-red 


were  first  detected  by  him.  Some  of  these 
were  subsequently  rediscovered  by  the  aid 
of  the  thermo-multiplier.  In  1844  he  pho 
tographed  the  diffraction  spectrum  formed 
by  a  Critter-platte,  or  ruled  grating,  and  pub 
lished  a  memoir  showing  the  singular  ad 
vantages  which  that  spectrum  possesses 
over  the  prismatic  in  investigations  on  ra 
diation.  Since  the  science  of  spectroscopy 
(a  science  of  which  the  foundations  were  laid 
in  Dr.  Draper's  early  researches)  has  attain 
ed  so  high  an  importance  in  connection  with 
investigations  both  of  celestial  and  terres 
trial  chemistry,  the  spectrum  has  been  pho 
tographed  upon  a  much  larger  scale  than 
was  attempted  by  Dr.  Draper. 

The  most  admirable  photograph  of  this 
kind,  so  far  as  the  visible  spectrum  is  con 
cerned,  was  obtained  by  Mr.  Lewis  M.  Ruth- 
erfurd,  of  New  York,  in  1866.  It  was  en 
larged  from  an  original  taken  with  prisms 
constructed  of  plate-glass,  hollow,  and  fill 
ed  with  bisulphide  of  carbon — a  plan  first 
adopted  by  Professor  O.  N.  Rood,  in  1862. 
To  a  very  powerful  train  of  such  prisms, 
six  in  number,  made  effectively  twelve  by 
means  of  a  repeating  prism,  Mr.  Rutherfurd 
subsequently  applied  a  system  of  mechan 
ical  or  automatic  adjustment  for  varying 
the  angular  position  without  deranging  the 
regularity  of  the  train,  which  was  the  first 
contrivance  of  the  kind  ever  invented.  Of 
the  map,  eighty-two  inches  in  length,  and 
embracing  more  than  2500  sharply  defined 
lines,  Mr.  Lockyer,  the  celebrated  spectro- 
scopist  of  London,  remarked  recently  in  a 
public  lecture,  it  was  a  thing  so  admirable 
that  he  could  not  look  at  it  without  a  feel 
ing  of  the  iuteusest  envy.  Still  more  re 
cently  (1873),  Dr.  Henry  Draper,  son  of  Dr. 
J.  W.  Draper,  has  produced  a  photograph  of 
the  ultra-violet  rays  of  the  diffraction  spec 
trum  which  far  exceeds  in  distinctness  any 
thing  previously  attempted  in  this  difficult 
spectral  region.  The  gitter  from  which  it 
was  taken  was  ruled  by  Mr.  Rutherfurd, 
who  had  long  been  engaged  in  the  attempt 
to  perfect  plates  suitable  for  this  purpose. 
The  earliest  gitters  were  prepared  by  Fraun 
hofer,  and  were  ruled  through  leaf  metal  or 
thin  coatings  of  grease  on  glass.  He  sub 
sequently  ruled  with  a  diamond  point  on 
the  glass  itself;  but  none  of  his  rulings 
were  closer  than  about  8000  lines  to  the 


320 


SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS. 


inch,  and  none  of  over  3500  were  regular 
enough  to  be  serviceable.  For  the  last 
twenty  or  thirty  years  the  plates  most  in 
use  by  investigators  have  been  furnished 
by  Mr.  F.  A.  Nobert,  of  Earth,  in  Pomeranian 
Prussia,  who  has  carried  his  rulings  to  a 
degree  of  fineness  far  beyond  that  at  which 
spectra  cease  altogether  to  be  produced,  the 
object  being  to  provide  tests  for  the  resolv 
ing  power  of  microscopes.  Admirable  as 
these  productions  certainly  are,  they  are  de 
ficient  in  uniformity,  which  is  the  quality  of 
most  essential  importance  in  the  gratings 
required  for  the  study  of  diffraction  spec 
tra.  Mr.  Rutherfurd's  finer  gratings  have 
nearly  18,000  lines  to  the  inch,  and  their 
uniformity,  as  tested  by  the  sharpness  of 
their  definition  of  the  spectral  lines,  is  all 
but  perfect.  The  delicacy  of  this  ruling 
operation  may  be  judged  by  the  fact  that 
when  the  machine  which  draws  the  lines 
is  operated  by  hand,  although  not  touched 
but  only  moved  by  a  cord  attached,  the  rul 
ing  is  liable  to  be  made  uneven  by  the  ef 
fect  of  expansion  from  the  radiant  heat 
of  the  person.  In  consequence  of  this, 
Mr.  Rutherfurd  resorted  to  the  expedient 
of  driving  the  machine  by  a  miniature 
turbine  wheel,  with  very  satisfactory  re 
sults. 

The  memoir  of  Dr.  Henry  Draper  accom 
panying  the  photograph  above  mentioned 
was  read  before  the  French  Academy  of 
Sciences,  and  published  in  their  Comptes 
Eendus.  It  has  also  been  printed  in  full  in 
the  principal  journals  devoted  to  physical 
science  in  France,  England,  Italy,  and  Ger 
many,  and  the  discussion  of  the  photograph 
has  settled  the  wave  lengths  of  all  the  ultra 
violet  rays,  and  has  finally  corrected  the  er 
rors  of  previous  observers. 

The  first  suggestion  of  the  relation  be 
tween  the  spectra  of  incandescent  or  incan 
descing  bodies  and  their  physical  condition 
or  chemical  composition  was  made  by  Dr. 
J.  W.  Draper,  in  an  important  memoir  "  On 
the  Production  of  Light  and  Heat,"  publish 
ed  in  1847.  This,  among  other  things,  point 
ed  out  the  means  of  determining  the  solid 
or  gaseous  condition  of  the  sun,  the  stars, 
and  the  nebulae.  In  it  the  author  demon 
strated  experimentally  that  all  solid  sub 
stances,  and  probably  all  liquids,  become  in 
candescent  at  the  same  temperature ;  that 


the  temperature  of  red  heat  is  about  977°  F. ; 
that  the  spectrum  of  an  incandescent  solid 
is  continuous,  containing  neither  bright  nor 
dark  fixed  lines ;  that  from  common  tem 
peratures  up  to  977°  F.  the  rays  emitted  by 
a  solid  produce  no  effect  on  vision,  but  that 
at  that  temperature  they  impress  the  eye 
with  the  sensation  of  red ;  that  the  heat 
of  the  incandescing  body  being  made  con 
tinuously  to  rise,  other  rays  are  added,  in 
creasing  in  refrangibility  with  increase  of 
temperature ;  and  that  while  the  addition 
of  rays  so  much  the  more  refrangible  as  the 
temperature  is  higher  is  going  on,  there  is 
an  augmentation  of  the  intensity  of  those 
already  existing.  In  the  following  year,  in 
a  memoir  on  the  production  of  light  by 
chemical  action,  Dr.  Draper  gave  the  spec 
trum  analysis  of  many  different  flames,  and 
devised  the  arrangements  of  charts  of  their 
fixed  lines  in  the  manner  now  universally 
employed.  The  former  of  these  memoirs 
had  a  circulation  in  American  and  foreign 
journals  proportionate  to  its  importance. 
An  analysis  of  it  in  Italian  was  read  in  July, 
1847,  by  Melloni,  before  the  Royal  Academy 
of  Naples,  and  this  was  afterward  transla 
ted  into  French  and  English.  Yet,  notwith 
standing  the  publicity  thus  given  to  these 
discoveries,  the  same  facts  were  thirteen 
years  later  published  by  Professor  Kirch- 
hoff,  under  the  guise  of  mathematical  de 
ductions,  with  so  slight  a  reference  to  the 
original  discoverer  that  he  secured  substan 
tially  the  entire  credit  of  them  himself;  and 
in  a  historical  sketch  of  spectrum  analy 
sis  subsequently  published,  he  omitted  the 
name  of  Dr.  Draper  altogether.  This  is  the 
more  remarkable,  as  the  historical  sketch 
here  referred  to  was  professedly  prepared 
because  the  writer  had  become  aware  of 
the  existence  "  of  some  publications  on  the 
subject  which  he  had  not  before  known, 
and  had  found  that  other  publications 
which  had  appeared  to  him  to  possess  no 
special  interest"  were  not  similarly  regard 
ed  by  all.  The  object,  therefore,  of  this 
sequel  was  "  to  complete  the  historical  sur 
vey."  It  is  entirely  occupied,  nevertheless, 
with  an  argument  to  disprove  that  any  ob 
server  had  contributed  any  thing  to  "  the 
solution  of  the  proposed  question  whether 
the  bright  lines  of  a  glowing  gas  are  sole 
ly  dependent  on  its  chemical  constituents" 


PHOTOGRAPHY. 


321 


until  1861,  when  it  was  solved  by  Bunseii 
and  himself — excepting  only  Swan,  who  in 
1857  identified  the  sodium  line,  although 
"  he  did  not  answer  the  question  positively, 
or  in  its  most  general  form."  The  writer 
considers  and  passes  judgment  on  the  claims 
of  Herschel,  Talbot,  W.  A.  Miller,  Wheat- 
stone,  Massou,  Angstrom,  Van  der  Willigeu, 
and  Pliicker,  all  of  whom  had  examined  the 
well-known  bright  lines  in  the  spectra  of 
flames  or  of  the  electric  spark,  and  had 
made  suggestions  indicating  that  this  ques 
tion  had  been  present  to  their  minds ;  but 
remarkably  omits  from  the  enumeration  the 
name  of  the  only  observer  whose  publica 
tions  were  most  directly  suggestive  of  such 
a  course  of  investigation  as  that  which  he 
himself  subsequently  pursued.  In  1858, 
three  years  before  the  announcement  of  the 
results  obtained  by  Buusen  and  Kirchhoff, 
a  memoir  appeared  by  Dr.  Draper  on  the 
nature  of  flame  and  the  condition  of  the 
eun's  surface,  which  was  the  precursor  of 
the  numerous  investigations  out  of  which 
has  grown  the  imposing  science  of  celestial 
chemistry. 

The  spectra  of  the  stars  were  earliest 
studied  by  Mr.  Rutherfurd,  who  published 
in  1863  a  comparative  map  or  diagram  giv 
ing  the  spectra  of  seventeen  different  stars 
compared  with  those  of  the  sun,  the  moon, 
and  the  planets  Mars  and  Jupiter.  The 
star  spectra  were  arranged  by  him  in  three 
classes,  to  some  extent  corresponding  to 
those  since  made  by  Secchi.  In  1861  Pro 
fessor  Kirchhoff  made  public  his  well-known 
map  of  the  solar  spectrum,  in  which  the 
very  numerous  lines  given  are  determined 
in  place  by  a  millimetric  scale.  To  remove 
the  uncertainties  attendant  on  the  use  of 
such  a  system,  Dr.  Wolcott  Gibbs,  of  Har 
vard  University,  proposed,  and  to  a  certain 
extent  constructed,  in  1866,  a  normal  map 
of  the  spectrum  founded  on  wave  lengths. 
His  map  embraced  187  lines  lying  between 
C  and  G  of  Fraunhofer.  In  1871  a  prelim 
inary  map  or  catalogue  of  the  spectral  lines 
of  the  solar  chromosphere  was  published  in 
the  Philosophical  Magazine,  of  London,  by 
Professor  C.  A.  Young,  of  Dartmouth  College, 
which  was  afterward  republished  by  Schel- 
len  in  his  large  work  on  the  spectroscope. 
This  embraced  103  lines,  identifying  such  as 
had  been  observed  before,  and  giving  the 
21 


names  of  former  observers.  In  the  follow 
ing  year  this  number  was  increased  by  Pro 
fessor  Young  to  273.  The  most  important 
contribution  to  stellar  spectroscopy  yet 
made  is  a  photograph  of  the  spectrum  of 
Alpha  Lyra}  taken  by  Dr.  Henry  Draper 
with  his  great  speculum  of  twenty-eight 
inches  aperture,  showing  in  the  invisible 
region  four  great  groups  of  lines  never  be 
fore  seen.  This  interesting  result  has  been 
attained  only  after  seventeen  years  of  per 
severing  effort,  and  is  the  fruit  of  probably 
the  most  difficult  and  costly  experiment  in 
celestial  chemistry  ever  made. 

The  conclusion  as  to  the  chemical  consti 
tution  of  the  heavenly  bodies  to  which  the 
study  of  their  spectra  has  led,  is  that  the 
same  elements  are  found  in  them  as  in  the 
earth,  and  only  the  same,  with  the  single  ex 
ception  of  a  supposed  element  in  the  sun, 
called  for  the  present,  helium.  But  it  ap 
pears  that  the  temperatures  of  the  different 
bodies  must  be  materially  different;  and  this 
difference  is  without  doubt  the  occasion  of 
the  varieties  of  their  spectral  aspects,  and 
of  their  very  observable  differences  of  color 
to  the  eye. 

In  regard  to  the  distribution  of  heat  in 
the  spectrum,  an  important  discovery  was 
made  by  Dr.  Draper  so  recently  as  1872. 
He  has  shown  that  the  observed  decrease 
of  the  intensity  of  heat  from  the  more  to  the 
less  refrangible  region  is  due  not  to  any  in 
herent  quality  of  the  rays,  but  solely  to  the 
action  of  the  prism  itself,  which  compresses 
the  less  refrangible  region  and  dilates  the 
more  refrangible. 

Photography.  —  The  sensibility  of  many 
chemical  compouuds  to  the  action  of  light 
was  very  early  observed.  Attempts  were 
made  by  Sir  Humphry  Davy  and  others 
early  in  this  century  to  take  advantage  of 
this  fact  for  the  purpose  of  producing  copies 
of  prints,  leaves,  etc.,  by  pressing  them  un 
der  glass  against  sheets  of  paper  which  had 
been  impregnated  with  silver  salts,  and  ex 
posing  them  in  the  sunlight.  Imperfect 
copies  were  obtained,  but  they  were  eva 
nescent,  no  successful  process  having  been 
discovered  for  removing  the  unchanged  salt 
from  the  paper.  They  were  counterparts  of 
the  originals,  but  presented,  of  course,  the 
lights  and  shades  reversed.  For  a  number 
of  years,  beginning  in  about  1830,  Mr.  Ni- 


322 


SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS. 


cephore  Niepce  and  Mr.  Daguerre  in  France, 
and  Mr.  Fox  Talbot  in  England,  occupied 
themselves  in  persevering  endeavors  to  dis 
cover  some  mode  by  which  the  fleeting  im 
ages  might  be  fixed,  and  to  increase  the  sen 
sitiveness  of  the  chemically  prepared  surface 
employed  to  receive  the  impression.  These 
efforts  were  at  length  crowned  with  success. 
In  1839  Mr.  Daguerre  made  public  the  beauti 
ful  process  which  bears  his  name,  and  this 
was  immediately  followed  by  the  announce 
ment  of  the  very  different  one  which  Mr. 
Talbot  had  been  engaged  in  perfecting,  and 
which  he  was  thus  constrained  somewhat 
prematurely  to  disclose.  The  production  of 
these  light-pictures  was  attributed  to  the 
action  of  a  class  of  rays  present  in  the  sun 
light,  but  non-luminous,  called,  for  want  of 
a  better  name,  the  chemical  rays.  For  this 
term  Dr.  Draper  proposed  to  substitute  the 
name  tithonic,  from  a  fancied  analogy  with 
the  fable  of  Tithomis,the  favorite  of  Aurora; 
and  somewhat  later  Sir  John  Herschel  sug 
gested  the  term  actinic — a  term  which,  in 
spite  of  its  etymological  vagueness,  has  since 
prevailed.  In  regard  to  this  class  of  rays,  the 
researches  of  Dr.  Draper,  protracted  through 
a  period  of  ten  or  fifteen  years,  commencing 
about  1835,  Avere  more  fertile  of  results  than 
those  of  any  contemporary  investigator. 
Though  embracing  the  class  of  phenomena 
on  which  the  art  of  photography  has  been 
founded,  their  scope  was  in  the  largest  de 
gree  comprehensive.  They  included,  among 
other  things,  experiments  on  the  absorption 
of  the  chemical  rays  by  solid  and  liquid  me 
dia,  the  decomposition  of  carbonic  acid  by 
light,  the  interference  of  chemical  rays,  the 
crystallization  of  substances  in  the  rays  of 
light,  the  supposed  magnetizing  properties 
of  the  solar  rays,  which  he  found  not  to  ex 
ist,  and  the  effects  of  light  upon  vegeta 
tion.  The  memoirs  published  by  him  on 
these  subjects  in  foreign  and  American  jour 
nals  amounted  to  nearly  forty.  Many  of 
these  were  collected  in  1844  in  a  large  quar 
to  volume,  entitled,  A  Treatise  on  the  Forces 
which  produce  the  Organization  of  Plants.  Par 
ticularly  noticeable  among  these  are  a  mem 
oir  explanatory  of  the  mechanical  cause  of 
the  flow  of  sap  in  plants,  which  is  ascribed 
to  the  carbonization  of  water  on  the  leaves 
by  the  light  of  the  sun ;  and  another,  dem 
onstrating  that  it  is  the  yellow  ray  which 


produces  the  reduction  of  carbonic  acid  in 
plants,  and  not  the  violet,  as  had  been  pre 
viously  supposed.  The  first  photographic 
portraits  of  the  human  countenance  were 
taken  by  Dr.  Draper  soon  after  the  an 
nouncement  of  Daguerre's  discovery,  and  at 
a  time  when  such  a  thing  had  been  pro 
nounced  impracticable  by  so  high  an  au 
thority  as  Sir  David  Brewster.  He  taught 
the  art  to  Professor  Morse,  by  whom  it  was 
long  successfully  practiced,  and  who  pos 
sessed  exclusively  the  secret  until  it  was  at 
length  made  public  by  the  originator  in  the 
London  and  Edinburgh  Philosophical  Maga 
zine.  This  consisted  essentially  in  quick 
ening  the  sensitiveness  of  the  Daguerrean 
plates  by  brief  exposure  to  the  vapor  of 
bromine.  By  this  treatment  they  became 
so  extremely  sensitive  as  to  receive  an  im 
pression  instantaneously  in  the  open  air, 
and  in  the  light  of  an  ordinary  apartment 
in  a  very  few  seconds.  About  the  same 
time,  and  while  the  method  of  Dr.  Draper 
was  still  undisclosed,  a  similar  result  was 
attained  by  the  writer  of  this  article  by 
the  use  of  chlorine.  Photographs  of  the 
moon  were  taken  by  Dr.  Draper  as  early  as 
1840,  at  a  time  when  the  moon's  rays  were 
supposed  to  possess  no  actinic  power,  and 
when,  in  fact,  bright  objects  strongly  illu 
minated  by  the  intensest  light  of  the  full 
moon  failed,  after  hours  of  exposure,  to  pro 
duce  any  trace  of  an  impression  on  the  plates 
of  Daguerre.  These  photographs  showed 
very  well  the  light  and  shade  characteris 
tic  of  the  different  regions  of  the  satellite, 
though  by  no  means  comparable  to  the  mag 
nificent  photographs  since  taken  by  Dr.  Hen 
ry  Draper  and  by  Mr.  Rutherfurd. 

The  useful  applications  of  the  photo 
graphic  art  are  very  numerous.  In  por 
traiture  it  has  created  a  special  industry, 
large  and  lucrative,  and  of  world-wide  pop 
ularity.  In  mechanical  engineering  and  in 
every  branch  of  constructive  art  it  furnish 
es  the  means  of  obtaining  designs  of  the 
most  complicated  machinery  or  structures 
without  the  expenditure  of  time  and  labor 
necessary  for  the  execution  of  drawings. 
It  provides  a  perfect  means  of  cultivating 
the  popular  taste  or  of  instructing  the  pop 
ular  intelligence  by  bringing  faithful  rep 
resentations  of  the  choicest  works  of  art,  or 
of  the  most  interesting  scenes  of  nature  and. 


THE  MICROSCOPE. 


323 


of  human  life,  within  the  reach  of  every 
one.  Aided  by  the  ingenious  invention  of 
Professor  Wheatstone,  the  stereoscope,  it 
actually  seems  to  reproduce  before  us  the 
objects  which  it  represents,  with  all  the  as 
pect  of  reality.  In  its  later  degrees  of  per 
fection  it  has  made  it  possible  to  prepare 
plates  from  which  prints  in  ink  can  be  di 
rectly  taken ;  and  as  an  aid  to  the  litho 
graphic  art  it  has  substituted  a  direct  im 
pression  on  the  stone  for  the  patient  labor 
of  the  engraver  or  the  draughtsman.  In  the 
magnetic  observatories  established  by  the 
British  and  other  European  governments,  it 
traces  the  record  of  the  daily  and  hourly 
fluctuations  of  the  magnetic  elements ;  and 
it  has  in  some  instances  been  employed  to 
record  in  like  manner  the  indications  of  the 
barometer  and  the  thermometer.  Its  high 
est  applications  are  undoubtedly  to  astron 
omy,  to  uranographical  measurements  ac 
cording  to  the  method  of  Mr.  Rutherfurd, 
to  the  study  of  the  solar  and  stellar  spectra 
as  practiced  by  Mr.  Rutherfurd  and  Dr.  H. 
Draper,  to  that  of  the  sun  spots  so  per- 
severingly  pursued  by  De  la  Rue,  Loewy, 
and  Carriugton,  and  to  fixing  the  phases 
of  solar  eclipses,  and  of  still  more  rare 
phenomena,  like  the  transit  of  Venus. 

Production  of  Cold. — One  of  the  most  im 
portant  applications  of  the  principles  of 
physics  to  a  practical  purpose  is  to  be 
found  in  the  various  forms  of  apparatus  at 
present  in  use  for  the  artificial  production 
of  cold.  All  of  these  owe  their  efficacy  to 
the  absorption  of  heat  which  takes  place  in 
the  vaporization  of  highly  volatile  liquids  ; 
and  the  discovery  that  this  principle  can  be 
practically  and  economically  utilized  is  due 
to  our  countryman,  Professor  A.  C.  Twining, 
of  New  Haven,  by  whom  the  first  apparatus 
for  the  purpose  on  a  working  scale  ever  con 
structed  was  put  into  operation  in  1850,  and 
was  made  the  subject  of  a  patent  in  this 
country  and  in  England.  Professor  Twin 
ing  made  use  of  common  sulphuric  ether  as 
the  liquid  to  be  vaporized.  Subsequently 
Mr.  Tellier,  an  English  inventor,  substitu 
ted  for  this,  methylic  ether,  which  has  the 
advantage  of  being  greatly  more  volatile ; 
and  Mr.  Carr6,  of  Paris,  employed  liquefied 
ammoniacal  gas,  which  possesses  the  same 
advantage  in  a  still  higher  degree.  An 
important  industry  has  grown  out  of  this 


discovery,  which  is  every  year  enlarging  the 
magnitude  of  its  operations. 

The  Microscope. — The  discovery  made  in 
1829  by  Mr.  J.  J.  Lister,  of  London,  that  ev 
ery  achromatic  combination  of  lenses  has 
two  aplanatic  foci,  and  that  by  the  combi 
nation  of  two  achromatics  the  spherical 
aberration  of  oblique  pencils  can  be  effect 
ually  suppressed,  formed  an  epoch  in  the 
history  of  this  instrument  from  which  dates 
an  almost  miraculously  rapid  advance  to 
ward  perfection.  Results  toward  which 
Chevallier  and  others  had  been  blindly  feel 
ing  their  way  without  ever  satisfactorily 
reaching  them  were  now  made  dependent 
upon  well-ascertained  principles ;  and  the 
question  who  should  produce  the  best  mi 
croscope  became  a  question  of  relative  in 
genuity  in  the  application  of  theory  no  less 
than  of  practical  skill  in  producing  the 
curves  which  theory  dictated.  In  1846  Mr. 
Charles  S.  Spencer,  a  young,  self-taught,  and 
previously  unknown  optician  living  in  the 
interior  of  the  State  of  New  York,  submitted 
to  the  microscopists  of  the  country  micro 
scopic  objectives  exhibiting  a  sharpness  of 
definition  and  power  of  resolution  which 
excited  the  greatest  surprise,  and  entitled 
them  to  be  esteemed,  for  the  time  at  least, 
as  superior  to  any  other  known  in  the 
world.  The  great  multiplication  of  micro 
scopic  observers  produced  by  the  wonderful 
improvement  of  the  instrument,  and  the 
great  increase  in  the  demand  for  objectives 
consequent  upon  the  multiplication  of  ob 
servers,  soon,  however,  produced  the  natu 
ral  effect  of  rivalry  among  opticians,  and 
foreign  objectives  appeared  which  justly 
challenged  comparison  with  those  of  Mr. 
Spencer.  In  the  subsequent  progress  of 
improvement  the  artisans  of  England, 
France,  Germany,  and  the  United  States 
have  maintained  a  pretty  equal  strife.  Mr. 
Spencer  still  sustains  the  high  reputation 
which  he  so  early  established ;  and  upon  the 
same  plane  with  him  may  be  placed  Mr.  R. 
B.  Tolles,  of  Boston,  and  Mr.  William  Wales, 
of  Fort  Edward,  New  Jersey.  Of  the  natu 
ralists  among  us  who  have  devoted  them 
selves  to  the  use  of  the  microscope,  none 
have  done  more  honor  to  the  science  of 
our  country  than  the  late  Professor  Bailey, 
of  West  Point,  whose  contributions  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  diatoinaceaj  are  distribu- 


324 


SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS. 


ted  through  the  journals  arid  Transactions, 
and  Professor  H.  L.  Smith,  of  Hobart  Col 
lege,  one  of  the  highest  living  authorities 
upon  this  order  of  the  algae,  who  has  now  in 
the  hands  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution, 
awaiting  publication,  a  systematic  and  com 
prehensive  monograph  on  the  subject,  found 
ed  on  the  studies  and  observations  of  twen 
ty  years,  and  illustrated  with  numerous 
original  drawings  from  nature. 

ELECTRICITY,  MAGNETISM,  ETC. 

Down  to  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury  the  science  of  electricity  existed  only 
in  a  very  elementary  condition.  Its  phe 
nomena,  so  far  as  they  were  known,  belonged 
to  static  electricity  only,  and  were  referred 
to  the  agency  of  a  subtle  fluid  or  fluids  pres 
ent  every  where,  but  becoming  manifest  only 
when  in  a  state  of  disturbed  equilibrium. 
The  hypothesis  of  a  single  electrical  fluid  is 
usually  ascribed  to  Franklin,  and  passes  by 
his  name,  though  Leslie  claims  that  it  had 
been  earlier  suggested  by  Watson,  of  Lon 
don.  The  opposing  hypothesis  of  Dufay 
presumed  the  existence  of  two  fluids  neu 
tralizing  each  other  in  the  ordinary  condi 
tion  of  bodies  by  their  union,  and  exhibiting 
.attractions  and  repulsions  when  separated. 
The  Frankliuian  hypothesis  is  liable  to  the 
objection  that  it  necessitates  the  supposi 
tion  that  material  bodies  deprived  of  elec 
tricity  are  mutually  repellent.  But  neither 
is  any  longer  entertained.  Franklin  dem 
onstrated  the  identity  of  lightning  with  the 
ordinary  electric  spark  as  early  as  1752.  It 
is  commonly  believed  that  the  first  suspi 
cion  of  this  identity  originated  with  him ; 
but  it  had  already  been  suggested  by  Nollet 
in  1746,  who  compared  a  thunder-cloud  to 
the  prime  conductor  of  an  electrical  ma 
chine  (it  resembles  more  nearly  one  coating 
of  a  Leyden-jar),  and  had  been  urged  in  a 
plausible  course  of  reasoning  by  Winkler. 
Franklin's  merit  was  that  he  suggested  the 
means  of  setting  the  question  forever  at 
rest  by  actually  drawing  electricity  out  of 
the  clouds.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  he  was 
not  the  first  to  try  his  own  experiment.  The 
plan  he  had  publicly  proposed  was  to  erect 
on  some  eminence  a  lofty  insulated  iron  rod 
tapering  to  a  point ;  and  this  plan  was  fol 
lowed  by  Dalibard,  who  drew  sparks  from 
such  a  rod  erected  near  Paris,  and  even 


charged  from  it  a  Leyden-jar,  as  early  as  the 
10th  of  May,  1752.  The  famous  kite  experi 
ment  of  Franklin  was  performed  more  than 
a  month  later,  on  the  15th  of  June  ;  but  in 
those  days,  in  which  ocean  cables  and  steam 
ships  were  equally  unknown,  he  was,  of 
course,  ignorant  of  Dalibard's  previous  suc 
cess.  It  is  upon  this  experiment  that  the 
immense  reputation  of  Franklin  as  a  man  of 
science  mainly  rests.  Considering  the  sim 
plicity  of  the  conception  and  the  still  great 
er  simplicity  of  the  apparatus  by  which  it 
was  realized,  we  can  not  at  this  distance  of 
time  but  be  astonished  at  the  profound  im 
pression  it  produced  upon  the  world.  Such 
was  his  popularity  in  France  that,  when  he 
appeared  as  the  representative  of  the  Ameri 
can  colonies  at  the  court  of  Louis  XVI.,  the 
sale  of  his  portrait  made  the  fortune  of  the 
engraver ;  and  beneath  this  portrait  was  in 
scribed,  by  the  minister  of  a  monarch  him 
self  a  few  years  later  dethroned  and  exe 
cuted  as  a  tyrant,  the  famous  legend, 

"Eripuit  ccelo  fulmen,  Bceptrumque  tyrannis." 

Not  long  after  this,  moreover,  the  celebra 
ted  Erasmus  Darwin,  writing  to  compliment 
Franklin  on  having  united  philosophy  to 
modern  science,  directed  his  letter  merely  to 
"Dr. Franklin,  America,"  adding  that  he  was 
almost  disposed  to  write  "  Dr.  Franklin,  The 
World,"  there  being  but  one  Franklin,  and 
that  Franklin  being  known  of  all  men.  Aft 
er  making  all  allowance  for  the  weight  of 
Franklin's  political  position  and  the  sound 
practical  sense  displayed  in  his  writings  on 
subjects  of  popular  interest,  there  remains 
no  doubt  that  his  singular  celebrity  was 
due  mainly,  after  all,  to  the  association  of 
his  name  with  the  lightning.  The  great 
discovery  of  Volta,  just  at  the  close  of  the 
century,  originated  a  new  and  prolific  branch 
of  electrical  science,  not  at  first  recognized 
as  such.  In  the  infancy  of  the  investiga 
tion  which  this  discovery  opened,  it  was  a 
first  necessity  of  progress  to  improve  the 
means  by  which  the  electric  current  is  gen 
erated.  For  the  inconvenient  pile  of  the 
discoverer,  trough  batteries  with  immovable 
plates  were  soon  introduced  in  England,  and 
it  was  by  means  of  such  that  Sir  Humphry 
Davy  made  many  of  his  very  numerous  and 
celebrated  electro-chemical  discoveries.  Dr. 
Wollaston  greatly  improved  these  batteries 


ELECTRICITY. 


325 


by  giving  them  a  construction  which  caused 
both  sides  of  the  zincs  to  be  effective,  and 
permitted  the  plates  to  be  removed  from  the 
troughs.  But  all  these  forms  of  apparatus 
were  attended  with  the  serious  disadvantage 
that  their  power  when  in  action  rapidly  de 
clined,  iii  consequence  of  the  formation  upon 
the  negatives  of  a  coating  of  minute  bub 
bles  of  hydrogen  gas.  This  difficulty  was 
first  effectually  overcome  by  Dr.  Robert 
Hare,  of  Philadelphia,  who  in  1820  intro 
duced  the  form  of  voltaic  battery  which, 
from  the  intensity  of  its  effects,  he  called 
the  deflagrator.  The  deflagrator  was  made 
very  compact  by  forming  the  metals  into 
coils,  their  opposed  surfaces  being  very  near 
to  each  other,  but  separated  by  insulating 
wedges ;  but  its  important  characteristic 
consisted  of  a  mechanism  by  which  the  en 
tire  series  of  elements  could  be  instantane 
ously  immersed  in  the  liquid  or  lifted  out. 
For  experiments  of  brief  duration,  therefore, 
the  battery  was  always  ready  to  act  with  its 
full  power.  A  similar  device  occurred  later 
to  Faraday,  but  though  it  was  original  with 
him,  he  very  honorably  admitted  that  on  ex 
amination  he  found  this  new  battery  to  be 
l<  in  all  essential  respects  the  same  as  that 
invented  and  described  by  Dr.  Hare."  Be 
sides  the  deflagrator,  Dr.  Hare  constructed 
another  form  of  voltaic  apparatus,  designed 
with  low  intensity  of  electricity  to  generate 
an  enormous  volume  of  heat.  This,  which  he 
called  the  calorimotor,  was  formed  by  com 
bining  many  very  large  plates  of  zinc  and 
copper  into  two  series,  and  immersing  them 
at  once  into  a  tank  of  dilute  acid.  By  means 
of  it  large  rods  of  iron  or  platinum  are  ig 
nited  and  fused  in  a  few  seconds,  and  its 
magnetic  effects  are  equally  surprising ;  yet 
it  is  hardly  capable  of  producing  the  faintest 
spark  between  carbon  electrodes.  Dr.  Hare 
was  an  extremely  voluminous  writer  on  sub 
jects  connected  with  voltaic  electricity  and 
chemistry.  Nearly  one  hundred  and  fifty 
articles  from  his  pen  may  be  found  in  the 
Journal  of  Science  alone.  In  invention  he 
was  wonderfully  fertile,  and  in  the  variety 
of  ingenious  contrivances  devised  and  con 
structed  by  him  in  aid  of  investigation  or 
for  purposes  of  illustration,  he  deserves  to 
be  ranked  with  men  like  Hooke,  Wollastou, 
and  Wheatstone. 

The  constant  battery,  the  next  improve 


ment  in  voltaic  electro-motive  apparatus, 
was  produced  by  Dauiell  in  1836.  It  is  a 
battery  of  four  elements,  two  metallic  and 
two  liquid,  the  liquids  being  separated  by 
a  porous  partition.  In  this  arrangement 
the  nascent  hydrogen  set  free  on  the  zinc 
side,  combining  with  the  oxygen  of  the 
metallic  base  of  the  solution  on  the  copper 
side,  no  longer  appears  in  the  gaseous  form, 
and  the  obstruction  it  had  occasioned  to 
circulation  is  thus  suppressed.  Dauiell, 
nevertheless,  was  not  the  first  to  suggest  a 
battery  of  four  elements.  The  credit  of 
this  suggestion  is  due  to  Dr.  John  W.  Dra 
per,  of  New  York,  who,  as  early  as  1834,  de 
scribed  such  a  battery  in  the  Journal  of  the 
Franklin  Institute. 

The  relation  of  electricity  to  magnetism 
was  a  discovery  accidentally  made  by  Oer 
sted,  of  Copenhagen,  in  1819.  He  noticed 
that  if  a  wire  conveying  a  voltaic  current 
be  brought  near  a  suspended  magnetic  nee 
dle,  the  needle  will  be  deflected  from  its 
normal  position.  This  remarkable  discov 
ery  was  followed  by  one  no  less  remark 
able,  made  simultaneously  by  Arago  and 
Davy,  that  the  conducting  wire  itself,  what 
ever  may  be  the  material  it  is  composed  of, 
is  capable,  while  conveying  the  voltaic  cur 
rent,  of  attracting  soft  iron.  Ampere  next 
discovered  that  two  wires  conveying  elec 
tric  currents  attract  each  other  if  the  cur 
rents  are  in  the  same  direction,  and  repel 
if  the  directions  are  opposite.  Upon  this 
he  founded  his  celebrated  theory  which 
made  magnetism  only  one  of  the  forms  of 
manifestation  of  electrical  force.  This  the 
ory  suggested  to  Arago  the  idea  that  a  steel 
needle  might  possibly  be  magnetized  by 
subjecting  it  to  the  action  of  an  electric 
current  passing  spirally  round  it.  He  test 
ed  the  truth  of  this  conjecture,  and  his  ex 
periment  was  a  success.  A  repetition  of 
this  experiment  in  modified  form  by  Stur 
geon,  of  Woolwich,  England,  in  1825,  drew 
after  it  important  consequences.  Bending 
a  piece  of  stout  iron  wire  into  the  form  of 
a  horseshoe,  and  coating  it  with  varnish  to 
secure  insulation,  he  wound  round  this  a 
copper  wire,  which  ho  introduced  into  the 
battery  circuit.  The  iron  wire  thus  treat 
ed  became  temporarily  a  feeble  horseshoe 
magnet,  capable  of  sustaining  a  weight  of 
two  or  three  pounds.  At  this  stage  of  the 


326 


SCIENTIFIC  PKOGRESS. 


investigation  the  subject  attracted  the  at 
tention  of  Professor  Joseph  Henry,  of  Al 
bany,  New  York,  and  the  next  step  in  the 
progress  of  this  history — a  very  large  one 
— was  taken  by  him.  Considering  that  the 
intensity  of  the  effect  must  be  proportion 
ed  to  the  closeness  of  the  coil,  and  that 
with  a  naked  conductor  the  spirals  could 
not  permissibly  be  brought  into  contact,  it 
occurred  to  him  to  insulate  the  conducting 
wire  itself,  which  he  did  by  winding  it  with 
silk.  This  expedient  enabled  him  not  only 
to  envelop  the  iron  closely  in  the  first  in 
stance,  but  also  to  wind  several  successive 
coils  over  each  other.  The  result  was  to 
produce  an  electro-magnet  in  the  proper 
sense  of  the  word — an  instrument  not  lim 
ited  in  its  use  to  the  purposes  of  lecture- 
room  illustration,  but  capable  of  important 
and  largely  varied  practical  applications. 
Some  of  the  magnets  constructed  by  Pro 
fessor  Henry  sustained  weights  of  between 
one  and  two  tons. 

In  pursuing  his  investigations  on  this 
subject,  Professor  Henry  ascertained  a  num 
ber  of  important  facts  concerning  the  laws 
of  development  of  magnetism  in  soft  iron. 
Having  surrounded  a  given  bar  with  a  num 
ber  of  short  helices  abutting  end  to  end,  he 
tried  the  effect  of  first  uniting  the  similar 
ends  of  these  so  as  to  make  one  short  com 
pound  conductor,  and  of  afterward  uniting 
their  dissimilar  ends  so  as  to  make  a  single 
continuous  conductor  of  them  all.  With  a 
battery  of  a  few  elements,  the  first  ar 
rangement  proved  to  be  most  effective,  but 
with  one  of  many,  the  second  was  superior. 
Hence  the  distinction  introduced  by  him  be 
tween  quantity  and  intensity  magnets. 

The  possible  practical  applications  of 
the  electro-magnet  were  not  overlooked  by 
Professor  Henry,  though  he  contented  him 
self  with  pointing  them  out  without  pursu 
ing  them.  The  practicability  of  an  electric 
telegraph  was  illustrated  by  him  in  an  ap 
paratus  fitted  up  in  1831  in  the  Albany 
Academy,  by  which  an  electric  current 
transmitted  through  a  circuit  of  more  than 
a  mile  was  made  to  ring  a  bell.  The  inven 
tion  of  the  first  recording  magnetic  tele 
graph — that  is,  of  the  instrument  by  which 
signals  are  actually  Avritten  down  by  mag 
netism,  and  not  merely  addressed  to  the 
sense  of  hearing  or  sight — was  made  by  Pro 


fessor  S.  F.  B.  Morse,  of  New  York.  He  had 
conceived  it  as  early  as  1832.  The  instru 
ment  did  not  take  form  till  some  years  later. 
It  was  impossible  that  either  mode  of  signal 
ing  (the  mode  actually  used  by  Professor 
Henry  in  1831  or  that  conceived  by  Profess 
or  Morse  in  1832)  should  come  into  public 
use  or  be  economically  a  possibility  so  long 
as  there  existed  no  form  of  constant  or  sus 
taining  battery,  and  the  batteries  of  Dan- 
iell  and  Grove  were  only  known  in  1836  and 
1837. 

In  the  construction  of  long  lines  of  tele 
graph  it  became  early  necessary  to  devise 
some  practicable  means  of  crossingthe  larger 
streams  or  the  narrower  estuaries  by  means 
of  submerged  conductors.  When  this  had 
been  successfully  accomplished,  the  same 
system  was  naturally  extended  to  the  small 
er  seas  or  arms  of  the  ocean,  such  as  the 
British  Channel  and  the  Mediterranean. 
But  when,  a  little  more  than  twenty  years 
ago,  it  was  first  proposed  to  lay  an  electric 
cable  from  continent  to  continent  in  the  bed 
of  the  ocean  itself,  the  audacity  of  the  proj 
ect  was  such  that,  at  its  first  announce 
ment,  it  struck  the  world  as  too  visionary 
to  be  seriously  considered.  Even  to  con 
trive  a  form  of  conductor  which  should  com 
bine  the  strength  and  completeness  of  insu 
lation  indispensable  to  such  a  purpose,  was 
a  problem  in  applied  science  of  no  slight  dif 
ficulty,  and  to  lay  it  in  its  place  demand 
ed  the  exercise  of  mechanical  skill  of  the 
highest  order.  Supposing  it  to  have  been 
laid,  science,  again,  had  not  yet  devised  the 
means  of  making  it  available.  The  exhaust- 
less  energy  and  indomitable  perseverance 
of  Mr.  Cyrus  W.  Field  nevertheless  triumph 
ed  at  last  over  all  the  practical  difficulties ; 
and  the  patient  study  of  the  scientific  side 
of  the  question  by  the  electricians,  especially 
by  Sir  William  Thomson,  with  his  marvel 
ous  fertility  of  invention,  was  equally  suc 
cessful  in  overcoming  the  rest.  The  elec 
trical  telegraph,  therefore,  one  of  the  most 
magnificent  gifts  of  science  to  the  world, 
may  be  justly  claimed  as  especially  a  gift 
of  American  science,  and  the  energy  which 
was  mainly  instrumental  in  giving  it  its 
latest  and  largest  availability  was  no  less 
American. 

Professor  Henry  was  the  first  to  point  out 
the  practicability  of  applying  electro-mag- 


ELECTRO-MAGNETISM. 


327 


netism  as  a  motive  power,  and  iu  illustration 
of  this  lie  constructed  an  oscillating  appa 
ratus,  described  in  the  American  Journal  of 
Science  iu  1829.  The  attempts  which  have 
been  made  to  turn  this  power  practically 
to  account  have  been  very  numerous.  Al 
most  or  quite  the  earliest  was  made  by 
Messrs.  Davenport  and  Cook,  of  Vermont,  in 
1836.  A  machine  in  model  exhibited  by 
them  in  New  York  attracted  much  atten 
tion  ;  but  a  working  engine  which  they  sub 
sequently  attempted  did  not  meet  their  ex 
pectations.  In  all  these  forms  of  mechan 
ism  there  is  one  unavoidable  disadvantage, 
•which  in  the  infancy  of  the  science  was 
not  known,  consisting  in  the  fact  that  the 
moving  magnets  generate  in  each  other  cur 
rents  directly  opposed  to  those  from  which 
their  own  magnetic  energy  is  derived ;  and 
hence  the  dynamic  power  of  the  engine  is 
not  proportional  to  the  static  energy  of 
its  component  magnets.  Electro-magnetic 
engines  of  some  power  have  in  a  few  in 
stances  been  tried,  and  subsequently  aban 
doned,  not  on  account  of  any  mechanical 
failure,  but  for  reasons  of  economy.  One 
of  this  description,  constructed  under  the 
direction  of  Do  Jacobi  at  the  expense  of  the 
Emperor  of  Russia,  was  employed  to  propel 
a  boat  on  the  Neva.  Another  was  the  elec 
tro-magnetic  locomotive  of  our  countryman, 
Dr.  Charles  G.  Page.  This  was  remarkable 
for  its  original  and  ingenious  method  of 
applying  the  power,  which  was  by  means 
of  solid  cylindrical  steel  magnets  rising 
and  descending  in  the  interior  of  a  pile  of 
short  helices,  the  helices  being  successively 
thrown  into  and  out  of  the  circuit.  With 
two  such  engines,  Dr.  Page  drove  a  car 
weighing  eleven  tons  and  carrying  four 
teen  passengers  on  a  level  track  at  the  rate 
of  nineteen  miles  an  hour.  Electro-mag 
netic  engines  can  never  compete  with  steam- 
engines  in  point  of  economy  until  it  shall 
be  possible  to  construct  batteries  in  which 
the  materials  consumed  shall  be,  weight  for 
weight,  a  great  deal  cheaper  than  coal. 
Experimentally  it  has  been  proved  that  a 
grain  of  coal  consumed  under  the  boiler  of 
a  Cornish  engine  lifts  143  pounds  one  foot 
high,  while  a  grain  of  zinc  consumed  in  a 
battery  to  move  an  electro-magnetic  engine 
lifts  only  eighty  pounds  to  the  same  height. 
But  it  requires  the  consumption  of  a  num 


ber  of  grains  of  coal  to  produce  one  grain 
of  zinc. 

The  applications  of  the  electro-magnet  to 
purposes  of  use  are  too  various  to  permit 
here  an  enumeration  in  detail.  The  astro 
nomical  electro-magnetic  chronograph  has 
been  already  mentioned.  The  instruments 
for  measuring  still  more  minute  intervals  of 
time,  called  chronoscopes,  are  dependent,  in 
several  of  their  large  variety  of  forms,  on 
similar  means  of  operation.  This  same  re 
mark  may  be  made  of  numerous  very  in 
genious  and  very  valuable  contrivances  in 
troduced  in  recent  years  for  demonstrating 
the  laws  of  falling  bodies,  for  registering 
vibrations  in  acoustics,  for  recording  the 
indications  of  meteorological  instruments, 
and  for  many  other  purposes  auxiliary  to 
scientific  investigation. 

As  more  practical  applications,  there  may 
be  mentioned  fire-alarms,  by  means  of  which 
information  of  the  exact  locality  of  a  fire  in 
any  large  city  may  be  instantaneously  com 
municated  to  the  central  office,  and  definite 
orders  issued  at  once  to  fire-companies  how 
to  proceed ;  burglar-alarms,  which  instantly 
indicate  the  door  or  window  in  a  dwelling 
at  which  entrance  has  been  attempted,  and 
at  the  same  time  turn  on  a  light  and  arouse 
the  sleepers  by  ringing  bells  or  sounding 
rattles ;  time-balls  dropped  in  centres  of 
business  or  in  sea-ports  by  electrical  com 
munication  from  distant  astronomical  ob 
servatories  ;  and  clocks  operated  by  electro- 
magnetism  as  a  motive  power,  or  systems 
of  dials  by  which  a  single  clock  may  show 
simultaneously  the  same  time  in  every  part 
of  a  large  business  establishment.  In  the 
year  1859  a  clock  of  peculiar  and  original 
design,  operated  by  electro-magnetism,  was 
constructed,  under  the  direction  of  the  writ 
er  of  this  article,  by  Mr.  E.  S.  Ritchie,  of  Bos 
ton,  for  the  observatory  of  the  University 
of  Mississippi.  The  pendulum  was  entirely 
free,  the  force  required  to  maintain  its  mo 
tion  being  applied  by  depositing  a  very  light 
weight  (of  one  or  two  grains)  upon  an  arm 
of  the  pendulum  at  the  beginning  of  the 
swTing,  and  removing  it  in  the  middle,  by  an 
arrangement  of  electro-magnets.  The  small 
weight  served  itself  to  make  and  break  the 
battery  connections  necessary  to  actuate  the 
auxiliary  mechanism.  The  intention  was, 
by  relieving  the  pendulum  from  the  work 


328 


SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS. 


of  operating  the  escapemeut,  and  by  redu 
cing  its  swing  as  low  as  possible  (to  a  frac 
tion  of  a  degree),  to  remove  every  external 
cause  which  might  interfere  with  the  per 
fect  uniformity  of  its  beat.  But  a  very  low 
power  was  required  to  run  it.  A  single  cell 
of  Farmer's  so-called  water  battery  (pure 
water  next  the  zinc,  and  copper  sulphate 
next  the  copper)  was  sufficient  to  maintain 
its  action,  but  two  were  commonly  used. 
Mechanically  it  was  a  perfect  success,  but 
after  some  months  of  action  it  was  found 
that  the  electric  contacts  became  vitiated 
by  the  spark  produced,  even  with,  that  low 
power,  at  every  rupture  of  the  circuit,  and 
the  current  ceased  to  flow.  Though  the 
most  refractory  metals  were  employed,  they 
were  still  vaporized  and  oxidized.  The  dif 
ficulty  was  at  length  overcome  by  introdu 
cing  Fizeau's  condenser  into  the  circuit,  by 
•which  the  spark  was  effectually  suppress 
ed  ;  but  owing  to  the  troubles  of  the  times, 
which  prevented  the  completion  of  the  ob 
servatory,  it  was  never  brought  into  use. 

Within  recent  years  some  interesting  con 
tributions  to  the  progress  of  electro-magnet 
ic  science  have  been  made  in  this  country 
by  Professor  A.  F.  Mayer,  of  Hoboken,  New 
Jersey,  Professor  John  Trowbridge,  of  Har 
vard  University,  and  others.  Professor  May 
er's  experiments  have  led  to  some  very  im 
portant  deductions  as  to  the  most  effective 
forms  of  soft  iron  core  to  be  given  to  electro 
magnets,  and  have  shown  that  in  general, 
when  such  cores  are  solid  cylinders,  the  cen 
tral  portion  is  practically  ineffective,  and 
may  be  removed  without  diminishing  the 
power  of  the  magnet.  They  have  shown 
also  that  the  inducing  action  of  the  envelop 
ing  wire  on  itself,  or  that  of  the  adjoining 
spirals  on  each  other,  has  no  effect  on  their 
power  to  magnetize  the  core,  or  on  the  in 
tensity  of  the  current  passing  through  them. 
We  owe  also  to  Professor  Mayer  one  of  the 
most  delicate  and  at  the  same  time  simple 
modes  yet  devised  of  investigating  the  re 
sistance  of  conductors  to  electric  currents 
passing  through  them. 

That  the  molecular  changes  produced  in  a 
bar  of  iron  by  magnetization  are  attended 
with  simultaneous  changes  of  dimensions, 
was  rendered  probable  by  the  observation 
(made  many  years  ago  by  Dr.  Page)  that 
they  are  attended  by  audible  sounds,  and 


was  experimentally  proved  by  Joule  and 
Wertheim.  By  a  very  elaborate  and  care 
fully  conducted  investigation,  aided  by  the 
exceedingly  delicate  micrometric  comparator 
constructed  for  the  Coast  Survey  by  Mr.  Jo 
seph  Saxton,  Professor  Mayer  has  deter 
mined  quantitatively  the  precise  character 
and  magnitude  of  these  changes.  Professor 
Trowbridge  has  also  made  some  interesting 
discoveries  relating  to  this  subject,  among 
which  is  the  fact  that  if  the  core  of  an  elec 
tro-magnet  be  made  a  part  of  a  voltaic  cir 
cuit,  and  the  magnetizing  current  be  then 
sent  through  the  enveloping  helix  by  an 
other  battery,  a  magnetic  power  may  be  ob 
tained  materially  greater  than  that  which 
the  latter  current  is  capable  of  producing 
alone,  but  that  this  effect  will  not  be  re 
peated  if  the  magnetizing  circuit  be  broken 
and  again  renewed. 

Voltaic  Induction. — The  power  of  a  voltaic 
current  to  induce  currents  in  neighboring 
conductors  was  discovered  by  Faraday  in 
1831.  If  both  conductors  are  motionless, 
the  induced  current  is  but  momentary,  oc 
curring  only  when  the  primary  current  be 
gins  or  ceases  to  flow.  If  they  approach  to- 
Avard  or  recede  from  each  other,  the  induced 
current  is  continuous  so  long  as  this  move 
ment  continues,  being  opposite  in  direction 
to  the  primary  while  approaching,  and  simi 
lar  in  direction  while  receding.  By  using 
helices  instead  of  single  conductors,  Mr. 
Faraday  succeeded  in  producing  induced 
currents  of  great  energy.  In  the  same  year 
Professor  Henry  made  the  remarkable  dis 
covery  that  a  voltaic  current  induces  an  ex 
tra  current  in  the  conductor  in  which  it  is 
itself  conveyed,  which,  however,  manifests 
itself  only  on  making  or  breaking  connec 
tion  with  the  battery,  the  intensity  being 
proportional  to  the  length  of  the  conductor, 
and  being  greatly  increased  by  giving  the 
conductor  the  form  of  a  close  spiral.  Pro 
fessor  Henry  demonstrated  later  that,  if  a 
series  of  closed  circuits  be  placed  side  by 
side,  the  first  receiving  a  primary  current 
from  the  battery,  then  on  making  or  break 
ing  battery  connection  a  series  of  induced 
currents  will  be  generated  in  these  several 
circuits,  which  will  be  alternately  in  oppo 
site  directions.  The  system  of  conductors 
best  adapted  to  this  demonstration  is  a  se 
ries  of  flat  spirals  known  as  Henry's  coils, 


INDUCTION  COILS. 


329 


formed  of  wire,  or  better  of  copper  ribbon, 
insulated.  Induced  currents  of  the  ninth 
order  have  thus  been  demonstrated,  and  the 
possible  number  is  theoretically  unlimited. 

Magneto-Electricity. — The  year  1831  was 
very  fruitful  of  electrical  discovery.  It  was 
in  this  year  that  Faraday  detected  the  pow 
er  of  a  permanent  steel  magnet  to  induce 
electric  currents  in  neighboring  conductors, 
and  in  this  year  also  he  succeeded  in  pro 
ducing  from  the  induction  of  such  a  magnet 
a  visible  electric  spark.  From  this  mem 
orable  discovery  the  science  of  magneto- 
electricity  takes  its  date.  Almost  immedi 
ately  after  it  a  powerful  magneto-electric 
machine  was  constructed  by  Mr.  Joseph 
Saxton,  of  Philadelphia,  which  was  almost 
the  first  of  its  kind.  Another,  still  more 
powerful,  was  subsequently  invented  by  Dr. 
Page,  who  added  the  simple  but  ingenious 
contrivance  called  the  pole  -  changer,  by 
which  the  currents,  incessantly  reversed  in 
the  helices  of  the  machine,  are  transmitted 
through  the  circuit  in  one  constant  direc 
tion.  With  this  improvement  the  machine 
may  be  made  a  substitute  for  a  galvanic 
battery  in  the  operations  of  electrolysis. 
Magneto-electric  machines  have  consequent 
ly  in  recent  years  to  a  large  extent  super 
seded  batteries  for  many  important  practi 
cal  purposes.  The  galvano-plastic  art,  so 
largely  employed  in  copying  in  fac-simile 
objects  of  ornament  and  use,  in  plating  and 
gilding,  in  duplicating  the  plates  of  the  en 
graver,  in  stereotyping  pages  for  the  letter 
press,  and  in  a  variety  of  other  ways,  is  now 
conducted  almost  entirely  by  the  use  of 
these  machines.  Constructed  on  a  large 
scale,  they  have  been  employed  by  the  gov 
ernments  of  France  and  England  to  furnish 
electric  lights  for  some  of  their  most  impor 
tant  light-houses. 

Induction  Coils. — After  the  power  of  a  per 
manent  magnet  to  induce  electric  ciirrents 
had  been  demonstrated,  it  could  not  be 
doubted  that  electro-magnets  would  do  the 
same.  This  was  Faraday's  inference,  and 
experiment  confirmed  the  anticipation.  A 
secondary  coil,  surrounding  but  independ 
ent  of  the  coil  of  an  electro-magnet,  gave 
currents  whenever  the  battery  connection 
of  the  magnet  was  made  or  broken.  In  this 
discovery  is  found  the  first  suggestion  of  a 
form  of  electrical  apparatus  which  has  in 


recent  years  become  a  powerful  instrument 
of  physical  investigation,  the  induction  coil. 
In  its  earliest  form  this  apparatus  was  the 
invention  of  our  countryman,  Dr.  Page,  and 
was  called  by  him  the  "separable  helix." 
There  was  an  inner  helix,  fixed  upright 
upon  a  support,  into  the  hollow  interior  of 
which  might  be  introduced  bars  or  wires 
of  soft  iron.  An  outer  helix,  which  was 
removable,  was  designed  to  convey  the  in 
duced  current.  Dr.  Page,  in  the  study  of 
this  instrument,  made  several  important 
discoveries.  These  were,  first,  that  the  in 
tensity  of  the  induced  current  may  be  great 
ly  increased  by  making  the  wire  of  the  sec 
ondary  coil  many  times  longer,  and  also 
very  riiuch  smaller,  than  the  primary ;  sec 
ondly,  that  the  effect  of  a  number  of  soft 
iron  wires  introduced  into  the  inner  coil 
is  vastly  greater  than  that  obtainable  from 
the  same  weight  of  iron  in  a  single  bar; 
and  thirdly,  that  unless  the  primary  cur 
rent  is  broken  very  abruptly,  the  induced 
current  of  that  circuit  will  leap  over  the 
break,  neutralizing  to  some  extent,  by  sec 
ondary  induction,  the  induced  current  in 
the  outer  coil.  To  counteract  this  he  in 
vented  an  ingenious  and  successful  contriv 
ance  called  the  spark  -  arresting  circuit- 
breaker.  These  discoveries  date  back  to 
1838  and  earlier.  In  1853  Mr.  Fizeau,  of 
Paris,  suggested  the  use  of  a  condenser  con 
structed  on  the  principle  of  the  Leydeu-jar, 
as  a  means  of  absorbing  the  extra  current 
in  the  primary ;  and  this  has  since  super 
seded  Page's  circuit  -  breaker.  About  the 
same  time  Mr.  Ruhmkorff,  of  Paris,  com 
menced  the  construction  of  the  induction 
coils  known  by  his  name,  which  were  in  no 
respect  different,  except  in  magnitude,  from 
the  separable  helices  of  Page  above  de 
scribed,  but  which  attracted  much  atten 
tion  in  consequence  of  the  length  of  spark 
they  produced.  This,  in  Page's  instrument, 
had  hardly  exceeded  one-eighth  of  an  inch; 
but  in  Ruhmkorff' s  it  was  increased  to  near 
ly  an  entire  inch,  and  in  his  later  instru 
ments  to  two  or  three  inches.  A  practical 
limit  to  increase  of  power  in  this  direction 
was,  however,  found  in  the  liability  of  cur 
rents  of  high  intensity  to  strike  through  the 
insulation  from  layer  to  layer  of  the  sec 
ondary  coil.  This  liability  is  the  greater 
in  proportion  as  the  points  of  the  wire  of 


330 


SCIENTIFIC  PEOGRESS. 


the  helix  which  are  brought  near  each  oth 
er  in  winding  are  more  distant  as  measured 
upon  the  length  of  the  wire  itself.  As  a 
means  of  preventing  it,  it  occurred  to  Mr. 
Ritchie  to  wind  the  wire  in  many  flat  spi 
rals,  placing  these  side  by  side  and  connect 
ing  them  at  their  inner  and  outer  extremi 
ties,  so  as  to  form  a  continuous  helical  con 
ductor  of  which  no  two  points  should  be 
more  distant  from  each  other,  measured 
along  the  wire,  than  the  length  of  two  such 
contiguous  spirals,  developed.  The  result 
was  a  surprising  increase  in  the  length  of 
spark,  which  has  been  carried  up  by  him  to 
twelve,  fifteen,  and  even  twenty  inches. 
One  of  Mr.  Ritchie's  coils  was  exhibited  in 
Paris  in  1860,  by  Professor  McCulloh,  of  Co 
lumbia  College,  New  York.  By  an  exami 
nation  of  this,  Mr.  Ruhmkorff  became  ac 
quainted  with  the  mode  of  its  construction, 
•which  Mr.  Ritchie  had  not  previously  dis 
closed,  and  adopting  it,  produced  others  of 
enormous  power — one  of  which  projected 
sparks  two  feet  in  length.  For  this  great 
success,  mainly  due  to  the  ingenuity  of  our 
countryman,  Mr.  Ruhmkorff  received  in 
1864  the  prize  of  50,000  francs  offered  in 
1852  by  Napoleon  III.  for  the  most  impor 
tant  discovery  connected  with  the  progress 
of  electricity. 

Static  Electricity. — Some  very  interesting 
discoveries  in  static  electricity  were  made 
by  Professor  Henry  as  early  as  1830.  He 
demonstrated  that  the  discharge  of  a  Ley- 
den-jar  consists  of  a  series  of  oscillations 
backward  and  forward,  something  like  the 
vibration  of  a  spring.  The  mode  of  proof 
employed  in  this  demonstration  is  at  once 
simple  and  ingenious.  It  rests  on  the  two 
experimentally  ascertained  facts — first,  that 
a  steel  needle  may  be  magnetized  by  sur 
rounding  it  with  a  spiral  conductor,  and 
sending  through  the  conductor  the  discharge 
of  a  Leyden-jar ;  and  secondly,  that  there  is 
a  point  of  saturation  beyond  which  the  nee 
dle  will  not  receive  magnetism.  By  passing 
successive  discharges  of  gradually  increas 
ing  intensity  through  the  coil,  the  needle 
will  undergo  changes  of  polarity,  showing 
that  it  derives  its  magnetism  alternately 
from  the  direct  and  the  reversed  movement 
of  the  electric  force.  It  follows  that  the 
electric  spark,  though  to  the  eye  apparently 
single,  is,  in  fact,  made  up  of  many  sparks. 


This  multiplicity  has  recently  been  optical 
ly  demonstrated  by  Professor  Rood,  of  Co 
lumbia  College,  who,  by  means  of  a  rapidly 
rotating  mirror,  has  made  the  successive 
component  sparks  visible.  A  very  striking 
palpable  demonstration  of  the  same  fact 
was  also  exhibited  to  the  National  Acade 
my  of  Sciences  in  November,  1874,  by  Pro 
fessor  A.  M.  Mayer,  of  Hoboken,  New  Jersey. 
Professor  Mayer  caused  disks  of  blackened 
tissue-paper  to  revolve  with  great  rapidity 
between  the  points  through  which  the  dis 
charge  of  the  Leyden-jar  is  made.  Subse 
quent  examination  of  the  disk  shows  it  to 
be  perforated  with  a  very  great  number  of 
minute  holes  along  the  circular  arc  which 
was  passing  between  the  points  during  the 
brief  continuance  of  the  discharge. 

The  fact  which  he  had  demonstrated  of 
the  jar,  Professor  Henry  afterward  proved 
to  be  true  of  thunder-clouds.  These  stand 
to  the  earth  beneath  them  in  the  relation 
of  the  coatings  of  the  jar,  the  stratum  of 
air  between  being  the  insulating  medium. 
When  the  insulation  is  broken  through,  the 
lightning  flash  which  follows  is  multiple 
and  oscillating,  presenting  on  a  grand  scale 
an  analogy  to  the  discharge  of  the  jar. 

The  duration  of  flushes  of  lightning,  as 
well  as  of  the  spark  from  the  jar,  has  been 
the  subject  of  interesting  investigations  by 
Professor  Rood,  in  which  he  has  succeeded 
in  measuring  more  minute  intervals  of  time 
than  have  ever  before  been  made  the  sub 
ject  of  exact  determination.  By  his  meth 
ods,  which  appear  to  be  quite  unexception 
able,  it  is  proved  that  a  jar  of  small  surface 
discharges  itself  in  a  space  of  time  not  great 
er  than  forty  one-billionths  of  a  second; 
and  that  its  light,  though  of  inconceivably 
brief  duration,  makes  surrounding  objects 
perfectly  visible.  As  there  is  reason  to  be- 
'  lieve  that  this  time  is  at  least  tenfold  great 
er  than  is  necessary  to  impress  the  retina,  it 
follows  that  the  perfect  sensation  of  vision 
may  be  excited  in  an  interval  as  brief  as 
four  one-billionths  of  a  second.  The  dura 
tion  of  lightning  flashes  is  much  greater. 
Besides  investigating  the  form  and  nature 
of  the  spark  by  optical  methods,  as  already 
mentioned,  Professor  Rood  has  employed 
photography  in  the  same  research,  and  has 
demonstrated  marked  differences  between 
the  positive  and  negative  sparks,  as  well  as 


CHEMISTRY. 


331 


between  the  sparks  obtained  through  the 
jar  from  the  induction  coil  and  from  the 
common  frictional  machine. 

In  thermo-electricity  not  much  has  been 
done  by  American  investigators.  In  1840 
Dr.  J.  W.  Draper  published  a  memoir  on  the 
electro-motive  power  of  heat,  with  descrip 
tions  of  improved  thermo-electrical  couples. 
A  pretty  effective  thermo-electric  battery 
has  been  constructed  by  Mr.  Farmer,  of  Bos 
ton,  thirty-six  elements  of  which  are  about 
equivalent  to  one  of  Grove's  nitric  acid  ele 
ments.  Professor  Rood  has  made  an  inter 
esting  application  of  a  thermo-electrical 
couple  to  the  determination  of  the  heat  pro 
duced  by  percussion  when  the  mechanical 
force  exerted  is  very  small.  He  has  been 
able  thus  to  demonstrate  that  in  the  fall  of 
a  weight  of  a  single  pound  through  trivial 
heights,  varying  from  one  to  five  inches, 
the  amount  of  heat  generated  is  measura 
ble,  and  is  directly  as  the  amount  of  living 
force  acquired  by  the  body  in  falling. 

CHEMISTRY. 

Chemistry  as  a  science  may  be  said  to 
have  been  the  creation  of  the  century  we  are 
reviewing.  Many  important  facts  which 
have  now  a  recognized  place  in  this  science 
had,  it  is  true,  been  previously  gathered ; 
but  they  were  either  facts  of  accidental  dis 
covery,  or  they  had  been  discovered  in  the 
course  of  investigations  guided  by  no  intel 
ligent  theory.  The  doctrine  of  phlogiston, 
introduced  early  in  the  eighteenth  century 
by  Stahl,  though  now  usually  spoken  of  as 
a  reproach  to  the  science  of  that  age,  was 
really  a  step  of  progress,  for  it  was  part  of 
a  system  which  proposed  to  ascertain  by  ex 
perimental  research  the  elementary  compo 
sition  of  natural  bodies.  But  it  is  also  true 
that  the  overthrow  of  that  doctrine  by  La 
voisier,  near  the  end  of  the  same  century, 
forms  the  epoch  from  which  modern  chem 
istry  in  a  proper  sense  takes  its  rise.  The 
contemporaries  of  this  great  philosopher, 
Black,  Cavendish,  and  Priestley  in  England, 
Scheele  in  Sweden,  and  Wenzel  in  Saxony, 
contributed  largely  by  their  discoveries,  and 
by  their  researches  on  heat  and  on  the  laws 
of  chemical  affinity,  to  build  up  the  new 
science  on  a  rational  basis.  The  doctrine 
of  definite  proportions,  which  had  been  al 
ready  substantially  established  by  the  la 


bors  of  Higgins,  Proust,  and  Richter,  -was 
formally  announced  by  Dalton  in  his  atomic 
theory,  taught  as  early  as  1804  and  publish 
ed  in  1808.  The  question  whether  there 
does  not  exist,  also,  a  law  of  definite  propor 
tion  between  the  combining  or  equivalent 
weights  of  the  different  bodies  called  ele 
mentary,  was  naturally  suggested  as  a  con 
sequence  of  this  discovery.  When  the  num 
bers  are  compared  with  the  assumption  of 
any  particular  equivalent  weight  as  unity, 
while  the  results  are  in  many  cases  integral, 
there  remain  always  some  which  continue 
to  be  fractional.  A  comparatively  recent 
and  laborious  investigation  of  this  subject, 
however,  by  Dumas,  has  led  to  the  result 
that  when  a  unit  is  adopted  which  is  equal 
to  one-fourth  of  the  equivalent  weight  of 
hydrogen,  all  the  numbers  are  Integra"!.  It 
is,  therefore,  a  view  not  without  plausibility, 
entertained  by  some  chemists  at  present, 
that  all  the  bodies  commonly  called  element 
ary  may  be  compounds ;  and  even  that,  on 
a  complete  decomposition  of  them  all,  there 
might  remain  but  a  single  elementary  sub 
stance.  The  power  of  heat,  when  sufficient 
ly  exalted  in  temperature,  to  break  up  all 
known  chemical  compounds,  has  been  fully 
established  of  late  years  by  Henri  St.  Clair 
Deville ;  and  spectroscopic  observation  has 
shown  that  many  substances  exist  as  vapors 
in  the  sun  and  the  stars  which  no  degree 
of  heat  which  we  can  artificially  produce 
upon  the  earth  is  competent  to  vaporize. 
It  is  therefore  not  unreasonable  to  presume 
that,  if  there  is  such  a  primitive  elementary 
matter  as  is  above  supposed,  it  may  be  set 
free  in  the  intense  heat  of  the  self-luminous 
celestial  bodies.  And  it  is  an  interesting 
fact  that,  in  the  spectroscopic  examination 
of  the  envelopes  of  the  sun,  there  are  detect 
ed  lines  which  belong  to  no  element  known 
upon  our  planet,  and  Avhich  seem  also  to  in 
dicate  the  presence  of  a  substance  lighter 
than  hydrogen. 

Organic  chemistry,  or  the  chemistry  of 
animal  and  vegetable  compounds,  became 
early  a  distinct  department  of  the  science. 
The  study  of  organized  bodies  led  to  the 
discovery  of  aeries,  in  which  a  number  of 
bodies  differ  from  each  other  only  in  the 
number  of  times  a  simpler  definite  combi 
nation  is  repeated  in  their  formula?.  This 
discovery  was  first  distinctly  announced  by 


332 


SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS. 


Dr.  James  Shiel,  of  St.  Louis,  Missouri.  In 
this  same  study  also  was  found  the  con 
ception  of  types,  in  which  one  element  may 
be  replaced  by  another — a  conception  which 
lies  at  the  foundation  of  the  chemical  sci 
ence  of  the  present  day.  This  conception, 
originated  by  Dumas,  and  followed  up  and 
developed  by  Laurent  and  Gerhardt,  was 
first  reduced  to  its  most  simple  and  satis 
factory  form  of  expression  by  Professor  T. 
Sterry  Hunt,  now  of  Boston,  who  so  early 
as  1848  demonstrated  that  all  the  various 
saline  forms  are  reducible  to  two,  the  types 
of  which  are  seen  in  water,  and  in  hydro 
gen  with  the  equivalent  doubled.  In  a  se 
ries  of  papers  published  subsequently  at 
intervals,  Professor  Hunt  further  applied 
these  views  and  extended  them  to  embrace 
the  multiple  or  condensed  types  afterward 
adopted  by  Williamson  and  Gerhardt,  to 
whom  the  entire  credit  of  these  important 
generalizations  has  been  often  ascribed  in 
foreign  publications. 

So  wide  is  the  field  covered  by  the  sci 
ence  of  chemistry,  and  so  rapid  has  been  the 
growth  of  the  science  during  the  last  half 
century,  that  any  attempt  in  the  brief  space 
at  our  disposal  to  do  justice  to  the  numer 
ous  laborers  to  whose  activity  this  great 
progress  is  due,  would  be  vain.  In  this  de 
partment  of  science  our  country  has  pro 
duced  a  larger  number  of  active  investi 
gators  than  in  any  other,  and  of  these  also 
a  larger  proportion  have  become  honorably 
eminent.  We  must  content  ourselves  in 
this  place  with  mentioning  a  few  only  of 
the  names  which  have  become  worthily 
identified  with  the  history  of  American 
chemistry.  Among  the  early  teachers  of 
this  science  in  our  country  who,  without 
engaging  largely  in  original  research,  did 
good  service  in  their  enlightened  defense 
of  the  doctrines  of  the  new  school  of  La 
voisier,  may  be  fitly  mentioned  Dr.  John 
Maclean,  of  Princeton  College  (elected 
1795),  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush,  of  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania  (1769),  Dr.  James  Wood- 
house,  of  the  same  institution  (1795),  and 
Dr.  Samuel  L.  Mitchill,  of  Columbia  Col 
lege,  New  York  (1792).  Both  Dr.  Wood- 
house  and  Dr.  Mitchill  published  somewhat 
largely  upon  chemical  topics.  Dr.  Mitchill 
was  a  man  of  exceptionally  varied  attain 
ments,  but  his  favorite  studies  were  in  nat 


ural  history,  especially  in  zoology,  in  which 
he  was  long  regarded  as  the  highest  author 
ity  in  the  United  States. 

In  1801  there  was  read  before  the  Chem 
ical  Society  of  Philadelphia  a  memoir  "  On 
the  Supply  and  Application  of  the  Blow- 
Pipe,"  by  a  young  man  of  twenty  years  of 
age,  destined  subsequently  to  attain  a  high 
celebrity — Robert  Hare.  In  this  was  de 
scribed  the  apparatus  long  known  as  "  Hare's 
compound  blow-pipe,"  and  more  recently 
as  the  oxyhydrogeu  blow -pipe,  the  most 
powerful  means  yet  known  for  generating 
artificial  heat.  The  apparatus  referred  to 
was  not  so  much  an  invention,  in  the  ordi 
nary  sense  of  the  word,  as  a  logical  deduc 
tion  from  a  consideration  of  the  conditions 
necessary  to  secure  the  maximum  effect 
from  a  given  amount  of  heat  generated. 
Lavoisier  and  others  had  obtained  remark 
able  effects  by  directing  a  stream  of  oxygen 
upon  ignited  carbon.  In  this  case,  how 
ever,  though  the  body  to  be  operated  on 
was  raised  to  a  very  high  temperature  on 
the  side  which  rested  on  the  carbon  sup 
port,  this  temperature  did  not  reach  the 
upper  surface,  and  the  fusion  or  volatiliza 
tion  attempted  was  only  partially  accom 
plished.  Mr.  Hare  reflected  that  this  diffi 
culty  might  be  got  over  if  some  means  could 
be  discovered  of  "clothing  the  upper  sur 
face  with  some  burning  matter  the  heat  of 
which  might  be  equal  to  that  of  the  incan 
descent  carbon."  It  soon  occurred  to  him 
that  a  flame  produced  by  the  combustion 
of  the  oxygen  and  hydrogen  gases  ought, 
"  according  to  the  theory  of  the  French 
chemists"  (for  this  was  in  advance  of  any 
demonstration),  to  be  attended  with  a  high 
er  heat  than  even  that  generated  by  the 
combustion  of  carbon.  But  it  was  known 
that  a  mixture  of  oxygen  and  hydrogen  in 
proper  proportion  to  produce  a  complete 
combustion  is  dangerously  explosive,  and 
in  order  to  attain  the  end  in  view  some 
means  of  creating  the  flame  had  to  be  de 
vised  which  should  be  free  from  this  dan 
ger.  The  expedient  actually  adopted — that 
of  storing  the  gases  in  separate  vessels  and 
bringing  them  together  by  tubes  which 
meet  at  the  point  of  ignition — seems  sim 
ple  enough  now;  but  that  it  was  not  so 
obvious  as  it  seems  is  made  evident  by  the 
fact  that,  some  fifteen  years  later,  Dr.  E. 


CHEMICAL  INVESTIGATORS. 


333 


D.  Clarke,  Professor  of  Mineralogy  in  Cam 
bridge,  England,  introduced  and  employed 
an  oxyhydrogen  blow-pipe  in  which  the 
gases  were  mingled  in  explosive  proportions 
in  the  same  vessel.  If  Dr.  Clarke,  in  1816, 
knew  nothing  of  what  Hare  had  done  in 
1802,  and  had  described  in  the  same  year  in 
Tilloch's  Philosophical  Magazine,ihe  construc 
tion  he  gave  his  apparatus  proves  that  the 
artifice  by  which  the  original  inventor  pro 
vided  against  the  possibility  of  explosion 
was  one  which  would  not  readily  occur  to 
any  but  an  ingenious  mind.  If  he  did  pos 
sess  a  previous  knowledge  of  the  invention 
of  Hare,  his  silence  in  his  own  paper  in  re 
gard  to  it  admits  of  no  honorable  explana 
tion.  The  blow-pipe  was  but  one  of  Dr. 
Hare's  very  numerous  contributions  to  the 
instrumental  means  of  chemical  investiga 
tion,  but  we  have  room  for  the  mention  of 
no  other. 

Professor  Benjamin  Silliman,  the  elder, 
Professor  of  Chemistry  in  Yale  College 
(elected  1802),  continued  for  a  long  series 
of  years  to  occupy  a  very  conspicuous  po 
sition  in  the  world  of  American  science. 
Though  he  published  a  large  number  of 
papers  on  chemical  topics,  as  well  as  a  vo 
luminous  systematic  treatise  on  the  general 
subject,  his  early  acquired  reputation  rest 
ed  in  great  measure  on  his  eloquent  and 
forceful  presentation  of  the  truths  of  sci 
ence  to  his  numerous  classes  and  to  popu 
lar  audiences.  The  monument  which  will 
speak  most  enduringly  of  his  labors,  how 
ever,  is  undoubtedly  the  Journal  of  Science, 
one  of  the  most  powerful  stimulants  of  the 
scientific  spirit  which  has  existed  among 
us,  established  by  him  when  this  spirit  was 
at  a  low  ebb,  and  maintained  by  him  al 
most  single-handed  for  years  under  discour 
agements  against  which  few  would  have 
had  the  energy  to  persevere. 

Dr.  Samuel  Guthrie,  of  Sackett's  Harbor, 
New  York,  deserves  mention  here  as  the 
discoverer  of  the  very  remarkable  anaesthet 
ic  compound  known  as  chloroform.  It  is  a 
little  curious  that  the  same  discovery  was 
made  about  the  same  time  by  Soubeiran,  a 
French  chemist,  and  that  both  discoverers 
were  similarly  mistaken  as  to  its  nature, 
and  both  called  it  chloric  ether.  Soubeiran 
published  his  discovery  in  February,  1831, 
and  Guthrie  his  in  January,  1832.  It  was 


not  till  1834  that  the  true  constitution  of 
the  substance  was  understood,  when  it  was 
analyzed  by  Dumas,  who  gave  it  the  name 
it  has  since  borne. 

The  numerous  and  important  contribu 
tions  of  Dr.  John  W.  Draper  to  physical 
science  have  been  already  mentioned.  His 
chemical  researches  are  scarcely  less  orig 
inal,  though  many  of  them  occupy  the  bor 
der  region  between  physics  and  chemistry. 
The  most  noticeable  are  his  ingenious  ex 
periments  and  deductions  on  osmosis,  and 
on  interstitial  movements  taking  place 
among  the  molecules  of  a  solid,  as  in  cases 
of  alloys  in  which  the  adulterating  metals 
make  their  way  to  the  surface.  Also  his 
beautiful  and  sensitive  photometric  appa 
ratus,  called  by  him  originally  the  tithom- 
eter,  in  which  chlorine  and  hydrogen  are 
mingled  in  combining  proportions.  In  ab 
solute  darkness  the  gases  remain  free,  but 
on  exposure  to  light  they  combine  with  a 
rapidity  dependent  on  the  intensity.  One 
of  his  later  publications  is  his  treatise  on 
Human  Physiology,  which  discusses  with 
much  originality  questions  concerning  the 
chemistry  of  animal  life,  as  well  as  the 
chemical  and  physical  functions  of  the  va 
rious  organs  of  the  body. 

Dr.  William  B.  Rogers,  of  Boston,  has  pub 
lished  many  chemical  papers,  some  of  them 
of  special  interest.  One  of  these  embraces 
the  discovery  that  the  thermal  springs  of 
Virginia  contain  free  nitrogen  in  large  pro 
portion,  exceeding  in  quantity  the  carbonic 
acid  and  the  hydrogen  sulphide.  Another 
describes  a  method  of  determining  carbon 
in  graphite,  which  is  still  one  of  the  best 
methods  of  effecting  the  same  determina 
tion  in  the  analysis  of  cast  iron. 

Dr.  Charles  T.  Jackson,  of  Boston,  has 
been  one  of  the  most  active  investigators 
the  country  has  produced.  His  chemical 
and  geological  papers  number  nearly  seven 
ty.  What  has  given  him  probably  a  wider 
reputation  than  any  other  of  his  discoveries 
has  been  the  efficacy  of  ether  to  produce 
anaesthesia.  For  this  he  has  been  made 
the  recipient  of  honorable  decorations  from 
many  European  governments,  yet  his  title 
to  the  credit  attributed  to  him  has  been 
contested  by  two  of  his  countrymen,  both 
now  deceased — Dr.  W.  T.  G.  Morton,  of  Bos 
ton,  and  Dr.  Horace  Wells,  of  Hartford. 


334 


SCIENTIFIC  PKOGRESS. 


Dr.  James  Blake,  of  San  Francisco,  is  no 
ticeable  for  Ms  interesting  researches  in 
physiological  chemistry  made  by  experi 
ments  on  the  living  subject.  Two  of  his 
conclusions  are  striking:  first,  that  the 
character  of  the  changes  produced  in  living 
matter  by  inorganic  compounds  depends 
more  on  the  physical  properties  of  the  re 
agent  than  on  the  chemical;  and  second, 
that  the  action  of  such  compounds  on  liv 
ing  matter  appears  not  to  be  related  to  the 
changes  which  they  produce  in  the  same 
substances  when  not  living. 

Dr.  Wolcott  Gibbs,  now  Eumford  Professor 
of  the  Applications  of  Science  in  Harvard 
University,  commenced  his  career  as  an  in 
vestigator  while  an  under-graduate  in  Co 
lumbia  College,  in  1840,  in  a  description  of  a 
new  form  of  magneto-electric  machine,  and 
an  account  of  a  carbon  voltaic  battery. 
This,  it  will  be  perceived,  was  earlier  than 
the  date  of  Bunsen's  carbon  battery.  The 
contributions  of  Dr.  Gibbs  both  to  chemistry 
and  to  physics  have  been  very  numerous. 
The  more  important  relating  to  chemistry 
are,  "New  General  Methods  of  Chemical 
Analysis,"  "  Theory  of  Polybasic  Acids," 
"  Eesearches  on  the  Platinum  Metals,"  and, 
in  association  with  Professor  Genth,  "Re 
searches  on  the  Ammonio-Cobalt  Bases" — a 
memoir  which  occupied  the  authors  several 
years,  and  is  more  full  of  new  results  than 
any  chemical  research  before  undertaken  in 
this  country.  This  was  published  in  1857 
among  the  Smithsonian  Contributions  to  Knowl 
edge. 

Dr.  Gibbs  has  recently  announced  the  em 
pirical  discovery  of  a  new  optical  constant, 
which  may  possibly  prove  to  be  an  impor 
tant  contribution  to  the  resources  of  the 
analytic  chemist.  The  number  of  interfer 
ence  bands  produced  in  the  spectrum  be 
tween  two  given  wave  lengths  by  the  par 
tial  interception  of  the  light  falling  on  the 
prism  by  any  transparent  substance  is  dif 
ferent  for  different  substances,  and  for  the 
same  substance  diminishes  as  the  density 
diminishes  with  increase  of  temperature. 
For  any  given  substance,  therefore,  and  for 
a  constant  thickness,  the  actual  number  of 
bands  produced,  divided  by  the  density, 
gives  a  sensibly  constant  quotient ;  and 
this  quotient  is  called  by  Dr.  Gibbs  the  in- 
terferential  constant.  Its  value  in  mixtures 


is  a  function  of  the  values  belonging  to  the 
components,  and  in  compounds  a  function, 
apparently,  of  those  of  the  molecular  con 
stituents  ;  hence  its  probable  usefulness  in 
the  operations  of  analysis. 

Professor  Frederick  A.  Genth,  of  the  Uni 
versity  of  Pennsylvania,  a  native  of  Ger 
many,  was  a  chemist  of  distinction  before 
coming  to  this  country.  The  first  ammonio- 
cobalt  bases  were  discovered  by  him  in  1846. 
As  an  analytic  chemist  he  is  without  a  su 
perior.  His  chemical  labors  of  recent  years 
have  been  chiefly  contributions  to  the  chem 
ical  constitution  of  minerals. 

Dr.  J.  Lawrence  Smith,  of  Louisville,  is 
the  author  of  many  valuable  researches  in 
chemistry  and  mineralogy.  In  1850  he  ad 
dressed  an  important  memoir  to  the  Acad 
emy  of  Sciences  of  Paris  on  the  geology^ 
mineralogy,  and  chemical  history  of  emery, 
prepared  after  a  thorough  examination  of 
the  emery  deposits  of  Asia  Minor.  This 
subject  had  been  previously  but  little  un 
derstood,  and  the  memoir  was  received  with 
marks  of  high  approbation.  Dr.  Smith  has 
made  larger  investigations  upon  the  phys 
ical  and  chemical  constitution  of  meteorites 
than  any  other  American  chemist.  Of  his 
very  numerous  scientific  papers  he  has  re 
cently  collected  and  published  forty-seven 
in  a  volume. 

Professor  T.  Sterry  Hunt,  whose  name  has 
been  already  mentioned,  has  been  the  most 
active  contributor  to  theoretic  chemistry  in 
the  United  States.  The  credit  due  to  him 
in  the  construction  of  the  theory  of  types 
has  been  already  mentioned.  His  various 
memoirs  on  chemical  geology  published  from 
1859  to  1870  have  made  him,  perhaps,  the 
highest  living  authority  upon  that  subject. 
In  fertility  he  is  unrivaled,  having  within 
the  last  thirty  years  produced  between  one 
hundred  and  fifty  and  two  hundred  scientif 
ic  papers,  many  of  them  elaborate. 

Dr.  J.  P.  Cooke,  of  Harvard  University,  is 
another  of  our  prominent  chemists  whose 
labors  have  done  much  to  advance  theoret 
ical  chemistry.  He  is  the  author  of  Chem 
ical  Physics  and  First  Principles  of  Chemical 
Philosophy,  both  of  them  profound  and  ad 
mirable  expositions  of  theory,  and  of  other 
publications  of  less  extent,  exhibiting  great 
originality.  One  of  these,  a  memoir  on  the 
numerical  relations  between  atomic  weights, 


APPLIED  CHEMISTRY. 


335 


and  the  classification  of  the  chemical  ele 
ments,  elicited  expressions  of  high  commen 
dation  from  Sir  John  Herschel  before  the 
British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science. 

The  applications  of  chemistry  to  the  arts 
are  too  various,  too  large,  and  too  multiplied 
to  admit  of  enumeration  here.  There  is 
scarcely  a  department  of  industry  into  which 
they  do  not  enter ;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  are  many  industries  which,  without 
this  science,  could  not  exist  at  all.  In  the 
words  of  Dr.  J.  Lawrence  Smith  at  the  Priest 
ley  centennial,  "Industrial  chemistry  links 
itself  with  every  modern  art  in  such  an  in 
timate  manner  that  were  we  to  take  away 
the  influence  and  results  of  chemistry,  it 
would  bo  almost  like  taking  away  the  laws 
of  gravity  from  the  universe ;  industrial 
chaos  would  result  in  one  case,  as  material 
chaos  would  in  the  other."  In  some  in 
stances  chemistry  has  rendered  to  industry 
a  reduplicated  aid — first,  by  creating  or  by 
greatly  improving  the  industry  itself;  and 
secondly,  by  providing  in  wonderfully  in 
creased  abundance  or  at  wonderfully  di 
minished  expense  the  material  on  which  or 
through  which  the  industry  is  exercised. 
For  instance,  the  manufactures  of  glass,  of 
soap,  and  of  textile  fabrics,  while  indebted 
in  a  variety  of  ways  unnecessary  to  specify 
to  chemical  science,  are  largely  dependent 
upon  a  particular  chemical  product,  the  car 
bonate  of  soda,  commonly  called  in  com 
merce  soda-ash.  By  the  substitution,  early 
in  this  century,  of  the  manufactured  car 
bonate,  derived  by  a  chemical  process  from 
common  salt,  instead  of  the  natural  sub 
stance  previously  obtained  from  sea-weed, 
the  price  was  reduced  to  the  tenth  or  twelfth 
part  of  what  it  had  been  before.  By  a  new 
.and  more  recently  invented  process  this  cost 
is  likely  to  be  reduced  still  lower.  Again, 
in  the  manufacture  of  paper,  to  which  chem 
istry  has  in  various  ways  contributed,  great 
embarrassments  have  in  later  years  been 
experienced  in  consequence  of  the  growth 
of  a  demand  outrunning  the  supply  of  the 
substances  out  of  which  paper  is  made. 
Chemistry  has  done  much  to  meet  this  de 
mand  by  rendering  available  vast  masses  of 
rags  which  from  discoloration  had  been  pre 
viously  unavailable,  and  by  converting  the 
fibre  of  various  kinds  of  wood  and  grasses 


into  suitable  material  for  the  same  manu 
facture.  Early  in  this  century  the  process 
of  bleaching  linens  occupied  many  months, 
and  was  attended  with  much  labor,  and 
some  hazard  of  loss  from  mildew.  Chemis 
try  has  made  this  a  process  occupying  at 
present  but  a  few  hours.  To  every  depart 
ment  of  metallurgy  chemistry  has  largely 
contributed,  as  is  illustrated  by  the  Bessemer 
process  for  steel,  and  in  nearly  every  eco 
nomical  process  in  use  for  the  precious  met 
als.  To  the  dyer's  art  a  whole  series  of  the 
most  brilliant  colors  has  been  supplied,  ri 
valing  and  often  surpassing  the  rarest  and 
most  costly  of  those  which  have  been  hith 
erto  only  obtainable  from  natural  sources. 
To  the  miner  and  the  engineer  have  been 
furnished,  in  gun-cotton,  nitro- glycerine, 
dynamite,  and  other  explosive  compounds, 
sources  of  resistless  energy  to  aid  in  the 
prosecution  of  their  often  gigantic  under 
takings.  The  sources  of  artificial  illumi 
nation  at  present  in  general  use — viz.,  kero 
sene,  stearine,  paraffine,  and  coal  gas — are 
the  gifts  exclusively  of  chemistry  to  the 
common  uses  of  life.  Fifty  years  ago  the 
substance  known  as  India  rubber  had  no  use 
but  that  which  its  name  implies,  to  efface 
the  marks  of  the  draughtsman's  pencil.  At 
present,  under  the  transformations  given  to 
it  by  chemistry,  it  enters  into  a  larger  va 
riety  of  manufactures  than  almost  any  oth 
er  material,  except  wood  and  a  few  of  the 
metals. 

The  benefits  rendered  to  the  science  of 
medicine  by  chemical  discovery  and  chem 
ical  art  are  beyond  calculation.  An  entire 
ly  new  pharmacopoeia  has  been  created  by 
it,  in  which  the  active  principles  of  the 
drugs  known  to  the  old  have  been  separated 
from  the  masses  of  inert  matter  with  which 
they  are  naturally  combined ;  and  to  these, 
new  compounds  have  been  added  of  an  effi 
cacy  in  assuaging  pain  or  subduing  disease 
surpassing  all  former  experience.  Of  the 
wonderful  variety  of  exquisite  perfumes  now 
offered  to  the  choice  of  the  fashion  able  world, 
only  a  very  limited  number  are  any  longer 
sought  from  natural  sources.  Most  are  arti 
ficial  products,  in  which  chemical  art  has  out 
done  nature.  The  numerous  delicious  prepa 
rations  by  which  the  confectioner  succeeds 
in  delighting  the  palates  of  the  lovers  of 
sweet  things  are  due  to  a  similar  origin.  Of 


336 


SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS. 


the  different  descriptions  of  strong  liquors, 
of  which,  to  the  misfortune  of  mankind,  so 
incredible  quantities  are  annually  consumed 
as  beverages,  under  the  names  of  rum,  gin, 
choice  brandies,  superior  old  Bourbon,  Mo- 
nongahela,  etc.,  probably  half  or  more  than 
half  the  quantities  sold  are  merely  dilute 
solutions  of  alcohol,  to  which  chemically 
prepared  essential  oils  and  chemically  pre 
pared  sugars  have  communicated  so  perfect 
ly  the  odors,  flavors,  and  colors  of  the  liq 
uor  imitated,  as  to  defy  detection  by  the 
most  practiced  dealer  or  drinker.  In  this 
case  it  is  some  compensation  to  be  able  to  say 
that  the  chemical  substances  employed  are 
entirely  innocent,  and  that  the  liquors  so 
manufactured,  contrary  to  the  popular  im 
pression,  have  nothing  in  them  more  nox 
ious  than  the  alcohol  they  contain ;  which, 
however,  is  just  as  noxious  in  the  genuine 
liquors  of  the  same  name.  Some  of  the  gifts 
of  chemistry  to  the  ordinary  uses  of  life 
have  been  so  long  and  so  constantly  famil 
iar  that  we  habitually  forget  the  source  to 
•which  we  owe  them.  The  adhesive  stamp, 
the  gun-cap,  the  lucifer-match,  are  used  daily 
and  hourly  by  multitudes  to  whom  it  never 
for  a  moment  occurs  that  science  has  had 
any  thing  to  do  with  their  production.  And 
thus  it  happens,  not  only  in  small  things 
but  in  great,  that  precisely  in  the  points  in 
which  science  has  been  most  serviceable  to 
mankind,  her  services,  for  the  very  reason 
that  they  are  most  constantly  in  sight,  cease 
to  be  regarded  as  services,  but  are  habitual 
ly  confounded  in  the  common  mind  with  the 
things  which  come  into  existence  in  the  or 
dinary  course  of  nature's  operations. 

In  closing  this  cursory  sketch  of  a  cen 
tury's  progress  in  science,  a  word  may  not 
be  out  of  place  as  to  the  effect  of  this  prog 
ress  on  the  mental  characteristics  of  the 
race.  It  is  certain  that  not  only  has  in 
crease  of  knowledge  largely  modified  preva 
lent  popular  opinions  in  regard  to  natural 
phenomena,  but  also  that  the  modes  by 
which  knowledge  has  been  increased  have 
still  more  largely  modified  the  spirit  in 
which  every  new  question  is  received  which 
addresses  the  popular  judgment.  Even  the 
less  educated  in  enlightened  lands  no  longer 
tremble  at  the  advent  of  a  comet,  or  imag 
ine  human  destinies  to  be  controlled  by  the 


stars,  or  see  a  mischievous  sprite  in  the 
Will-o'-the-wisp,  or  conceive  it  possible  for 
man  by  magical  arts  to  subvert  the  ordinary 
course  of  nature.  One  by  one  those  myster 
ies  in  natural  things  which  to  the  common 
mind  have  heretofore  from  the  foundation 
of  the  world  been  associated  with  the  su 
pernatural,  have  resolved  themselves,  under 
the  scrutiny  of  scientific  investigation,  into 
their  simple  natural  causes.  The  rainbow, 
the  lightning,  the  tempest,  the  earthquake, 
the  volcano,  the  aurora  borealis,  the  star- 
shower,  and  even  the  rarer  and  more  start 
ling  phenomenon,  the  shower  of  seeming 
blood,  by  which  whole  provinces  have  been 
occasionally  appalled,  are  no  longer  regard 
ed  as  evidences  of  the  arbitrary  interposi 
tion  of  invisible  agencies,  and  no  longer 
afford  cause  for  either  alarm  or  encourage 
ment.  It  is  a  dogma  of  modern  science  that 
all  the  phenomena  of  the  natural  world, 
without  exception,  are  subject  to  unalter 
able  law ;  and  accordingly  that  mysteries, 
wherever  they  still  exist,  are  only  evidences 
of  our  still  existing  ignorance.  Standing 
upon  this  law,  the  investigator  accepts  no 
solution  of  a  difficulty  which  does  not  clear 
ly  associate  the  observed  effect  with  its  ef 
ficient  cause.  For  him  authority  has  no 
weight  whatever.  He  demands  incontro 
vertible  proof  for  every  proposition  ad 
vanced.  The  scientific  spirit  is,  therefore, 
not  a  spirit  of  respect  for  traditions  as  tra 
ditions.  It  respects  them  only  for  the  truth 
they  contain.  Its  motto  is,  Prove  all  things 
— hold  fast  that  which  is  good. 

This  spirit,  which  has  been  always  that 
of  the  true  investigators  of  nature,  has  in 
past  centuries  been  confined  almost  exclu 
sively  to  those  who  were  immediately  en 
gaged  in  such  investigation.  The  popular 
spirit  has  been  directly  opposed  to  it,  even 
up  to  the  point  of  hostility  and  bitterness  ; 
so  that  any  man  who,  like  Albertus  Magnus, 
or  Roger  Bacon,  or  Baptista  Porta,  allowed 
himself  to  seek  for  natural  causes  in  natu 
ral  things,  drew  upon  himself  the  dangerous 
suspicion  of  dealing  with  spirits  of  dark 
ness.  Those  were  ages  in  which  authority 
was  all  in  all ;  in  our  own,  this  matter  is  en 
tirely  reversed,  and  authority  has  ceased  to 
be  any  thing. 

The  effect  of  this  change  is  especially  no 
ticeable  in  the  discussion  of  questions  which 


THE  NATURAL  SCIENCES. 


337 


concern  education.  The  ancient  learning  is 
no  longer  respected  because  it  is  ancient. 
Rather,  on  the  contrary,  its  claim  to  preced 
ence  as  the  basis  of  the  highest  education 
is  prejudiced  by  the  consideration  that  it 
was  the  only  learning  of  the  age  which  gave 
it  such  prominence.  Larger  space  is  uat- 
Tirally  demanded  for  that  new  knowledge 
which  is  the  growth  of  our  own  time,  and 
is  based  on  positive  demonstration — knowl 
edge  which  reveals  to  us  the  natural  laws 
under  the  rigorous  rule  of  which  we  are 
compelled  to  live,  and  which  it  concerns 
the  immediate  welfare  of  every  individual 
to  know.  Hence  the  growing  favor  for 
what  in  recent  years  has  received  the  name 
of  "the  new  education."  It  is  a  demand 
that  of  the  three  elements,  the  good,  the 
true,  and  the  beautiful,  the  second  shall 
have  as  full  a  recognition  as  the  other  two. 

The  same  effect  may  be  observed  in  the 
discussion  of  religious  questions.  The  basis 
of  belief  is  investigated  with  a  freedom  un 
known  to  other  centuries.  This  is  not  mere 
ly  the  prompting  of  a  skeptical  spirit.  If 
the  unbeliever  would  discredit  revelation, 
the  believer  no  less  desires  to  give  a  reason 
for  the  faith  that  is  in  him.  There  is  no 
ground  for  the  imputation  which  we  hear 
occasionally  expressed,  that  science  is  hos 
tile  to  religion,  or  that  infidelity  is  more  rife 
in  the  present  age  than  in  the  last.  Modern 
science  hardly  existed  when  the  French  Re 
public,  "one  and  indivisible,"  abolished  re 
ligion  by  public  decree.  The  thing  which 
is  true  is  that  the  infidelity  of  our  time  is 
open  in  its  utterance,  while  that  of  other 
periods  has  been  restrained  by  fear  of  penal 
ties  both  judicial  and  social.  It  is  in  the 
nature  of  things  impossible  that  science  and 
religion  should  be  in  conflict,  since  truth, 
which  is  the  aim  of  the  one,  is  also  the  sub 
stance  of  the  other,  and  truth  can  never  be 
inconsistent  with  itself. 

A  failure  to  recognize  this  simple  prin 
ciple  has  operated  more  powerfully  than 
any  other  cause  to  retard  the  progress  of 
the  world's  enlightenment ;  and  it  must  be 
counted  as  the  largest  of  the  services  which 
modern  science  with  its  methods  of  free  in 
quiry  has  rendered  to  the  race,  that  it  has 
burst  at  length  the  shackles  by  which  hu 
man  thought  has  been  held  for  centuries  in 
bondage. 

22 


II.— NATURAL  SCIENCE. 

AT  the  commencement  of  the  century 
which  is  distinguished  by  the  existence  of 
the  United  States  of  America  as  an  inde 
pendent  nation,  students  of  nature  had  re 
gard  almost  alone  to  "  natural  history,"  or 
the  observation  and  description  of  what  in 
nature  immediately  appealed  to  their  senses. 

At  the  present  time  the  "  natural  sciences" 
are  acknowledged  constituents  of  general 
science,  that  great  superstructure  which 
enables  us  by  a  long-established  series  of 
observations  and  assured  deductions  to 
predicate  the  nature  of  the  unseen  from 
what  has  been  observed,  and  to  throw  into 
a  few  terse  general  propositions  and  princi 
ples  the  results  of  all  our  studies. 

How  the  several  branches  of  natural  his 
tory  have  grown  and  developed  into  the 
natural  sciences,  and  what  quota  America 
has  contributed  to  this  progress,  will  be  the 
subject  of  inquiry  in  this  chapter. 

The  distinction  just  indicated  between 
the  stages  of  our  knowledge  of  natural  ob 
jects  in  times  past  and  present  is  exempli 
fied  in  the  relations  of  the  several  branch 
es  to  schemes  of  classification  of  general 
knowledge.  In  the  celebrated  synopsis  of 
Bacon,  in  which  the  triple  division  is  based 
on  the  faculties  which  are  called  into  ac 
tivity  in  the  consideration  of  the  various 
branches,  "natural  history"  is  placed  with 
"  civil  history"  as  a  branch  wherein  "  mem 
ory"  is  chiefly  demanded,  while  the  "mathe 
matical  sciences"  belong  to  the  domain  over 
which  "  reason"  presides  —  "  philosophy." 
Such  was  in  his  time  and  long  afterward, 
and,  in  fact,  until  this  century  had  well  ad 
vanced,  to  some  extent  a  true  exhibit  of 
the  facts  and  the  mode  of  study  of  nature. 
Natural  history  was,  indeed,  a  mere  record 
of  empirical  observations  and  of  the  crude 
impressions  produced  on  the  senses.  The 
chief  aim  of  the  naturalist  was  then  to 
know  the  name  of  a  given  species,  and  only 
long  afterward  did  the  name  become  of  sec 
ondary  importance,  and  simply  a  means  to 
ward  an  end,  that  end  being  the  knowledge 
of  the  relations  of  the  forms  in  question  to 
others,  and,  a  posteriori,  to  the  economy  and 
plan  of  nature. 

FIRST   STEPS. 

It  was  in  1766  that  Linnaeus  published 
his  last  edition  of  the  Systema  Naturce ;  in 


338 


SCIENTIFIC  PKOGRESS. 


the  earlier  editions  of  that  celebrated  work 
he  had,  in  iutention  at  least,  incorporated 
all  the  species  of  animals,  plants,  and  min 
erals  which  had  been  made  known  in  a  rec 
ognizable  manner  by  his  predecessors  and 
contemporaries,  and,  in  this  final  edition 
published  during  his  lifetime,  he  had  sys 
tematically  applied  the  binomial  method  of 
nomenclature,  which  has  been  so  powerful 
an  auxiliary  as  a  method  of  notation  to  the 
naturalist ;  he  also  revised,  and  in  a  num 
ber  of  cases  very  materially  modified,  the 
arrangement  adopted  in  the  previous  edi 
tions  of  his  work,  and  he  added  the  species 
in  each  department  of  nature  which  had  in 
the  mean  while  been  described.  This,  there 
fore,  will  furnish  a  fitting  starting-point  for 
our  inquiries  in  each  case ;  and  this  work, 
be  it  observed,  was  almost  the  last  in  which 
a  single  naturalist  attempted  to  cover  the 
whole  domain  of  nature,  and  to  recapitulate 
all  known  species.  The  impulse  which  had 
been  given  to  the  cultivation  of  natural 
history,  and  the  zeal  with  which  travelers 
collected,  as  well  as  the  researches  of  the 
European  colonists  in  the  lands  of  their 
adoption,  soon  increased  the  numbers  of 
species  to  such  an  extent  that  their  survey 
by  one  man  became  impossible. 

The  species  of  animals  and  plants — espe 
cially  the  former — known  to  Linuasus  from 
America,  or  at  least  from  the  limits  of  the 
present  United  States,  were  comparatively 
few.  It  is  true  that  in  numerous  works  de 
voted  to  the  description  of  the  country  or 
its  several  parts  the  characteristic  species 
were  enumerated,  and  even  alleged  lists  of 
species  were  published ;  but  in  few  cases 
were  they  scientifically  or  at  all  intelligibly 
described :  in  default  of  specimens,  there 
fore,  they  could  not  be  incorporated  in  the 
Systema  Natures.  Linnaeus  was  consequent 
ly  confined  in  his  work  to  the  descriptions 
or  identifications  of  the  species  which  were 
in  the  museums  or  herbaria  of  Europe  ac 
cessible  to  him,  or  which  had  been  sent  to 
him  by  American  correspondents,  among 
the  most  conspicuous  of  whom  were  Cad- 
wallader  Golden,  of  New  York,  and  Alexan 
der  Garden,  of  South  Carolina.  A  student 
of  his  own,  the  afterward  well-known  Kalm, 
in  1747  and  1748  visited  this  country  and 
collected  especially  the  plants.  The  com 
parative  facilities  then  enjoyed  for  the  ma 


nipulation  of  plants,  the  tastes  of  his  cor 
respondents,  and,  indeed,  Linnseiis's  own 
greater  familiarity  with  the  vegetable  king 
dom,  all  tended  to  his  acquaintance  with 
our  plants  rather  than  animals,  and  conse 
quently  while  the  number  of  species  of  the 
former  attributed  by  him  to  North  America 
was  considerable,  that  of  the  latter  was 
small. 

SOCIETIES  AND  LOCAL  DEVELOPMENT. 

Although  after  Linnseus  equal  individual 
attention  to  the  several  branches  became 
rare,  societies  devoted  to  the  cultivation 
of  all  in  common  originated,  and  several 
of  them  exercised  a  notable  influence  on 
the  development  of  science  in  its  various 
branches,  either  being  called  into  existence 
in  response  to  an  active  want  for  the  means 
of  expression  for  individuals,  or  being  them 
selves  the  agents  for  eliciting  communica 
tions  which  might  otherwise  have  never 
been  made  known ;  these,  therefore,  always 
demand  special  notice  in  a  history  of  sci 
ence. 

The  earliest  of  such  societies,  founded 
when  the  States  were  yet  colonies  of  Brit 
ain — the  American  Philosophical  Society 
for  promoting  useful  knowledge,  held  at 
Philadelphia — was  originated  by  Franklin 
and  some  companions  as  early  as  1743 ;  its 
first  volume  of  Transactions  was  published 
in  1771.  The  American  Academy  of  Arts 
and  Sciences  was  next  established,  in  1780, 
at  Boston,  and  published  the  first  volume 
of  its  Memoirs  in  1785.  Both  these  societies 
contributed  much  in  their  youth  (as  they 
still  do)  to  the  cultivation  of  the  natural 
sciences,  and  various  articles  on  animals, 
plants,  and  minerals  were  published  in 
their  serial  volumes.  Before  the  close  of 
the  eighteenth  century  (1799)  another  so 
ciety — the  Connecticut  Academy  of  Arts 
and  Sciences — was  founded  at  New  Haven, 
but  after  the  publication  of  one  volume 
languished,  or  was  entirely  inactive,  till  aft 
er  the  establishment  of  the  Sheffield  Scien 
tific  School,  when  it  awoke  to  active  life, 
and  has  since  (1866-75)  published  many  ex 
cellent  memoirs.  In  1814  there  was  found 
ed  in  New  York  a  society  whose  existence 
was  ephemeral,  but  which  played  a  notable 
part  in  American  science ;  this  association 
was  the  Literary  and  Philosophical  Society 


EXPLORATIONS. 


339 


of  New  York.  In  1815  it  published  a  large 
quarto  volume  of  Transactions,  which  con 
tained  memoirs  by  Dr.  Samuel  L.  Mitchill, 
Governor  De  Witt  Clinton,  Dr.  David  Hos- 
ack,  and  others  less  known,  but  the  princi 
pal  article  was  by  Dr.  Mitchill,  and  was  a 
monograph  of  the  fishes  of  the  State,  illus 
trated  by  six  plates,  containing  sixty  fig 
ures.  For  years  afterward  the  society  was 
inactive,  and  after  publishing  the  first  part 
of  a  second  volume  in  1825,  dissolved.  The 
year  1814  saw  also  the  birth  of  a  society 
destined  to  have  an  extraordinary  connec 
tion  with  the  growth  of  science  in  the  Unit 
ed  States  generally — the  Academy  of  Nat 
ural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia.  This  body 
commenced  the  publication  of  a  Journal  in 
May,  1817,  and  in  this  first  volume,  as  well 
as  in  all  the  succeeding  ones,  were  publish 
ed  some  of  the  most  important  papers  on 
the  animals,  plants,  and  minerals  of  the 
country.  A  very  considerable  portion  of 
our  most  familiar  species  of  animals  was, 
in  fact,  first  made  known  in  that  journal, 
and  in  the  earlier  volumes  Say  and  Lesueur 
published  their  classical  memoirs.  In  1818 
the  Lyceum  of  Natural  History  in  the  city 
of  New  York  was  organized,  and  a  new  im 
petus  was  given  to  the  cultivation  in  that 
city  of  the  natural  sciences,  and  Mitchill, 
Leconte,  Cooper,  De  Kay,  and  others  con 
tributed  numerous  articles  to  the  pages  of 
its  Annals.  Next,  in  1834,  the  Boston  So 
ciety  of  Natural  History  was  established, 
and  soon  popularized  in  the  city  of  its 
home  the  several  subjects  of  its  preference, 
which  till  then  had  received  comparatively 
little  attention.  Finally  were  successively 
established  in  Albany,  San  Francisco,  St. 
Louis,  Chicago,  Buffalo,  Washington,  and 
other  cities,  active  societies  devoted  to  sci 
ence  in  several  or  all  of  its  branches,  which 
have  in  each  case  exercised  a  healthy  influ 
ence  in  their  several  spheres. 

All  the  societies  specially  noticed  have 
not  only  continued  to  live,  but  are  more 
active  now  than  ever.  Their  inception  co 
incided  with  the  awakened  activity  in  the 
several  cities  where  they  are  located,  and 
thus  mark  distinct  epochs  of  progress. 

Besides  these  local  societies,  two  nation 
al  ones,  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science  and  the  National 
Academy  of  Sciences,  have  accomplished 


important  results.  The  Smithsonian  Insti 
tution,  established  at  Washington  in  1846, 
by  its  policy  of  facilitating  intercommuni 
cation  between  the  learned  societies  and 
individuals  of  this  and  other  countries,  of 
seconding  the  efforts  of  investigators  by  col 
lection  of  materials  and  publishing  the  re 
sults  of  such  investigations,  and  in  other 
ways,  greatly  increased  the  means  for  the 
pursuit  of  the  natural  as  well  as  mathemat 
ical  sciences.  To  a  large  extent,  too,  it  has 
been  intrusted  by  the  government  of  the  na 
tion  with  a  superintendence  of  scientific  ex 
ploration,  and  has  done  much  thus  to  direct 
expenditure  for  such  purposes  in  a  proper 
channel. 

In  this  connection  may  be  fitly  noticed  a 
journal  which  is  not  the  organ  of  any  soci 
ety,  but  which  has,  perhaps,  exerted  more 
influence  on  the  progress  of  science  in  this 
country  than  any  other.  This  is  the  Amer 
ican  Journal  of  Science  and  Arts,  commenced 
by  the  elder  Silliman  in  1818  in  New  Haven, 
and  uninterruptedly  continued  there  to  the 
present  time  by  him  or  members  of  his  fam 
ily.  Its  pages  are  replete  with  original  and 
copied  articles  on  the  natural  as  well  as  the 
other  sciences,  and  furnish  in  themselves 
an  epitome  of  the  progress  of  science  in 
America. 

GENERAL  EXPLORATIONS. 

The  general  government  early  adopted 
the  policy  of  sending,  from  time  to  time, 
expeditions  to  the  comparatively  unknown 
portions  of  the  country  for  their  explora 
tion,  and  with  these  in  many  cases  natural 
ists  were  connected.  Only  those  most  not 
able  from  a  scientific  point  of  view  can  be 
referred  to.  In  1804-6  Lewis  and  Clarke 
traversed  the  continent,  and  more  or  less  in 
telligibly  indicated  previously  undescribed 
species  of  animals  from  the  far  West,  which 
were  subsequently  incorporated  by  Ord, 
Rafinesque,  and  others  into  the  zoological 
system.  In  1819-20  S.  H.  Long  (then  ma 
jor)  conducted  an  expedition  to  the  Rocky 
Mountains,  of  which  Edwin  James  was  the 
historian  (1823),  and  also  detailed  the  geol 
ogy  and  botany,  while  Say  described  the 
new  animals,  and  Torrey  enumerated  the 
plants.  In  1848,  and  again  in  1852-53,  Fre 
mont  led  expeditions  across  the  continent, 
and  brought  back  new  riches  in  botany  and 


340 


SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS. 


geology.  In  1849  and  1850  Stansbury  ex 
plored  the  Great  Salt  Lake  basin ;  in  1852 
Sitgreaves  the  Zuni  and  Colorado  rivers; 
and,  also  in  1852,  Marcy  the  Red  River  of 
Louisiana.  All  of  these  expeditions  were 
accompanied  by  energetic  collectors,  who 
brought  back  from  the  regions  in  question, 
whose  natural  history  had  been  previously 
almost  unknown,  many  new  species,  which 
were  described  and  illustrated  by  natural 
ists  mostly  within  the  walls  of  the  Smithso 
nian  Institution.  In  1854-56  General  Emory 
(then  major  of  cavalry)  and  Seilor  Salazar, 
as  commissioners  of  their  respective  gov 
ernments,  surveyed  and  determined  on  the 
boundary  line  between  the  United  States 
and  Mexico.  The  United  States  commis 
sion  was  accompanied  by  a  corps  of  scien 
tists  ;  and  the  report,  published  in  1857-59, 
contained  most  valuable  contributions,  rich 
ly  illustrated,  on  the  zoology,  botany,  pale 
ontology,  and  geology  of  the  country  sur 
veyed. 

But  all  these  must  yield  in  importance  to 
the  several  expeditions  which  were  sent  out 
by  the  War  Department,  under  the  auspices 
of  the  Bureau  of  Topographical  Engineers, 
for  "  explorations  and  surveys  to  ascertain 
the  most  practicable  and  economical  route 
for  a  railroad  from  the  Mississippi  River  to 
the  Pacific  Ocean."  These  expeditions  were 
mostly  prosecuted  from  1853  to  1856,  and 
were  conducted  nearly  on  the  parallels  of 
latitude :  (1)  the  47th ;  (2)  the  38th  and  39th ; 
(3)  the  35th ;  (4)  the  California  line ;  (5)  the 
32d,  (6)  under  Parke,  and  (7)  under  Pope; 
and  (8)  the  California  and  Oregon  line.  All 
these  parties  had  naturalists  attached,  and 
as  the  natural  history  of  the  Pacific  slope 
was  almost  unknown,  a  very  large  propor 
tion  of  the  species  brought  home  for  exam 
ination  were  new.  These  were  reported 
upon  by  the  naturalists  of  the  surveys,  but 
more  fully  elaborated  by  Professor  S.  F. 
Baird  and  Dr.  Charles  Girard.  The  results 
were  published  under  a  common  title  in  a 
uniform  series  of  twelve  volumes  in  quarto. 
Professor  Baird  undertook  the  great  task  of 
revising,  in  connection  with  the  new  forms 
studied  by  himself,  all  the  existing  material 
from  every  part  of  North  America.  The 
fruits  of  his  researches  were  issued  in  two 
very  large  volumes,  respectively  describing 
the  mammals  and  birds  of  North  America,  in 


which  the  species  were  subjected  to  a  crit 
ical  examination ;  and  for  the  first  time 
those  classes  were  completely  and  systemat 
ically  exhibited  according  to  their  affinities, 
detailed  descriptions  given  of  all  the  species 
and  successively  including  groups,  and  clear 
synoptical  tables  added.  The  fishes  collect 
ed  by  the  expeditions  were  elucidated  chief 
ly  by  Girard  and  Suckley.  Plates  were  pub 
lished  of  the  reptiles,  under  the  direction  of 
Baird ;  the  coleoptera  were  partially  report 
ed  upon  by  Leconte,  and  the  mollusca  by 
Cooper ;  the  plants  were  catalogued  and  de 
scribed  by  Torrey,  Gray,  Engelmann,  New- 
berry,  and  others  ;  the  paleontology  was  in 
vestigated  by  Hall,  Conrad,  Agassiz,  etc. ; 
and  the  geology  by  the  several  geologists 
of  the  survey. 

Two  other  surveys  undertaken  by  the  Bu 
reau  of  Engineers  should  be  noticed  in  this 
connection.  One  was  the  United  States 
geological  survey  of  the  40th  parallel,  pros 
ecuted  under  the  charge  of  Mr.  Clarence 
King  in  1867,  1868,  and  1869 ;  the  other  a 
geographical  and  topographical  survey  of 
certain  of  the  Western  and  Southern  Terri 
tories,  under  Lieutenant  George  M.  Wheeler, 
still  in  progress.  Both  have  done  much  for 
the  furtherance  of  our  knowledge  of  the 
zoology  and  botany,  as  well  as  the  topog 
raphy  and  geology,  of  the  sections  explored. 

Under  the  Department  of  the  Interior  a 
geological  and  geographical  survey  also 
originated  in  1869,  and  gradually  developed 
into  importance,  under  the  charge  of  Dr.  F. 
V.  Hayden ;  and  recently  a  second  division 
of  the  same,  with  Professor  J.  W.  Powell  at 
its  head,  has  been  added  to  it.  These  vie 
with  the  other  surveys  in  adding  informa 
tion  respecting  the  physical  geography  and 
life,  past  and  present,  of  the  Territories  un 
der  the  government. 

The  geological  survey  of  the  State  of  Cal 
ifornia,  under  the  superintendence  of  Pro 
fessor  J.  D.  Whitney  (1861-74),  also  merits 
special  notice  on  account  of  the  complete 
ness  of  its  organization  and  the  ability  of 
execution  of  the  work  undertaken. 

While  the  knowledge  of  the  natural  his 
tory  of  our  country  was  being  thus  made 
known,  that  of  foreign  lands  likewise  re 
ceived  attention  from  American  naturalists. 
During  the  years  1838-48  an  exploring  expe 
dition  was  engaged,  under  the  command  of 


MINERALOGY. 


341 


Admir,.s  (then  Captain)  Wilkes,  in  a  voyage 
of  circumnavigation,  and  in  the  course  of  its 
long  cruise  visited  several  countries  whose 
natural  productions  and  features  were  al 
most  or  wholly  unknown.  The  expedition 
was  accompanied  by  several  energetic  and 
accomplished  naturalists,  chief  of  whom  in 
labors  was  the  versatile  Dana.  The  results 
of  these  explorations  were  most  satisfactory, 
numerous  new  species  were  collected,  and 
the  publications  on  the  collections  were,  as 
a  whole,  in  the  highest  degree  creditable  to 
American  science.  The  mammals  and  birds 
were  reported  on  by  Peale  and  Cassin ;  the 
reptiles,  by  Girard ;  the  mollusks,  by  Gould ; 
the  crustaceans  and  zoophytes,  by  Dana;  the 
botany,  by  Torrey,  Gray,  Eaton,  etc. ;  and  the 
geology  of  the  countries  visited,  by  Dana. 
The  most  noteworthy  of  these  were  the  vol 
umes  on  crustaceans  and  polyps,  wherein 
the  classification  of  those  animals  was  en 
tirely  revised,  and  a  great  mass  of  new  ma 
terial  added. 

In  the  years  1849-52  a  "  United  States  Na 
val  Astronomical  Expedition  to  the  Southern 
Hemisphere"  was  for  the  most  part  station 
ed  in  Chili,  and  the  commander  thereof  (Cap 
tain  J.  M.  Gilliss)  and  his  assistants  paid  zeal 
ous  attention  to  the  natural  history  of  the 
regions  traversed.  Collections  were  made 
in  the  various  departments,  and  on  the  re 
turn  of  the  expedition  were  studied  by  Baird, 
Cassin,  Girard,  Gould,  Gray,  Wyman,  Conrad, 
J.  Lawrence  Smith,  etc.  The  collection  rich 
est  in  new  forms  was  of  the  class  of  fishes, 
of  which  some  remarkable  new  types  were 
described  by  Girard. 

An  expedition  which  was  excelled  by  none, 
if  it  did  not,  indeed,  surpass  all,  in  the  col 
lections  amassed  sailed  from  New  York  in 
1853  for  the  Northern  Pacific,  and  for  about 
four  years  cruised  in  all  the  great  seas,  at 
first  under  the  command  of  Captain  Ring- 
gold,  and  afterward  under  Captain  Rodgers. 
In  this  expedition  Mr.  Wright  was  attached 
as  botanist,  and  Mr.  Stimpson  as  zoologist. 
The  collections  made,  especially  in  the  de 
partment  of  zoology,  were  very  large.  Mr. 
Stimpson  for  the  first  time  dredged  in  many 
of  the  harbors  visited,  and  the  results,  as 
might  be  expected,  were  very  rich.  Numer 
ous  remarkable  types  of  marine  as  well  as 
other  animals  were  thus  discovered.  These 
were  partially  described  in  preliminary  re 


ports  by  Stimpson,  Cassin,  Hallowell,  Cope, 
and  Gill,  but  the  final  reports  were  never 
published,  and  several  of  them,  with  the 
original  illustrations,  were  consumed  in  the 
great  fire  which  destroyed  Chicago,  and  the 
loss  thus  incurred  is  irretrievable. 

Such  are  the  principal  explorations  which 
have  been  instrumental  in  the  extension  of 
our  knowledge  of  nature.  Numerous  others 
have  concurred,  but  limited  space  forbids 
any  mention  of  them.  We  may  now  best 
inquire  how  each  department  has  been  for 
warded  by  American  naturalists,  commen 
cing  with  the  most  simple,  and  advancing 
to  the  most  complex. 

MINERALOGY. 

Linnseus  applied  the  same  system  of  no 
menclature  to  the  mineral  kingdom,  or  lapi- 
deum  regnum,  as  he  did  to  the  animal  and 
vegetable,  dividing  it  into  three  "  classes" — 
petrce,  or  stones ;  mineral,  or  minerals;  fossiUa, 
or  fossils ;  and  this  exposition  alone  will  give 
a  good  idea  of  the  imperfect  conception  then 
entertained  of  the  relations  of  those  objects, 
and  especially  of  the  last.  Chemistry  and 
crystallography  were  almost  ignored,  or 
made  use  of  in  a  very  crude  manner.  More 
than  any  of  his  predecessors,  however,  Lin 
naeus  availed  himself  of  the  crystallograph- 
ic  characters  of  minerals  in  their  diagnoses ; 
but  their  action  when  subject  to  friction, 
fire,  and  acids  was  the  chief  means  of  de 
termination  used.  Linnaeus  \vas,  however, 
much  surpassed  as  a  mineralogist  by  con 
temporary  investigators,  and  the  status  of 
mineralogy  became  rapidly  improved  by  the 
discoveries  of  chemists,  physicists,  and  crys- 
tallographers,  and  it  had  assumed  the  dig 
nity  of  a  science  before  any  native  Amer 
icans  applied  themselves  with  intelligent 
zeal  to  the  study. 

It  is  true  that  the  occurrences  at  various 
places  of  certain  minerals  and  peculiar  con 
ditions  of  some  were  noted  from  time  to 
time,  but  nothing  which  deserves  special 
notice  was  published  for  a  long  time.  A 
journal  professedly  devoted  to  mineralogy, 
the  American  Mineralogical  Journal,  was,  in 
deed,  commenced  by  A.  Bruce,  but  was  dis 
continued  with  the  first  volume.  In  1816, 
however,  Professor  Parker  Cleveland  pub 
lished  An  Elementary  Treatise  on  Mineralogy 
and  Geology,  whose  science  was  respectable 


342 


SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS. 


for  its  day,  and  gained  a  demand  for  a  sec 
ond  edition  in  1822.  In  1832  appeared  the 
first,  and  in  1835  the  second,  parts  of  Shep- 
ard's  Treatise  on  Mineralogy.  This  was  soon 
succeeded  by  a  work  which  was  destined  to 
become  the  opus  magnum  of  the  science,  A 
System  of  Mineralogy,  by  James  D.  Dana.  It 
has  passed  through  five  entirely  revised  edi 
tions,  and  several  are,  to  all  intents  and  pur 
poses,  distinct  works,  and  fairly  exemplify 
the  several  stages  of  science.  In  the  first 
(1837)  the  system  of  nomenclature  intro 
duced  by  Linnaeus  was  retained,  and  a 
modification  of  the  so-called  natural  clas 
sification  by  Mohs,  proposed  several  years 
previously  (in  1833),  was  adopted.  This 
system  was  based  chiefly  on  the  considera 
tion  of  the  superficial  characters  of  the  min 
erals,  but  which  were  claimed  to  be  true  co 
ordinates  of  the  chemical,  upon  the  superior 
value  of  which  many  mineralogists  had  al 
ready  insisted.  In  the  second  edition  (1844) 
the  same  system  of  classification,  with  some 
modifications,  was  retained,  but  another, 
"placing  the  minerals  under  the  principal 
element  in  their  composition,"  was  added. 
In  the  third  edition  (1850)  the  old  system 
of  nomenclature  and  classification  was  dis 
carded,  and  the  author  adopted  a  provision 
al  system  in  which  the  chemical  constitution 
of  the  mineral  was  taken  more  cognizance 
of,  the  chief  aim,  however,  being  to  "  serve 
the  convenience  of  the  student  for  easy  ref 
erence  and  for  the  study  of  mineralogy  in 
its  economical  bearings,  while  at  the  same 
time  it  should  exhibit  many  natural  rela 
tions,  and  inculcate  no  false  applications  or 
distinctions  of  species."  A  more  rigid  chem 
ical  classification,  in  which  the  Berzelian 
method  was  coupled  with  crystallography, 
was  appended.  In  the  fourth  edition  (1854) 
the  arrangement  appended  in  the  previous, 
amplified  and  corrected,  Avas  adopted  as  the 
regular  system.  In  the  fifth  and  last  (1868) 
the  same  method  was  essentially  retained, 
and  in  obedience  to  the  necessities  imposed 
by  the  more  detailed  study  of  the  subject, 
and  to  show  the  proper  subordination  of  the 
several  characteristics,  varieties  were  recog 
nized. 

In  the  course  of  time  the  demands  on  the 
other  branches  of  science  in  behalf  of  min 
eralogy  had  become  greater  and  greater. 
As  we  have  seen,  originally  mineralogy  was 


simply  the  art  of  identifying  mineral  forms 
by  reference  to  their  superficial  physical 
characteristics.  Gradually  the  chemist  was 
called  upon  to  tell  the  constitutions  thereof; 
the  crystallographer  and  mathematician  to 
define  and  classify  their  forms ;  the  physi 
cist  to  answer  various  questions  as  to  char 
acteristics  ;  the  spectroscopist  to  aid  the 
chemist.  Finally  the  chemist  was  accord 
ed  the  rank  of  prime  arbiter,  and  in  most 
cases  his  judgment  is  now  accepted  as  final. 
In  each  of  these  departments  America  has 
had  and  still  has  most  distinguished  inves 
tigators.  Dana's  work  stands  facile  princeps 
among  mineral ogical  text -books,  and  is  a 
true  "  manual"  in  the  Old  World  as  well  as 
in  the  New.  He  ranks  pre-eminent  in  the 
special  department  of  crystallography.  In 
chemical  mineralogy  there  have  been  many 
successful  students,  chief  of  whom  are  T. 
Sterry  Hunt,  George  J.  Brush,  F.  A.  Geuth, 
C.  M.  Shepard,  and  B.  Sillimau.  A  son  of 
Professor  Dana  (Mr.  E.  S.  Dana)  has,  with 
scarcely  unequal  skill,  begun  to  continue 
the  work  so  well  commenced  by  the  father, 
and  has  been  paying  especial  attention  to 
the  physical  characters  of  minerals. 

BOTAXY. 

Devotion  to  plants  has  been  a  favorite 
source  of  enjoyment  to  man.  The  attract 
iveness  of  the  objects,  the  positiveness  and 
superficial  concentration  of  characters,  and 
the  ease  of  preserving  have  all  tended  to 
this  bias.  As  a  natural  result,  to  a  certain 
extent  the  value  and  characteristics  of 
plants  were  earlier  appreciated  than  any 
other  group  of  natural  objects.  Those  of 
this  country  were  tolerably  well  known  at 
a  comparatively  early  period.  Jean  Robin, 
a  Frenchman,  as  early  as  1620  published  on 
the  plants  of  old  Virginia ;  J.  Cornuti,  a 
French  physician,  in  1635,  on  those  of  Can 
ada  ;  J.  R.  Forster  in  1771  issued  a  Flora 
Americas  Septentrionalis ;  Cadwallader  Col- 
den,  of  Newburgh,  New  York,  communicated 
to  Linnaeus  a  descriptive  account  of  the 
plants  indigenous  to  Orange  County;  Mr. 
Cutler  in  1785  published  in  the  Memoirs 
of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sci 
ences  a  catalogue  of  the  New  England  spe 
cies  ;  and  numerous  other  works  and  articles 
of  various  degrees  of  merit  were  published 
(some  meanwhile,  but  especially  in  succeed- 


BOTANY. 


343 


ing  years),  the  most  notable  of  which  were 
the  elder  Michaux's  Flora  Borealia  Ameri 
cana  (1803) ;  Pursh's  Flora  America  Septentri- 
onalis  (1814) ;  and  Eaton's  Manual  of  Hot- 
any  for  the  Northern  and  Middle  States.  In 
all  of  these  and  the  minor  contemporary 
productions  the  artificial  sexual  system  of 
Linnaeus  was  adopted,  and  this  had  a  won 
derful  hold  on  the  affections  of  the  older 
botanists.  A  man  of  remarkable  versatility 
but  disordered  mind  (C.  S.  Rafinesque),  who 
had  come  to  this  country  in  1814,  had  pub 
lished  much  on  botanical  subjects,  and  had 
in  several  of  his  works  suggested  and  par 
tially  carried  into  execution  a  quasi-natural 
scheme  of  classification ;  but  his  influence 
had  no  weight,  and  not  until  the  end  of  the 
last  half  century  did  any  one  of  recognized 
standing  discard  the  Linusean  method.  In 
1823  Dr.  John  Torrey  had  published  the  first 
part  of  a  Flora  of  the  Northern  and  Middle 
States,  in  which  he  still  retained  the  sexual 
system ;  but  having  become  satisfied  of  its 
incongruity  with  the  existing  state  of  sci 
ence,  he  discontinued  the  work,  and  imme 
diately  after  applied  the  natural  system  to 
the  classification  of  the  plants  collected  on 
Long's  expedition  to  the  far  West,  and  sub 
sequently  rendered  it  more  popular  by  the 
publication  of  a  catalogue  of  the  North 
American  genera,  arranged  in  accordance 
with  Lindley's  classification  (1831).  Lewis 
Beck,  in  a  Botany  of  the  United  States  North 
of  Virginia,  also  adopted  this  system.  The 
natural  system  was  thus  fairly  adopted  by 
scientific  botanists  and  those  who  appreci 
ated  the  aims  of  science,  but  was  long  in  ob 
taining  favor  with  the  masses.  The  pub 
lication  of  such  works  as  the  Flora  of  North 
America,  by  Torrey  and  Gray,  in  1838-43, 
the  Manual  of  the  Flora  of  Neiv  York,  by 
Torrey,  in  1843,  Manual  of  the  Botany  of  the 
Northern  United  States,  by  Gray,  in  1848,  and 
kindred  ones,  however,  procured  its  ultimate 
adoption  even  in  manuals  for  schools  and 
colleges. 

The  States  of  the  Atlantic  sea-board  and 
the  Mississippi  Valley  were  sedulously  ex 
plored  by  native  botanists,  and  catalogues, 
and  even  extensive  descriptive  works,  of 
the  plants  of  many  of  the  separate  States, 
as  well  as  sections,  counties,  and  town 
ships,  were  published.  The  expeditions  that 
have  been  already  alluded  to  in  connection 


with  natural  history  generally  extended  our 
knowledge  of  the  flora  of  the  extreme  West, 
and  the  progress  of  botany  advanced  hand 
in  hand  with  that  of  geography.  Private 
collectors,  too,  devoted  themselves  to  the 
search  for  the  plants  of  various  unexplored 
sections,  and  among  these  may  be  especially 
enumerated  Fendler,  who  herborized  in  New 
Mexico ;  Liudheimer,  who  collected  in  Texas ; 
Wright,  Parry,  and  Vasey,  who  penetrated 
to  divers  places  in  the  Southwestern  sec 
tions  and  Rocky  Mountains ;  and  Rothrock, 
who  has  visited  the  extreme  North  (Alaska), 
and  the  furthest  Southwest  (Arizona). 

The  monographers  of  groups  have  also 
been  active.  Above  all  must  be  mentioned 
Gray,  Torrey,  and  Engelmann,  and  during 
later  years  Watson,  who  have  studied  vari 
ous  groups  of  phsenogams ;  Eaton  has  espe 
cially  attached  himself  to  the  ferns ;  Sulli- 
vaut  and  Lesquereux  to  the  mosses ;  Curtis, 
of  South  Carolina,  to  the  fungi ;  Tucker- 
mann  to  the  lichens ;  and  lately  Dr.  H. 
Wood  has  monographed  our  fresh -water 
algae,  and  Dr.  Farlow  has  catalogued  the 
marine  species. 

The  consideration  of  the  geographical  dis 
tribution  of  plants  has  also  engaged  the  at 
tention  of  many  students,  and  the  researches 
of  Gray  demand  especial  notice.  Pursh  had 
as  early  as  1814  called  attention  to  the  sim 
ilarity  between  the  flora  of  North  America 
and  Northern  Asia.  Gray  in  1846  pointed 
out  many  analogies,  and  in  1856  insisted  on 
the  similarity  between  the  floras  of  corre 
sponding  sides  of  the  Old  and  New  Worlds. 
He  also  at  the  same  time  recognized  that, 
although  the  number  of  tropical  types  was 
much  greater  than  in  the  northern  portion 
of  the  Old  World,  "  the  peculiar  and  extra- 
European  families  do  not  predominate  nor 
overcome  the  general  European  aspect  of 
our  vegetation."  He  has  more  recently  rec 
ognized  a  casual  relation  in  this  similarity, 
and  contended  that  they  indicated  deriva 
tion  from  a  common  source. 

ZOOLOGY. 

Although  more  or  less  pretentious  lists  of 
the  animals  of  North  America  were  given 
in  many  works  descriptive  of  the  country, 
scarcely  any  are  worthy  of  notice,  and  so 
little  was  known  of  our  species  that  an  ex 
tremely  small  percentage  appeared  in  the 


344 


SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS. 


Syatema  Natures  of  Linnaeus.  The  field  in 
zoology  is  so  vast  that  none  have  in  this 
country  attempted  to  do  what  has  been  so 
well  done  for  botany,  that  is,  to  prepare  com- 
pendiums  of  descriptions  of  all  the  known 
species.  From  the  complete  dissimilarity 
and  want  of  homologies  between  the  great 
groups  of  the  animal  kingdom  a  peculiar 
terminology  for  each  is  entailed,  and  conse 
quently  the  students  are  more  specialists 
than  in  botany.  Each  group  of  animals, 
however,  has  had  its  devotees.  The  prog 
ress  in  each,  too,  has,  like  that  of  botany, 
been  to  a  considerable  degree  coincident 
with  the  growth  of  our  geographical  knowl 
edge  ;  and  this  statement  must  serve  in  lieu 
of  particularization  in  each  case.  The  more 
difficult  groups  have  been  backward  in  at 
tracting  students,  and  the  more  pleasing 
types  have  received  most  attention.  Thus 
the  birds  early  excited  the  admiration  of 
lovers  of  nature,  and  numerous  works  have 
been  dedicated  to  the  portraiture  of  their 
beauties,  while  the  worms  and  other  lower 
invertebrates  have  only  lately  attracted  the 
notice  science  demanded. 

Before  indicating  the  progress  of  our 
knowledge  in  the  several  branches  of  zool 
ogy  a  notice  of  one  who  did  much  to  shape 
the  course  which  investigation  took  for 
some  years  may  be  fitly  given. 

In  1846  Louis  John  Rudolph  Agassiz  vis 
ited  the  country,  and  soon  was  induced  to 
make  it  his  home,  and  in  1848  accepted  the 
chair  of  zoology  and  geology  at  Harvard 
College.  Gifted  with  quick  powers  of  per 
ception  and  a  remarkable  memory  for  speci 
mens,  he  had  early  applied  himself  to  the 
study  of  fossil  fishes,  which  till  then  had 
been  nearly  neglected.  The  publication  of 
a  very  extensive  and  finely  illustrated  work 
gained  for  him  a  great  reputation  in  Eu 
rope.  A  peculiarly  genial  and  impulsive 
disposition  procured  him  the  favor  of  those 
with  whom  he  came  into  personal  contact. 
This  impression  communicated  itself  quick 
ly  to  others.  He  gathered  around  him  a 
number  of  young  men  who  were  destined  to 
pursue  with  distinguished  success  different 
branches  of  science.  His  prestige  caused 
the  ready  acceptance  of  his  teaching  and 
principles  by  others,  and  insured  their  ap 
plication  to  the  various  branches  of  zoolo 
gy.  Many  of  these  principles  were  most 


sound;  others  (among  them  unfortunately 
were  those  most  frequently  applied)  were 
less  justified  by  scientific  reason.  Such 
were  the  views  respecting  the  rigid  limita 
tions  of  species  in  time  and  area.  He  was 
also  prone  to  differentiate  genera  because  of 
minor  differences,  and  to  trust  to  intuition 
rather  than  to  the  inexorable  logic  of  facts 
in  the  classification  of  data.  His  views  were 
generally  accepted,  as  well  by  amateurs  as 
scientists,  in  this  country,  and  not  for  a  long 
time  was  there  any  strong  counter-current. 
This  subsequently  set  in,  and  the  present 
tendency  is  toward  a  recognition  of  species 
with  more  variable  limits,  and  with  greater 
extension  in  time  and  space.  But  in  spite 
of  the  drawbacks  indicated  the  influence  of 
Professor  Agassiz  was  most  salutary ;  he 
raised  the  standard  of  scholarship  looked 
for  in  the  naturalist,  incited  general  respect 
and  even  enthusiasm  for  natural  science, 
and  his  popularity  enabled  him  to  found  a 
Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology  which  is 
an  honor  to  Massachusetts  and  to  the  coun 
try  at  large,  and  the  best  monument  to  his 
own  zeal  and  learning. 

The  United  States  presented  long  the 
anomalous  position  of  being  the  only  great 
nation  which  had  no  public  museum.  The 
collections  that  were  brought  back  from 
time  to  time  were,  after  the  establishment 
of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  intrusted  to 
its  custody,  but  only  within  a  few  years  has 
it  been  recognized  as  a  duty  to  appropriate 
at  all  adequate  amounts  for  their  preserva 
tion  and  use.  But  some  provision  has  been 
made  for  several  years  for  a  national  muse 
um;  this  still  remains  as  an  appanage  of  the 
Smithsonian  Institution,  under  the  charge 
of  its  assistant  secretary,  Professor  Baird, 
and  now  bids  fair  to  soon  rival  the  most 
important  in  Europe  in  the  extent  and  act 
ual  value  of  its  collections. 

The  most  notable  accessions  to  our  special 
knowledge  have  been  as  follows: 

Some  of  the  more  conspicuous  quadrupeds 
of  North  America  had  been  early  described 
and  figured  in  a  recognizable  manner  by 
compilers  and  iconographers,  and  especially 
in  the  works  of  Catesby,  Edwards,  and  Bris- 
son,  and  these  were  incorporated  in  the  Sys- 
tema  Natures  by  Linuasus;  but,  all  told,  he 
only  attributed  twenty-five  species  to  North 
America,  and  even  of  these  he  does  not  seem 


ORNITHOLOGY. 


345 


to  have  had  autoptical  knowledge  of  more 
than  two  or  three.  Others  were  subsequently 
made  known,  chiefly  by  English  and  French 
naturalists,  and  later  by  Americans  (espe 
cially  Say  and  Ord),  and  in  1825  Richard 
Harlan  published  a  special  volume  on  the 
class,  in  which  were  recognized  147  species,  a 
number  of  which  were,  however,  synonyms. 
Soon  after  (1826-28)  John  D.  Godman  is 
sued  a  corresponding  work,  in  three  vol 
umes,  containing  nothing  new.  Subsequent 
ly  Townsend  and  Audubon  obtained  from 
the  West  many  new  species,  which  were 
described  by  Bachman,  and  in  1846-54  Au 
dubon  and  Bachman  published  a  work  on 
The  Viviparous  Quadrupeds  of  North  Ameri 
ca,  in  three  volumes.  Fin  all y,  in  1859,  the 
great  work  by  Professor  Baird,  already  re 
ferred  to,  appeared,  and  in  this  were  de 
scribed  a  number  of  previously  unknown 
species,  incorporated  with  others  he  had  pre 
viously  made  known.  On  the  basis  thus 
laid  various  zoologists  have  built.  Among 
these  have  been  the  natural  historians  of 
various  regions  and  the  monographers  of 
distinct  groups,  such  as  Harrison  Allen,  J. 
A.  Allen,  Cope,  Coues,  Gill,  etc. 

The  birds  have  excited  the  most  lively 
interest,  and  the  works  published  on  the 
class  have  been  many.  The  more  common 
and  conspicuous  species  were  early  intro 
duced  into  the  system,  and  from  the  time 
of  John  Bartram  (1791)  and  Benjamin  S. 
Barton  (1799)  to  the  present  there  have 
.  always  been  active  students  of  the  class 
in  America.  The  most  distinguished  of 
these  are  Alexander  Wilson,  a  native  of 
Scotland,  naturalized  in  the  United  States, 
who  published  in  1808-14 ;  Charles  L.  Bo 
naparte  (a  nephew  of  Napoleon,  and  aft 
erward  Prince  of  Musignano  and  Canino), 
who  published,  besides  many  other  arti 
cles,  a  complementary  volume  to  Wilson's 
•work  (1825-33);  T.  Nuttall,  who  issued  a 
Manual  of  the  Ornithology  of  the  United  States 
and  Canada  (1832-34) ;  J.  J.  Audubon,  who 
contributed  the  most  superbly  illustrated 
work  to  ornithology  that  had  up  to  that 
time  been  seen ;  and  S.  F.  Baird,  who  first 
(1858),  in  conjunction  with  J.  Cassin  and 
G.  N.  Lawrence,  revised  the  entire  system 
of  North  American  birds,  and  very  recently 
(1874),  in  uuion  with  T.  Brewer  and  R.  Ridg- 
way,  has  published  the  first  three  volumes 


of  a  work  which  surpasses  all  others  in  ac 
curacy  of  description,  philosophical  breadth 
of  views,  and  comparative  valuation  of 
characters.  Lastly  may  be  mentioned  Birds 
of  the  Northii'cst :  a  Hand-Book  of  tfa  Orni 
thology  of  the  Region  drained  by  the  Missouri 
Hirer  and  its  Tributaries,  by  Elliott  Coues 
(1874). 

While  these  general  works  were  in  course 
of  publication,  many  minor  works  and  arti 
cles  were  printed  on  the  general  subject,  on 
the  species  of  limited  regions,  and  on  the 
modifications  of  structure  and  color  induced 
by  geographical  and  climatic  causes,  etc. 
The  most  successful  students  of  the  causes 
of  geographical  variation  have  been  Baird, 
Allen,  and  Ridgway. 

The  reptiles  and  amphibians,  although 
extremely  unlike  in  structure,  superficially 
resemble  each  other  so  closely  as  to  have 
been  always  confounded  together  and  stud 
ied  in  common  under  the  general  head  of 
herpetology.  This  has  been  a  less  culti 
vated  branch  than  others,  but  several  emi 
nent  naturalists  have  elucidated  our  spe 
cies,  and  more  than  either  of  the  preceding 
classes  has  the  present  owed  its  advance 
ment  to  natives.  J.  E.  Holbrook,  of  South 
Carolina,  published,  in  1843,  a  North  Ameri 
can  Herpetology,  in  five  volumes,  which  was 
then  unsurpassed  by  any  similar  production 
in  Europe.  S.  F.  Baird,  Charles  Girard,  Ed 
ward  Hallowell,  and  Louis  Agassiz  have 
done  eminent  service  on  different  groups, 
and  more  recently  E.  D.  Cope  has  revised 
the  entire  herpetological  fauna  in  connec 
tion  with  the  general  system  of  reptiles  and 
amphibians. 

The  students  of  fishes  have  been  more 
numerous.  In  the  last  century  but  little 
was  known  of  these  inhabitants  of  our  wa 
ters,  and  even  that  little  was  inexact.  In 
1814  S.  L.  Mitchill,  a  man  of  great  eminence 
in  his  day,  published  a  valuable  though 
crude  memoir  on  the  fishes  of  New  York ; 
in  1839  D.  H.  Storer  reported  on  the  fishes 
of  Massachusetts ;  in  1842  J.  E.  De  Kay  pub 
lished  an  important  work  on  the  fishes  of 
New  York ;  and  in  1855,  and  again  in  1860, 
J.  E.  Holbrook  commenced  an  illustrated 
work  on  the  Icthyology  of  South  Carolina,  but 
suspended  it  with  the  first  volume. 

The  fishes  of  the  extreme  West  and  of  the 
Pacific  coast,  almost  absolutely  unknown. 


346 


SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS. 


till  1854,  were  in  that  and  in  immediately 
succeeding  years  described  by  Agassiz,  Gi- 
rard,  Ayres,  etc.  Among  other  cultivators 
of  the  science  may  be  mentioned  Kirtland, 
Baird,  Brevoort,  Gill,  Putnam,  Abbott,  Cope, 
Bliss,  Goode,  Garinan,  Milner,  Yarrow,  and 
Jordan. 

The  invertebrates  for  purposes  of  study 
fall  into  two  groups — the  air-breathing  in 
sects  and  the  marine  forms. 

The  insects  soon  attracted  attention,  and 
the  various  groups  engaged  active  students. 
Say  (1818  et  seq.),  Fitch,  Packard,  Walsh, 
and  Riley  have  described  species  of  almost 
every  group.  The  coleoptera  have  been 
studied  by  Melsheiiner,  J.  Leconte,  Halde- 
maun,  and  above  all  by  J.  L.  Leconte  and 
Horn  ;  the  lepidoptera  have  had  numerous 
students — Morris,  Clemens,  Edwards,  Pack 
ard,  Scudder,  Grote,  and  many  others;  the 
hymenoptera,  or  groups  thereof,  have  been 
examined  by  Norton,  Saussure,  etc. ;  the  or- 
thoptera  have  been  investigated  by  Scud 
der,  Thomas,  and  Sydney  Smith  ;  the  neu- 
roptera  by  Hagen  ;  the  hemiptera  by  Uhler ; 
and  the  diptera  have  engaged  the  attention 
of  Loew  and  Osten-Sacken.  The  myriopods 
have  been  described  by  H.  Wood,  as  have 
also  the  pedipalp  arachnoids. 

The  marine  invertebrates  were  almost 
wholly  neglected  till  Say,  in  1818,  com 
menced  his  investigations,  and  for  some 
years  worked  upon  several  of  the  groups, 
describing  our  most  common  crustaceans, 
shells,  and  other  forms.  A.  A.  Gould,  in  a 
work  on  the  invertebrata  of  Massachusetts, 
made  evident  the  paucity  of  our  knowledge 
of  all  except  the  shells ;  and  a  few  years 
afterward  (1851)  W.  Stimpson,  then  a  very 
young  man,  commenced  his  researches, 
which  added  very  largely  to  our  informa 
tion.  In  recent  years  the  work  thus  com 
menced  has  been  worthily  continued  by  the 
two  Agassizes,  H.  J.  Clarke,  A.  E.  Verrill, 
S.  Smith,  O.  Harger,  and  others. 

The  mollusks,  on  account  of  the  beauty 
of  their  shells  and  the  ease  of  preserving 
them,  have,  like  the  birds,  been  favorite 
subjects  for  amateur  students,  and  this  has 
directly  and  indirectly  accelerated  our  ac 
quaintance  with  the  species.  The  laborers 
have  been  very  many.  It  must  suffice  to 
name,  besides  the  general  students  of  inver 
tebrates  previously  referred  to,  Isaac  Lea, 


A.  A.  Gould,  Amos  and  William  G.  Biuney, 
Thomas  Bland,  Edward  S.  Morse,  William 
H.  Dall,  and  George  W.  Tryon.  These  have 
studied,  some  all  the  groups,  others  the  land 
or  fresh-water  shells,  others  the  anatomy, 
and  still  others  have  especially  considered 
the  problems  connected  with  their  geo 
graphical  distribution. 

PALEONTOLOGY. 

In  no  department  of  natural  history  has 
progress  been  so  distinctly  marked,  or  the 
revelations  so  interesting  and  unexpected, 
as  in  that  which  takes  cognizance  of  the 
former  life  of  our  globe.  The  science  of 
paleontology,  as  this  branch  has  been  named, 
had  absolutely  no  existence  or  name  when 
the  United  States  became  a  nation.  Fossils 
were  classified  by  Linnaeus  not  with  ani 
mals  or  plants,  but  with  minerals.  Their 
nature  was  then  in  doubt.  By  some  they 
were  supposed  to  be  sports  of  nature,  or 
abortive  simulacra  of  what  the  Deity  des 
tined  afterward  to  create.  By  the  best  in 
formed  and  orthodox  they  were  believed  to 
be  witnesses  of  the  Noachian  deluge.  In  a 
number  of  cases  their  nature  was,  indeed, 
recognized,  but  by  none  was  it  definitely 
realized  that  most  fossils  were  the  remains 
of  forms  that  are  no  longer  living.  Although 
this  truth  became  apparent  to  several  at 
nearly  the  same  time,  Cuvier  was  the  first 
to  render  it  clear  and  popular  by  the  resto 
ration  of  numerous  fossil  remains  of  the 
skeletons  of  mammals  found  in  the  terti 
ary  deposits  of  the  neighborhood  of  Paris. 
These  were  so  demonstrably  different  from 
any  animals  that  were  known  in  a  living 
state,  and  the  improbability  of  their  hav 
ing  remained  undiscovered  if  still  living 
was  so  extreme,  that  conviction  of  the 
truth  necessarily  struck  every  one  who 
considered  the  evidence.  The  clew  thus 
gained,  although  at  first  imperfectly  held, 
was  soon  firmly  grasped  and  followed  by 
many  interested  students,  and  the  pres 
ent  assured  superstructure  has  been  the 
reward  of  their  zeal.  In  this  country  the 
science  engaged  the  attention  of  many, 
and  Say,  Lesueur,  De  Kay,  and  Greene  were 
among  the  earliest.  Morton,  Conrad,  Lea, 
Hall,  Meek,  Gabb,  White,  and  Whitfield, 
besides  many  others,  have  described  and 
identified  the  fossil  invertebrates.  Hall 


GEOLOGY. 


347 


has  especially  published  a  noble  work  on 
the  fossils  of  the  paleozoic  formations  of 
New  York.  Meek  has  done  more  than 
any  one  else  to  illustrate  the  fossils  of  the 
carboniferous  and  mesozoic  beds  of  the 
West;  and  Conrad  has  excelled  in  knowl 
edge  of  and  labors  on  the  species  of  the 
tertiary  rocks.  Lea  and  Gabb  have  effi 
ciently  supplemented  the  works  of  the  last 
two. 

The  vertebrates  have  received  attention 
from  another  class  of  scientists.  For  their 
comprehension  an  exact  knowledge  of  the 
details  of  comparative  osteology  was  req 
uisite,  and  the  students  have,  therefore, 
been  comparatively  few.  De  Kay,  Harlan, 
Godinan,  Hays,  Cooper,  Redfield,  Warren, 
and  Wymau  simultaneously  or  successively 
touched  the  subject,  but  the  great  labors 
have  been  accomplished  by  Leidy,  Cope, 
and  Marsh.  It  had  by  some  become  sup 
posed  that  America  would  furnish  no  de 
posits  of  fossil  bones  such  as  had  been  dis 
covered  in  Europe,  but  in  1846  and  1847  Dr. 
Hiram  A.  Prout,  of  St.  Louis,  and  in  1847 
Dr.  Leidy,  published  communications  on  re 
mains  found  in  the  Mauvaise  Terres  of  the 
then  Territory  of  Nebraska,  and  those  de 
posits  have  since  been  a  fruitful  source  of 
new  discoveries.  Other  regions  containing 
analogous  deposits  were  subsequently  made 
known,  and  the  mammalian  faunas  of  past 
times,  pliocene,  miocene,  and  eocene,  have 
become  tolerably  well  known.  Among  the 
most  interesting  of  the  types  discovered  are 
many  forming  "  connecting  links"  between 
the  existing  ruminants  (cattle,  deer,  etc.) 
and  hog-like  animals  first  made  known  by 
Leidy ;  others  lessening  the  interval  be 
tween  the  proboscidians  and  ordinary  pach 
yderm  ungulates,  discovered  by  Cope  and 
Marsh  ;  others  demonstrating  the  line  of 
descent  of  the  horses  of  the  present  day, 
elucidated  by  Marsh ;  and  still  others  estab 
lishing  the  former  existence  in  North  Amer 
ica  of  animals  most  nearly  related  among 
living  forms  to  the  lemurs  of  Madagascar, 
as  Marsh  was  the  first  to  clearly  demon 
strate.  Numerous  other  almost  equally  im 
portant  discoveries  have  been  made,  illus 
trating  the  structure  and  range  in  time  and 
biological  generalizations  for  almost  every 
group  of  vertebrates ;  but  this  is  not  the 
place- to  recount  them. 


GEOLOGY. 

Geology  is  almost  entirely  the  child  of 
the  present  century.  Its  foundations  were 
chiefly  laid  by  Werner,  of  Freyberg  (after 
1775),  and  his  school  in  the  clear  recogni 
tion  of  the  nature  and  the  relations  of  rocks 
to  each  other,  and  their  distribution;  by 
Hutton,  of  Edinburgh  (1788),  in  the  compre 
hension  of  the  origin  and  natural  causes  of 
the  strata  and  rocks,  and  in  the  limitation 
of  cataclysmal  agencies ;  and  by  William 
Smith,  an  English  surveyor  (1790),  and  Cu- 
vier  (1808),  in  a  general  perception  of  the  re 
striction  of  fossils  to  definite  horizons,  and 
the  value  of  those  fossils  in  determining  the 
relative  age  of  the  strata  in  which  they  were 
imbedded.  In  each  case,  indeed,  these  had 
been  to  some  extent  anticipated  in  their  dis 
coveries,  but  their  ideas  were  clear  and  pos 
itive,  while  their  predecessors  failed  to  rec 
ognize  the  full  significance  of  the  facts  in 
question.  The  age  had  also  become  ripe  to 
apply  the  truths  thus  perceived. 

Nothing  worthy  of  mention  was  done  for 
the  geology  of  North  America  till  William 
Mac! ure  (a  pupil  of  Werner),  in  1806,  came 
to  this  country  and  undertook  a  geological 
survey,  traveling  in  the  prosecution  of  this 
self-imposed  task  from  our  Northern  border 
to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  He  was  engaged  on 
it  for  about  three  years,  and  in  1809  pub 
lished  the  first  geological  map,  and  a  com 
mentary  thereon  in  a  special  memoir.  As 
was  to  be  expected,  he  adopted  the  Wer- 
nerian  system  of  nomenclature,  and  having 
been  unable  to  apply  paleontological  evi 
dence,  his  work  exhibited  little  more  than 
certain  points  in  structural  geology.  Lard- 
ner  Vanuxem  (1828)  first  availed  himself  suc 
cessfully  of  paleontology  for  the  determina 
tion  of  the  age  of  several  of  our  formations 
and  their  approximate  synchronism  with 
European  beds.  The  natural  history  survey 
of  the  State  of  New  York,  commenced  in  1836, 
brought  together  a  great  mass  of  facts,  and 
by  the  concert  of  the  several  geologists  and 
paleontologists,  but  especially  guided  by 
the  judgment  of  Vanuxem  and  James  Hall, 
a  classification  of  the  rocks  on  sound  pale 
ontological  principles  was  instituted,  which, 
as  since  perfected  by  Hall,  has  been  adopted 
as  the  standard  of  reference  for  the  pale 
ozoic  rocks  of  the  United  States  and  Brit 
ish  North  America.  Henry  D.  Rogers,  in  his 


348 


SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS. 


final  report  on  the  geology  of  Pennsylvania 
(1858),  made  evident  the  skill  with  which  he 
had  disentangled  the  complications  of  the 
geological  structure  of  the  Alleghany  sys 
tem.  F.  B.  Meek  during  a  long  series  of  years 
has  acted  as  the  universally  accepted  ar 
biter  for  the  determination  of  the  age  of  the 
groups  of  rocks  in  the  far  West.  Meanwhile 
the  details  of  the  geology  of  the  various  ge 
ographical  sections  and  States  engaged  the 
attention  of  many  laborers,  and  one  after 
the  other  almost  every  State  instituted  a 
geological  survey,  and  many  of  them  under 
took  at  intervals  two  or  more.  In  the  order 
of  first  publication  of  results  they  are  as 
follows :  1824,  North  Carolina ;  1826,  South 
Carolina  ;  1832,  Massachusetts  ;  1834,  Mary 
land  ;  1835,  Tennessee ;  1836,  New  Jersey, 
New  York,  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  Virginia ; 
1837,  Connecticut,  Maine ;  1838,  Indiana, 
Michigan  ;  1839,  Delaware,  Kentucky  ;  1840, 
Rhode  Island ;  1841,  New  Hampshire ;  1845, 
Vermont ;  1850,  Alabama  ;  1853,  California, 
Illinois  ;  1854,  Mississippi,  Wisconsin  ;  1855, 
Missouri ;  1858,  Arkansas,  Iowa ;  1859,  Tex 
as  ;  1865,  Kansas;  1866,  Minnesota;  1869, 
Louisiana ;  1875,  Georgia. 

The  general  government  also  from  time 
to  time  instituted  special  geological  sur 
veys,  independent  of  the  exploring  parties 
mentioned  in  the  first  part  of  this  article. 
In  1834  and  1835  G.  W.  Featherstonhaugh 
investigated  the  elevated  country  between 
the  Missouri  and  Red  rivers  and  the  Wiscon 
sin  Territory.  At  various  times  D.  D.  Owen 
conducted  surveys  in  several  States  and 
Territories  of  the  Northwest,  publishing  the 


chief  results  in  1844,  1848,  and  1852.  In 
1869  the  persistent  solicitations  of  F.  V. 
Hayden,  already  well  known  as  a  field  ge 
ologist  and  collector,  secured  a  geological 
survey  of  Nebraska,  under  the  auspices  of 
the  Land-office,  a  bureau  of  the  Interior 
Department.  For  two  years  this  was  prose 
cuted,  and  the  wedge  having  been  thus  driv 
en,  the  survey  was  continued,  and,  organized 
under  a  more  ample  scope  and  with  enlarged 
designs,  is  continued  to  the  present  time. 
A  number  of  eminent  men  have  availed 
themselves  of  the  means  of  investigation 
and  publication  presented  to  them  by  the 
survey,  and  consequently  a  number  of  val 
uable  publications  have  appeared  under  its 
auspices.  Also  productive  of  similar  work 
have  been,  or  are,  the  surveys  of  the  40th 
parallel,  and  the  Territories  west  of  the 
100th  meridian,  already  referred  to  under 
the  head  of  general  natural  history. 

In  every  department  of  geology  America 
has  exhibited  efficient  works.  Stratigraph- 
ical,  chronological,  dynamical,  and  miueral- 
ogical  geologies  have  each  had  its  votaries, 
and  so  numerous  have  they  been  that  the 
simple  mention  of  their  names  is  precluded. 

Such  are  the  principal  incidents  of  prog 
ress  in  the  knowledge  of  the  natural  history 
of  our  laud.  Many  important  discoveries 
have  not  been  even  alluded  to,  and  the  lim 
itations  of  space  preclude  notice  of  the  ad 
vance  of  anthropological  science  and  the 
general  propositions  and  principles  of  biolT 
ogy  to  which  American  naturalists  have 
contributed. 


XII. 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


IN  a  retrospect  of  what  has  been  done  in 
American  literature  during  the  past  hun 
dred  years,  it  is  of  the  first  importance  to 
draw  a  sharp  line  of  distinction  between 
'the  mental  powers  displayed  in  literature 
and  those  which  have  been  exhibited  in  in 
dustrial  creation,  in  statesmanship,  and  in 
the  abstract  and  applied  sciences.  The  lit 
erature  of  America  is  but  an  insufficient 
measure  of  the  realized  capacities  of  the 
American  mind.  When  Sir  William  Ham 
ilton  declared  that  Aristotle  had  an  imag 
ination  as  great  as  that  of  Homer,  he  struck 
at  the  primary  fact  that  the  creative  ener 
gies  of  the  human  mind  may  be  exercised 
in  widely  different  lines  of  direction.  Im- 
.agination  is,  in  the  popular  mind,  obstinate 
ly  connected  with  poetry  and  romance.  This 
prejudice  is  further  deepened  by  associating 
imagination  with  amiable  emotions,  regard 
less  of  the  fact  that  two  of  the  greatest  char 
acters  created  by  the  human  imagination 
are  two  of  the  vilest  types  of  intelligent 
nature — lago  and  Mephistopheles.  When 
the  attempt  is  made  to  extend  the  applica 
tion  of  the  creative  energy  of  imagination 
to  business  and  politics,  the  sentimental  out 
cry  against  such  a  profanation  of  the  term 
becomes  almost  deafening.  Every  poetaster 
is  willing  to  admit  that  Newton  is  one  of 
the  few  grand  scientific  discoverers  that  the 
world  has  produced;  but  he  still  thinks  that, 
in  virtue  of  versifying  some  commonplaces 
of  emotion  and  thought,  he  is  himself  supe 
rior  to  Newton  in  imagination.  The  truth 
is  that,  in  spite  of  Newton's  incapacity  to 
appreciate  works  of  literature  and  art,  he 
possessed  a  creative  imagination  of  the  first 
class — an  imagination  which,  in  boundless 
fertility,  is  second  only  to  Shakspeare's.  In 
fact,  it  is  the  direction  given  to  the  creative 
faculty,  and  not  to  the  materials  on  which 
it  works,  that  discriminates  between  Ful 
ton  and  Bryant,  Whitney  and  Longfellow, 
Bigelow  and  Whittier,  Goodyear  and  Lowell. 
Descending  from  the  inventors,  it  would  be 
easy  to  show  that  in  the  conduct  of  the  ev- 
ery-day  transactions  of  life,  more  quickness 


of  imagination,  subtilty  and  breadth  of  un 
derstanding,  and  energy  of  will  have  been 
displayed  by  our  men  of  business  than  by 
our  authors.  By  the  necessities  of  our  po 
sition,  the  aggregate  mind  of  the  country 
has  been  exercised  in  creating  the  nation 
as  we  now  find  it.  There  is,  indeed,  some 
thing  ludicrous,  to  a  large  observer  of  all 
the  phenomena  of  our  national  life,  in  con 
founding  the  brain  and  heart  of  the  United 
States  with  the  manifestation  that  either 
has  found  in  mere  literary  expression.  The 
nation  outvalues  all  its  authors,  even  in  re 
spect  to  those  powers  which  authors  are  sup 
posed  specially  to  represent.  Nobody  can 
write  intelligently  of  the  progress  of  Ameri 
can  literature  during  the  past  hundred  years 
without  looking  at  American  literature  as 
generally  subsidiary  to  the  grand  movement 
of  the  American  mind. 

It  is  curious,  however,  that  the  only  ap 
parent  contradiction  to  this  general  princi 
ple  dates  from  the  beginning  of  our  national 
life.  At  the  time  the  American  Eevolution 
broke  out,  the  two  men  who  best  represent 
ed  the  double  aspect  of  the  thought  of  the 
colonies  were  Jonathan  Edwards  and  Ben 
jamin  Franklin.  Both  come  within  the  do 
main  of  the  historian  of  literature,  for  both 
were  great  forces  in  our  literature,  whose 
influence  is  yet  unspent.  Of  Jonathan  Ed 
wards,  the  greatest  of  American  theologians 
and  metaphysicians,  and  a  religious  genius 
of  the  first  order,  it  is  impossible  to  speak 
without  respect,  and  even  reverence.  No 
theologian  born  in  our  country  has  exer 
cised  more  influence  on  minds  and  souls 
kindred  to  his  own.  Those  who  opposed 
him  recognized  his  pre-eminent  powers  of 
intellect.  Every  body  felt,  in  assailing 
such  a  consummate  reason  er,  the  restrain 
ing  modesty  which  a  master-spirit  always 
evokes  in  the  minds  of  his  adversaries.  His 
treatise  on  the  Will  has  been  generally  ac 
cepted  as  one  of  the  marvels  of  intellectual 
acuteness,  exercised  on  one  of  the  most  dif 
ficult  problems  which  have  ever  tested  the 
resources  of  the  human  intellect.  There 


350 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


have  been  many  answers  to  it,  but  no  an 
swer  which  is  generally  considered  unan 
swerable.  Such  works,  indeed,  as  this  of 
Edwards  on  the  Will  are  not  so  much  an 
swered  or  refuted  as  gradually  outgrown. 
But  the  treatise  has  certainly  exercised  and 
strengthened  all  the  minds  that  have  reso 
lutely  grappled  with  it,  and  has  aided  the 
development  of  the  logical  powers  of  Amer 
ican  orthodox  divines  in  a  remarkable  de 
gree.  Whether  a  controversialist  agrees 
with  its  author,  or  dissents  from  him,  Ed 
wards  always  quickens  the  mental  activity 
of  every  body  who  strives  to  follow  the 
course  of  his  argumentation,  or  to  detect 
the  lurking  fallacy  which  is  supposed  to  be 
discoverable  somewhere  in  the  premises  or 
processes  of  his  logic.  Perhaps  this  fallacy 
is  to  be  found  in  the  various  senses  in  which 
Edwards  uses  the  vital  word  "  determina 
tion."  To  most  readers,  who  believe  the 
will  to  be  abstractly  free,  but  that  the  ac 
tions  of  men  commonly  proceed  from  the 
characters  they  have  gradually  formed,  the 
most  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  mys 
tery  is  that  of  Jouffroy,  who  declares  that 
"  Liberty  is  the  ideal  of  the  Me."  Others 
may  obtain  consolation  from  Gilfillan's  some 
what  flippant  remark,  that  every  thing  a 
man  does  is  not  necessary  before  he  does  it, 
but  is  necessary  after  he  has  done  it.  Es 
sentially  the  doctrine  of  Edwards  agrees 
with  that  of  philosophical  necessity,  and 
with  that  so  vehemently  urged  by  many 
scientists,  that  the  actions  of  men  are  as 
much  controlled  by  law  as  the  movements 
of  the  planets.  The  great  difference  be 
tween  Edwards's  theory  and  the  others  is, 
that  he  connects  his  metaphysics  with  a 
theological  system,  and  his  treatise  remains 
as  a  kind  of  practical  argument  for  the  ev 
erlasting  damnation  of  those  who  question 
the  infallibility  of  its  logic. 

Edwards's  large  and  subtle  understand 
ing  was  connected  with  an  imagination  of 
intense  realizing  power,  and  both  were 
based  on  a  soul  of  singular  purity,  open  on 
many  sides  to  communications  from  the  Di 
vine  mind.  He  had  an  almost  preternatu 
ral  conception  of  the  "exceeding  sinfulness 
of  sin."  His  imagination  was  filled  with 
ghastly  images  of  the  retribution  which 
awaits  on  iniquity,  and  his  reasoned  ser 
mons  on  eternal  torments  were  but  the  out 


break  of  a  sensitive  feeling,  a  holy  passion 
for  goodness,  which  made  him  intolerant  of 
any  excellence  which  did  not  approach  his 
ideal  of  godliness.  But  then  his  spiritual  ex 
perience,  though  it  inflamed  one  side  of  his 
imagination  with  vivid  pictures  of  the  ter 
rors  of  hell,  on  the  other  side  gave  the  most 
enrapturing  visions  of  the  spiritual  joys  of 
heaven.  It  is  unfortunate  for  his  fame  that 
his  hell  has  obtained  for  him  more  popular 
recognition  than  his  heaven.  Like  other 
poets,  such  as  Dante  and  Milton,  his  pictures 
of  the  torments  of  the  damned  have  cast  into 
the  shade  that  celestial  light  which  shines 
so  lovingly  over  his  pictures  of  the  bliss  of 
the  redeemed.  True  religion,  he  tells  us, 
consists  in  a  great  measure  in  holy  affec 
tions — in  "  a  love  of  divine  things  for  the 
beauty  and  sweetness  of  their  moral  excel 
lency."  "  Sweetness"  is  a  frequent  word 
all  through  Edwards's  works,  when  he  de 
sires  to  convey  his  perception  of  the  satis 
factions  which  await  on  piety  in  this  world,, 
and  the  ineffable  joy  of  the  experiences  of 
pious  souls  in  the  next ;  and  this  word  he 
thrills  with  a  transcendent  depth  of  sug 
gestive  meaning  which  it  bears  in  no  dic 
tionary,  nor  in  the  vocabulary  of  any  other 
writer  of  the  English  language.  He  was 
certainly  one  of  the  holiest  souls  that  ever 
appeared  on  the  planet.  The  admiration 
which  has  been  generally  awarded  to  his 
power  of  reasoning  should  be  extended  to 
his  power  of  affirming,  that  is,  when  he  af 
firms  ideas  coming  from  those  moods  of 
blessedness  in  which  his  soul  seems  to  be 
in  direct  contact  with  divine  things,  and 
vividly  beholds  what  in  other  discourses  his 
mind  reasons  up  to  or  about.  To  reach 
these  divine  heights,  however,  you  must, 
according  to  Edwards,  mount  the  stairs  of 
dogma  built  by  Augustine  and  Calvin. 

Jonathan  Edwards  may  be  characterized 
as  a  man  of  the  next  world.  Benjamin 
Franklin  was  emphatically  a  man  of  this 
world.  Not  that  Franklin  lacked  religion 
and  homely  practical  piety,  but  he  had  none 
of  Edwards's  intense  depth  of  religious  ex 
perience.  God  was  to  him  a  beneficent  be 
ing,  aiding  good  men  in  their  hard  struggles 
with  the  facts  of  life,  and  not  pitiless  to 
those  who  stumbled  in  the  path  of  duty,  or 
even  to  those  who  widely  diverged  from  it. 
The  heaven  of  Edwards  was  as  far  above 


BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN. 


351 


his  spiritual  vision  as  the  hell  of  Edwards 
was  below  his  soundings  of  the  profundities 
of  human  wickedness ;  but  there  never  was 
a  person  who  so  swiftly  distinguished  an 
honest  man  from  a  rogue,  or  who  was  more 
quick  to  see  that  the  rogue  was  at  war  with 
the  spiritual  constitution  of  things.  He 
seems  to  have  learned  his  morality  in  a 
practical  way.  All  his  early  slips  from  the 
straight  line  of  duty  were  but  experiments, 
from  which  he  drew  lessons  in  moral  wis 
dom.  If  he  happened  occasionally  to  lapse 
into  vice,  he  made  the  experience  of  vice  a 
new  fortress  to  defend  his  virtue ;  and  he 
came  out  of  the  temptations  of  youth  and 
middle  age  with  a  character  generally  rec 
ognized  as  one  of  singular  solidity,  serenity, 
and  benignity.  His  intellect,  in  the  beauti 
ful  harmony  of  its  faculties,  his  conscience, 
in  the  instinctive  sureness  of  its  perception 
of  the  relations  of  duties,  and  his  heart,  in 
its  subordination  of  malevolent  to  benefi 
cent  emotions — all  showed  how  diligent  he 
had  been  in  the  austere  self-culture  which 
eventually  raised  him  to  the  first  rank  among 
the  men  of  his  time.  Simplicity  was  the 
fine  result  of  the  complexities  which  enter 
ed  into  his  mind  and  character.  He  was  a 
man  who  never  used  words  except  to  ex 
press  positive  thoughts  or  emotions,  and 
was  never  tempted  to  misuse  them  for  the 
purposes  of  declamation.  He  kept  his  style 
always  on  the  level  of  his  character.  In 
announcing  his  scientific  discoveries,  as  in 
his  most  private  letters,  he  is  ever  simple. 
In  breadth  of  mind  he  is  probably  the  most 
eminent  man  that  our  country  has  pro 
duced  ;  for  while  he  was  the  greatest  diplo 
matist,  and  one  of  the  greatest  statesmen 
and  patriots  of  the  United  States,  he  was 
also  a  discoverer  in  science,  a  benignant 
philanthropist,  and  a  master  in  that  rare 
art  of  so  associating  words  with  things  that 
they  appeared  identical.  Edwards  repre 
sents,  humanly  speaking,  the  somewhat 
doleful  doctrine  that  the  best  thing  a  good 
man  can  do  is  to  get  out,  as  soon  as  he  de 
cently  can,  of  this  world  into  one  which  is 
immeasurably  better,  by  devoting  all  his 
energies  to  the  salvation  of  his  own  partic 
ular  soul.  Franklin,  on  the  contrary,  seems 
perfectly  content  with  this  world,  as  long  as 
he  thinks  he  can  better  it.  Edwards  would 
doubtless  have  considered  Franklin  a  child 


of  wrath,  but  Francis  Bacon  would  have 
hailed  him  as  one  of  that  band  of  explor 
ers  who,  by  serving  Nature,  will  in  the  end 
master  her  mysteries,  and  use  their  knowl 
edge  for  the  service  of  man.  Indeed,  the 
cheerful,  hopeful  spirit  which  runs  through 
Franklin's  writings,  even  when  he  was  tried 
by  obstacles  which  might  have  tasked  the 
proverbial  patience  of  Job,  is  not  one  of  the 
least  of  his  claims  upon  the  consideration 
of  those  who  rightfully  glory  in  having  such 
a  genius  for  their  countryman.  The  spirit 
which  breathes  through  Franklin's  life  and 
works  is  that  which  has  inspired  every  pi 
oneer  of  our  Western  wastes,  every  poor 
farmer  who  has  tried  to  make  both  ends 
meet  by  the  exercise  of  rigid  economy,  ev 
ery  inventor  who  has  attempted  to  serve 
men  by  making  machines  do  half  the  drudg 
ery  of  their  work,  every  statesman  who  has 
striven  to  introduce  large  principles  into 
our  somewhat  confused  and  contradicto 
ry  legislation,  every  American  diplomatist 
who  has  upheld  the  character  of  his  coun 
try  abroad  by  sagacity  in  managing  men, 
as  well  as  by  integrity  in  the  main  purpose 
of  his  mission,  and  every  honest  man  who 
has  desired  to  diminish  the  evil  there  is  in 
the  world,  and  to  increase  every  possible 
good  that  is  conformable  to  good  sense. 
Franklin  is  doubtless  our  Mr.  Worldly  Wise 
man,  but  his  worldly  wisdom  ever  points  to 
the  Christian's  prayer  that  God's  will  shall 
be  done  on  earth  as  it  is  done  in  heaven. 

One  of  the  most  ludicrous  misinterpreta 
tions  of  this  large,  bounteous,  and  benignant 
intelligence  is  that  which  confines  his  influ 
ence  to  the  little  corner  of  his  mind  in  which 
he  lodged  "  Poor  Richard."  It  is  common 
even  now  to  hear  complaints  from  opulent 
English  gentlemen  that  Franklin  has  done 
much  to  make  the  average  American  nar 
row  in  mind,  hard  of  heart,  greedy  of  small 
gains,  mean  in  little  economies.  This  is 
said  of  a  nation  the  poorer  portions  of 
whose  population  are  needlessly  wasteful, 
and  whose  richer  portions  astonish  Europe 
annually  by  the  profusion  with  which  they 
scatter  dollars  to  the  right  and  the  left. 
The  maxims  of  Poor  Richard  are  generally 
good,  and  the  more  they  are  circulated,  the 
more  practical  good  they  will  do ;  for  our 
countrymen  are  remarkable  rather  for  vio- 
latiug  than  for  obeying  them.  In  all  these 


352 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


criticisms  on  Franklin,  however,  it  is  strange 
that  few  have  observed  what  a  delicious 
specimen  of  humorous  characterization  he 
has  introduced  into  literature  in  his  charm 
ing  delineation  of  Poor  Richard.  The  ef 
fect  is  heightened  by  the  groaning,  droning 
way  in  which  the  good  man  delivers  his  bits 
of  wisdom,  as  if  he  despairingly  felt  that  the 
rustics  around  him  would  disregard  his  ad 
vice  and  monitions,  and  pass  through  the 
usual  experiences  of  the  passions,  insensible 
to  the  gasping,  croaking  voice  which  warn 
ed  them  in  advance. 

Franklin  is  probably  the  best  specimen 
that  history  affords  of  what  is  called  a  self- 
made  man.  He  certainly  "  never  worship 
ed  his  maker,"  according  to  Mr.  Clapp's 
stinging  epigram,  but  was  throughout  his 
life,  though  always  self  -  respectful,  never 
self-conceited.  Perhaps  the  most  notable 
result  of  his  self -education  was  the  ease 
with  which  he  accosted  all  grades  and  class 
es  of  men  on  a  level  of  equality.  The  print 
er's  boy  became,  in  his  old  age,  one  of  the 
most  popular  men  in  the  French  court,  not 
only  among  its  statesmen,  but  among  its 
frivolous  nobles  and  their  wives.  He  ever 
estimated  men  at  their  true  worth  or  worth- 
lessness;  but  as  a  diplomatist  he  was  a 
marvel  of  sagacity.  The  same  ease  of  man 
ner  which  recommended  him  to  a  Pennsyl 
vania  farmer  was  preserved  in  a  conference 
with  a  statesman  or  a  king.  He  ever  kept 
his  end  in  view  in  all  his  complaisances, 
and  that  end  was  always  patriotic.  When 
he  returned  to  his  country  he  was  among 
the  most  earnest  to  organize  the  liberty  he 
had  done  so  much  to  achieve ;  and  he  also 
showed  his  hostility  to  the  system  of  ne 
gro  slavery  with  which  the  United  States 
was  accursed.  At  the  ripe  age  of  eighty- 
four  he  died,  leaving  behind  him  a  record 
of  extraordinary  faithfulness  in  the  per 
formance  of  all  the  duties  of  life.  His  sa 
gacity,  when  his  whole  career  is  surveyed, 
amounts  almost  to  saintliness;  for  his  sa 
gacity  was  uniformly  devoted  to  the  accom 
plishment  of  great  public  ends  of  policy  or 
beneficence. 

Edwards  was  born  three  years  before 
Franklin,  and  died  in  1758,  nearly  twenty 
years  before  the  war  broke  out.  Franklin 
died  in  1790.  Both  being  representative 
men,  may  properly  be  taken  as  points  of 


departure  in  considering  those  writers  and 
thinkers  who  were  educated  under  the  in 
fluences  of  the  pre-Re volution  ary  period  of 
our  literary  history.  The  writings  of  Wash 
ington,  Adams,  Hamilton,  Jefferson,  Madi 
son,  Jay,  are  a  recognized  portion  of  our  lit 
erature,  because  the  hoarded  wisdom  slowly 
gathered  in  by  their  practical  knowledge  of 
life  crops  out  in  their  most  familiar  corre 
spondence.  A  truism  announced  by  such 
men  brightens  into  a  truth,  because  it  has 
evidently  been  tested  and  proved  by  their 
experience  in  conducting  affairs.  There  is 
an  elemental  grandeur  in  Washington's 
character  and  career  which  renders  imper 
tinent  all  mere  criticism  on  his  style;  for 
what  he  was  and  what  he  did  are  felt  to 
outvalue  a  hundredfold  what  he  wrote,  ex 
cept  we  consider  his  writings  as  mere  rec 
ords  of  his  sagacity,  wisdom,  patience,  dis 
interestedness,  intrepidity,  and  fortitude. 
John  Adams  had  a  large,  strong,  vehement 
mind,  interested  in  all  questions  relating  to 
government.  He  was  a  personage  of  in 
domitable  individuality,  large  acquirements, 
quick  insight,  and  resolute  civic  courage ; 
but  the  storm  and  stress  of  public  affairs 
gave  to  much  of  his  thinking  a  character 
of  intellectual  irritation,  rather  than  of  sus 
tained  intellectual  energy.  His  moral  im 
patience  was  such  that  he  seems  to  fret  as 
he  thinks.  Jefferson,  of  all  our  early  states 
men,  was  the  most  efficient  master  of  the 
pen,  and  the  most  "advanced"  political 
thinker.  In  one  sense,  as  the  author  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  he  may  be 
called  the  greatest,  or,  at  least,  the  most 
generally  known,  of  American  authors.  But 
in  his  private  correspondence  his  literary 
talent  is  most  displayed,  for  by  his  letters 
he  built  up  a  party  which  ruled  the  United 
States  for  nearly  half  a  century,  and  which 
was,  perhaps,  only  overturned  because  its 
opponents  cited  the  best  portions  of  Jeffer 
son's  writings  against  conclusions  derived 
from  the  worst.  In  executive  capacity  he 
was  relatively  weak ;  but  his  mistakes  in 
policy  and  his  feebleness  in  administra 
tion,  which  would  have  ruined  an  ordinary 
statesman  at  the  head  of  so  turbulent  a 
combination  of  irascible  individuals  as  the 
Democratic  party  of  the  United  States,  were 
all  condoned  by  those  minor  leaders  of  fac 
tion  who,  yielding  to  the  magic  persuasive- 


THE  "FEDERALIST.' 


353 


ness  of  his  pen,  assured  their  followers  that 
the  great  man  could  do  no  wrong.     Eead  in 
connection  with  the  events  of  his  time,  Jef 
ferson's  writings  must  be  considered  of  per 
manent  value  and  interest.     As  a  political 
leader  he  was  literally  a  man  of  letters ; 
and  his  letters  are  masterpieces,  if  viewed 
as  illustrations  of  the  arts  by  which  polit 
ical  leadership  may  be  attained.     In  his 
private  correspondence  he  was  a  model  of 
urbanity   and   geniality.      The  whole   im 
pression  derived  from  his  works  is  that  he 
was  a  better  man  than  his  enemies  would 
admit  him  to  be,  and  not  so  great  a  man  as 
his  partisans  declared  him  to  be.    Few  pub 
lic  men  who  have  been  assailed  with  equal 
fury  have  exhibited  a  more  philosophical 
temper  in  noticing  assailants.     Though  oc 
casionally  spiteful  in  his  references  to  rivals, 
his  leading  fault,  as  a  political  leader,  was 
not  so  much  in  being  himself  a  libeler  as  in 
the  protection  he  extended  to  libelers  who 
lampooned   men    obnoxious   to   him.     His 
own  mind  seems  to  have  been  singularly 
temperate ;  but  he  had  a  marvelous  tolera 
tion  for  the  intemperance  of  the  rancorous 
defamers    of   Washington,    Hamilton,   and 
Adams.     The  Federalists  hated  him  with 
such  a  mortal  hatred,  and  showered  on  him 
such  an  amount  of  horrible  invective,  that 
he   may  have  witnessed  with   a   sarcastic 
smile  the  still  coarser  and  fiercer  calumnies 
which  the  band  of  assassins  of  character  in 
his  interest  showered  on  the  leading  Feder 
alists.     Jefferson    in    this    contest   proved 
himself  capable  of  malice  as  well  as  insin 
cerity  ;  but  in  a  scrutiny  of  his  works  it 
will  be  found  that  individually  he  had  more 
amenity  of  temper  than  his  opponents,  for 
it  must  be  remembered  that  in  his  political 
career  he  was  stigmatized  not  only  as  the 
most  wicked  and  foolish  of  politicians,  but 
as  the  sultan  of  a  negro  harem,  and  that 
every  circumstance  of  his  private  life  was 
malignantly    misrepresented.     Many    emi 
nent  New  England  divines  regarded  him 
as  an  atheist  as  well  as  an  anarchist,  and 
thundered  at  him   from  their  pulpits  as 
though  he  was  a  new  incarnation  of  the 
evil  principle.  Jefferson's  comparative  mod 
eration,  in  view  of  the  savage  fierceness  of 
the  attacks  on  his  personal,  political,  and 
moral  character,  must,  on  the  whole,  be 
commended ;  but  still  his  moderation  cov- 
23 


ered  a  large  amount  of  private  intrigue,  and 
a  readiness  to  use  underhand  means  to  com 
pass  what  he  may  have  deemed  beneficent 
ends. 

The  names   of  Hamilton,  Madison,  and 
Jay  are  inseparably  associated  as  the  au 
thors  of  the  Federalist,  the  political  classic 
of  the  United  States.     Of  the  essays  it  con 
tains,  Hamilton  wrote   fifty -one,  Madison 
twenty-nine,  and  Jay  five.     It  is  generally 
considered  that  Hamilton's  are  the  best. 
Indeed,  Alexander  Hamilton  was,  next  to 
Franklin,  the  most  consummate  statesman 
among  the  band  of  eminent  men  who  had 
been  active  in  the  Revolution,  and  who  aft 
erward  labored  to  convert  a  loose  confedera 
tion  of  States  into  a  national  government. 
His  mind  was  as  plastic  as  it  was  vigorous 
and  profound.    It  was  the  appropriate  intel 
lectual  expression  of  a  poised  nature  whose 
power  was  rarely  obtrusive,  because  it  was 
half  concealed  by  the  harmonious   adjust 
ment  of  its  various  faculties.     It  was  a 
mind  deep  enough  to  grasp  principles,  and 
broad  enough  to  regard  relations,  and  fer 
tile  enough  to  devise  measures.     Indeed, 
the  most  practical  of  our  early  statesmen 
was  also  the  most  inventive.     He  was  as 
ready  with  new  expedients  to  meet  unex 
pected  emergencies  as  he  was  wise  in  sub 
ordinating  all  expedients  to  clearly  defined 
principles.     In  intellect  he  was  probably 
the  most  creative  of  our  early  statesmen,  as 
in  sentiment  Jefferson  was  the  most  widely 
influential.     And  Hamilton  was  so  bent  on 
practical  ends  that  he  was  indifferent  to  the 
reputation  which  might  have  resulted  from 
a  parade  of  originality  in  the  means  he  de 
vised  for  their  accomplishment.    There  nev 
er  was  a  statesman  less  egotistic,  less  de 
sirous  of  labeling  a  policy  as  "  my"  policy ; 
and  one  of  the  sources  of  his  influence  was 
the  subtle  way  in  which  he  insinuated  into 
other  minds  ideas  which  they  appeared  to 
originate.     His  moderation,  his  self-com 
mand,  the  exquisite   courtesy  of  his  man 
ners,   the   persuasiveness   of  his   ordinary 
speech,  the  fascination  of  his  extraordinary 
speeches,  and  the  mingled  dignity  and  ease 
with  which  he  met  men  of  all  degrees  of  in 
tellect  and  character,  resulted  in  making*his 
political  partisans  look  up  to  him  as  almost 
an  object  of  political  adoration.     It  is  diffi 
cult  to  say  what  this  accomplished  man  might 


354 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


have  done  as  a  leader  of  the  Federal  oppo 
sition  to  the  Democratic  administrations  of 
Jefferson  and  Madison,  had  he  not,  in  the 
maturity  of  his  years  and  in  the  full  vigor 
of  his  faculties,  been  murdered  by  Aaron 
Burr.  Nothing  can  better  illustrate  the 
folly  of  the  practice  of  dueling  than  the  fact 
that,  by  a  weak  compliance  with  its  max 
ims,  the  most  eminent  of  American  states 
men  died  by  the  hand  of  the  most  infamous 
of  American  demagogues.  Certainly  Hamil 
ton  had  no  need  to  accept  a  challenge  in  or 
der  to  vindicate  his  claim  to  courage.  That 
had  been  abundantly  shown  in  the  field,  at 
the  bar,  in  the  cabinet,  before  the  people. 
There  was  hardly  any  form  of  courage, 
military,  civic,  or  moral,  in  which  he  had 
not  proved  that  he  was  insensible  to  every 
kind  of  fear.  The  most  touching  expression 
of  it  was,  perhaps,  the  confession  he  public 
ly  made  that  he  had  been  entrapped  into  a 
guilty  intrigue  with  a  wily  woman.  The 
confession  was  necessary  to  vindicate  his 
integrity  as  a  statesman,  assailed  by  rancor 
ous  enemies.  In  reading  it  one  is  impressed 
with  the  innate  dignity  of  character  which 
such  a  mortifying  disclosure  of  criminal 
weakness  could  not  essentially  degrade ; 
and  the  allusion  to  his  noble  wife  can  hard 
ly  even  now  be  read  without  tears.  "  This 
confession,"  he  nobly  says,  "  is  not  made 
without  a  blush.  I  can  not  be  the  apolo 
gist  of  any  vice  because  the  ardor  of  pas 
sion  may  have  made  it  mine.  I  can  never 
cease  to  condemn  myself  for  the  pang  which 
it  may  inflict  on  a  bosom  eminently  entitled 
to  all  my  gratitude,  fidelity,  and  love ;  but 
that  bosom  will  approve  that,  even  at  so 
great  an  expense,  I  should  effectually  wipe 
away  a  more  serious  stain  from  a  name 
which  it  cherishes  with  no  less  elevation 
than  tenderness.  The  public,  too,  I  trust, 
will  excuse  the  confession.  The  necessity 
of  it  to  my  defense  against  a  more  heinous 
charge  could  alone  have  extorted  from  me 
so  painful  an  indecorum." 

John  Jay,  another  of  the  wise  statesmen 
of  the  Revolution,  who  survived  to  perform 
services  of  inestimable  value  to  the  new  con 
stitutional  government,  was  a  man  whose 
character  needs  no  apologists.  Webster 
finely  said  that  "  the  spotless  ermine  of  the 
judicial  robe,  when  it  fell  on  the  shoulders 
of  John  Jay,  touched  nothing  not  as  spotless 


as  itself."  His  integrity  ran  down  into  the 
very  roots  of  his  moral  being,  and  honesty 
was  in  him  a  passion  as  well  as  a  principle. 
A  great  publicist  as  well  as  an  incorrupti 
ble  patriot,  with  pronounced  opinions  which 
exposed  him  to  all  the  shafts  of  faction,  his 
most  low-minded  and  venomous  adversaries 
felt  that  both  his  private  and  public  char 
acter  were  unassailable.  The  celebrated 
"treaty"  with  Great  Britain  which  he  ne 
gotiated  as  the  minister  of  the  United  States 
occasioned  an  outburst  of  Democratic  wrath 
such  as  few  American  diplomatists  have 
ever  been  called  upon  to  face ;  but  in  all 
the  fury  of  the  opposition  to  it,  few  oppo 
nents  were  foolish  enough  to  assail  his  integ 
rity  in  assailing  his  judgment  and  general 
views  of  public  policy. 

Judge  Story  once  said  that  to  James  Mad 
ison  and  Alexander  Hamilton  we  were  main 
ly  indebted  for  the  Constitution  of  the  Unit 
ed  States.  It  is  curious  that  to  Madison  we 
are  also  mainly  indebted  for  those  Virginia 
"  Resolutions  of  '98,"  which  have  been  used 
to  justify  nullification  and  secession.  With 
all  his  mental  ability,  Madison  had  not  much 
original  force  of  nature.  He  leaned  now  to 
Hamilton,  now  to  Jefferson,  and  at  last  fell 
permanently  under  the  influence  of  the  gen 
ius  of  the  latter.  He  was  lacking  in  that 
grand  moral  and  intellectual  impulse,  un 
derlying  mere  knowledge  and  logic,  which 
distinguishes  the  man  who  reasons  from  the 
mere  reasoner.  His  character  was  not  on  a 
level  with  his  talents  and  acquirements ;  his 
much-vaunted  moderation  came  from  the  ab 
sence  rather  than  from  the  control  of  pas 
sion  ;  and  his  understanding,  though  broad, 
was  somewhat  mechanical  in  its  operations, 
and  had  no  foundation  in  a  corresponding 
breadth  of  nature.  The  "Resolutions  of 
'98,"  which  Southern  Democrats  came  grad 
ually  to  consider  as  of  equal  authority  with 
the  Constitution,  were  originally  devised  for 
a  transient  party  purpose.  The  passage  of 
the  Alien  and  Sedition  Laws,  during  the  ad 
ministration  of  John  Adams,  provoked  Jef 
ferson  into  writing  a  new  "Declaration  of 
Independence" — in  this  case  directed  not 
against  Great  Britain,  but  against  the  Unit 
ed  States.  He  drew  up  a  series  of  resolu 
tions,  which  he  sent  to  one  of  his  subageuts, 
George  Nicholas,  of  Kentucky,  to  be  adopted 
by  the  Legislature  of  that  State.  They  were, 


EARLY  POETS. 


355 


•with  some  omissions,  passed.  These  resolu 
tions  substantially  declared  that  the  Federal 
Constitution  was  a  compact  between  sover 
eign  States,  and  that  in  case  of  a  supposed 
violation  of  the  compact,  each  party  to  it,  as 
in  other  cases  of  parties  having  no  common 
judge,  had  "  an  equal  right  to  judge  for  it 
self,  as  well  of  infractions  as  of  the  mode 
and  measure  of  redress."  In  a  somewhat 
modified  form,  but  still  implicitly  contain 
ing  the  poison  of  nullification,  similar  reso 
lutions,  drafted  by  Madison,  were  passed  by 
the  Legislature  of  Virginia.  The  object 
evidently  was  to  frighten  the  general  gov 
ernment  by  a  threat  of  State  resistance  to 
its  authority,  without  any  settled  purpose 
of  nullification  or  rebellion.  When  Jeffer 
son  and  Madison  became  successively  Presi 
dents  of  the  United  States,  they  seemed 
to  have  forgotten  their  "  resolutions,"  ex 
cept  to  express  their  horror  when,  seven 
teen  years  afterward,  a  few  mild  Federal 
gentlemen,  meeting  at  Hartford,  appeared 
to  show  some  vague  intention  of  availing 
themselves  of  the  precious  constitutional 
doctrines  which  Jefferson  and  Madison  had 
so  boldly  announced.  The  "Resolutions  of 
'98"  must  be  considered  an  important  por 
tion  of  our  national  literature,  for  they  were 
exultingly  adduced  as  the  logical  justifica 
tion  of  the  gigantic  rebellion  of  1861.  It  is 
rare,  even  in  the  history  of  political  factions, 
that  a  string  of  cunningly  written  resolves, 
designed  to  meet  a  mere  party  emergency, 
should  thus  cost  a  nation  thousands  of  mill 
ions  of  treasure  and  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  lives. 

When  an  armed  ship  has  her  upper  deck 
cut  down,  and  is  thus  reduced  to  an  infe 
rior  class,  it  is  said  that  she  is  "razeed." 
Fisher  Ames  may  be  called,  on  this  princi 
ple,  a  razeed  Burke.  Of  all  the  Federal 
writers  and  speakers  of  his  time,  he  bears 
away  the  palm  of  eloquence.  He  has  some 
thing  of  Burke's  affluence  of  imagination, 
something  of  Bnrke's  power  of  condensing 
political  wisdom  into  epigrammatic  apo 
thegms,  and  more  than  Burke's  hatred  of 
"  French  principles ;"  but  he  lacks  the  im 
mense  moral  force  of  Burke's  individuality, 
the  large  scope  of  his  reason,  the  overwhelm 
ing  intensity  of  his  passion.  Still,  his  mer 
its  as  a  writer,  when  compared  with  those 
of  most  of  his  contemporaries,  are  so  strik 


ing  that  his  countrymen  seem  unjust  in  al 
lowing  such  an  author  to  drop  out  of  the 
memory  of  the  nation.  He  was  the  despair 
ing  champion  of  a  dying  cause ;  he  decora 
ted  the  grave  of  Federalism  with  some  of 
the  choicest  flowers  of  rhetoric ;  but  the 
flowers  are  now  withered,  and  the  tomb  it 
self  hardly  receives  its  due  meed  of  honor. 

The  most  eminent  writers  of  the  period 
which  extends  from  1776  to  the  first  decade 
of  the  nineteenth  century  were  either  states 
men  or  theologians.  Between  these  the 
poets,  essayists,  and  romancers  occupy  a  com 
paratively  subordinate  place;  for  we  esti 
mate  the  value  of  a  literature,  not  so  much 
by  the  character  of  the  subjects  with  which 
it  deals,  as  by  the  power  of  mind  it  evinces 
in  dealing  with  them.  As  it  regards  our 
scholars  and  men  of  letters  of  that  time,  it 
must  be  remembered  that  the  colonies  were 
colonies  of  intellectual  as  well  as  of  politic 
al  Britain,  and  that  their  ideals  of  intellect 
ual  excellence  were  formed  on  English  mod 
els.  Our  poets  could  only  give  a  local  color 
to  a  diction  which  was  essentially  that  of 
Milton,  or  Dryden,  or  Pope,  or  Goldsmith,  or 
Gray.  They  imitated  these  poets  in  a  vain 
attempt  to  attain  their  elevation,  simplicity, 
or  compactness  of  style ;  but  in  doing  this 
they  merely  did  what  contemporary  versifi 
ers  in  London  or  Edinburgh  were  intent  on 
doing.  Their  verse  has  not  survived,  but 
it  is  not  more  completely  forgotten  than 
the  verse  of  Mason,  and  Hayley,  and  Henry 
James  Pye.  They  could  write  heroic  verse 
as  well  as  most  of  the  English  imitators 
of  Pope,  and  Pindaric  odes  as  well  as  most 
of  the  English  imitators  of  Gray.  Indeed, 
the  verses  with  which  our  forefathers  af 
flicted  the  world  are  generally  not  so  bad 
as  the  verses  of  the  poet  laureates  of  En 
gland,  from  the  period  when  Dryden  was 
deprived  of  the  laurel,  to  the  period  when 
Southey  reluctantly  accepted  it.  Timothy 
Dwight,  an  eminent  patriot  and  theologian, 
was  early  smitten  with  the  ambition  to  be  a 
poet.  He  wrote  "America,"  "  The  Conquest 
of  Canaan"  (an  epic),  "  Greenfield  Hill,"  and 
"  The  Triumph  of  Infidelity."  These  poems 
are  not  properly  subjects  of  criticism,  because 
they  are  hopelessly  forgotten,  and  no  critical 
resurrectionist  can  give  them  that  slight  ap 
pearance  of  vitality  which  would  justify  an 
examination  of  their  merits  and  demerits. 


356 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


Yet  they  are  reasonably  good  of  their  kind, 
and  "  Greenfield  Hill,"  especially,  contains 
some  descriptions  which  are  almost  worthy 
to  be  called  charming.  Dwight,  as  a  Latin 
scholar,  occasionally  felt  called  upon  to  show 
his  learning  in  his  rhymes.  Thus  in  one  of 
his  poems  he  characterizes  one  of  the  most 
delightful  of  Roman  lyrists  as  "  desipient" 
Horace.  After  a  diligent  exploration  of  the 
dictionary,  the  reader  finds  that  desipient 
comes  from  a  Latin  word  signifying  "to 
be  wise,"  and  that  its  English  meaning  is 
"  trifling,  foolish,  playful."  It  might  be  sup 
posed  that  in  the  whole  range  of  English 
poetry  there  was  no  descriptive  epithet  so 
ludicrously  pedantic;  but,  fortunately  for 
our  patriotism,  we  can  convict  Dryden  of  a 
still  greater  sin  against  good  taste.  In  Dry- 
den's  first  ode  (1687)  for  St.  Cecilia's  Day  we 
find  the  following  lines : 

"Orpheus  could  lead  the  savage  race, 
And  trees  uprooted  left  their  place, 
Sequacious  of  the  lyre." 

It  can  not  be  doubted  that  Timothy  Dwight's 
"  desipient"  is  as  poetically  justifiable  as 
John  Dryden's  "  sequacious." 

Perhaps  the  most  versatile  of  our  early 
writers  of  verse  was  Philip  Freneau  (1752- 
1832),  a  man  of  French  extraction,  possess 
ing  the  talents  of  a  ready  writer,  and  en 
dowed  with  that  brightness  and  elasticity 
of  mind  which  makes  even  shallowness  of 
thought  and  emotion  pleasing.  He  com 
posed  patriotic  songs  and  ballads,  satirized 
Tories,  enjoyed  the  friendship  of  Franklin, 
Adams,  Jefferson,  Madison,  and  Monroe,  and 
was  in  his  day  quite  a  literary  power.  Most 
of  his  writings,  whether  in  verse  or  prose, 
were  "  occasional,"  and  they  died  with  the 
occasions  which  called  them  forth. 

Perhaps  a  higher  rank  should  be  assigned 
to  John  Trumbull  (1750-1831),  who  at  the 
breaking  out  of  the  Revolution  wrote  the 
first  canto  of  "  McFingal,"  and  published  the 
third  in  1782.  This  poem,  written  in  Hudi- 
brastic  verse,  is  so  full  of  original  wit  and 
humor  that  we  hardly  think  of  it  as  an  imi 
tation  of  Butler's  immortal  doggerel  until 
we  are  reminded  that  many  of  the  pithy 
couplets  of  "McFingal"  are  still  quoted  as 
felicitous  hits  of  the  ingenious  mind  of  the 
author  of  "  Hudibras."  The  immense  popu 
larity  of  the  poem  is  unprecedented  in  Amer 
ican  literary  history.  The  first  canto  rapid 


ly  ran  through  thirty  editions.  Longfellow's 
"  Evangeline"  attained  about  the  same  cir 
culation  when  the  population  of  the  coun 
try  was  thirty  millions.  "McFingal"  was 
published  when  our  population  was  only 
three  millions.  The  poem,  indeed,  is  to  be 
considered  as  one  of  the  forces  of  the  Revo 
lution,  because,  as  a  satire  on  the  Tories,  it 
penetrated  into  every  farm-house,  and  sent 
the  rustic  volunteers  laughing  into  the 
ranks  of  Washington  and  Greene.  The  vig 
or  of  mind  and  feeling  displayed  throughout 
the  poem  gives  an  impetus  to  its  incidents 
which  "Hudibras,"  with  all  its  wonderful 
flashes  of  wit,  comparatively  lacks. 

Francis  Hopkinson  (1737-91)  was  anoth 
er  of  the  writers  who  served  the  popular 
cause  by  seizing  every  occasion  to  make  the 
British  pretensions  to  rule  ridiculous  as  well 
as  hateful.  His  "  Battle  of  the  Kegs"  prob 
ably  laughed  a  thousand  men  into  the  re 
publican  ranks.  His  son,  Francis  Hopkin 
son,  wrote  the  most  popular  of  American 
lyrics,  "  Hail,  Columbia."  It  is  curious  that 
this  ode  has  no  poetic  merit  whatever. 
There  is  not  a  line,  not  an  epithet,  in  the 
whole  composition  which  distinguishes  it 
from  the  baldest  prose. 

Robert  Treat  Paine,  Jun.,  was  originally 
named  by  his  father  Thomas ;  but  being  a 
zealous  Federalist,  he  induced  the  Legisla 
ture  of  Massachusetts  to  change  his  cogno 
men  into  Robert  Treat,  because,  detesting 
the  theological  iconoclast  who  was  both  a 
Democrat  and  an  infidel,  he  desired,  he  said, 
to  have  a  Christian  name.  His  song  of 
"  Adams  and  Liberty"  is  far  above  Hopkin- 
son's  "  Hail,  Columbia"  in  emphasis  of  phrase, 
richness  of  illustration,  and  resounding  har 
mony  of  versification.  Even  now  it  kindles 
enthusiasm,  like  the  lyrics  of  Campbell, 
though  it  is,  of  course,  more  mechanical  in 
structure  and  more  rhetorical  in  tone  than 
the  "  Battle  of  the  Baltic"  and  the  "  Mari 
ners  of  England."  At  the  time,  however,  it 
roused  a  similar  enthusiasm. 

But  all  the  poets  of  the  United  States 
were  threatened  with  extinction  or  subor 
dination  when  Joel  Barlow  (1755-1812)  ap 
peared.  He  was,  according  to  all  accounts, 
an  estimable  man,  cursed  with  the  idea  not 
only  that  he  was  a  poet,  but  the  greatest  of 
American  poets ;  and  in  1808  he  published, 
in  a  superb  quarto  volume,  "TheColumbiad." 


EARLY  NOVELISTS. 


357 


It  was  also  published  in  Paris  and  London. 
The  London  Monthly  Magazine  tried  to  prove 
not  only  that  it  was  an  epic  poem,  but  that 
it  was  surpassed  only  by  the  Iliad,  the  ^Eueid, 
and  "  Paradise  Lost."  Joel  Barlow  is  fairly 
entitled  to  the  praise  of  raising  mediocrity 
to  dimensions  almost  colossal.  Columbia  is, 
thank  Heaven,  still  alive  ;  "  The  Coluinbiad" 
is,  thank  Heaven,  hopelessly  dead.  There 
are  some  elderly  gentlemen  still  living  who 
declare  that  they  have  read  "  The  Columbi- 
ad,"  and  have  derived  much  satisfaction  from 
the  perusal  of  the  same ;  but  their  evidence 
can  not  stand  the  test  of  cross-examination. 
They  can  not  tell  what  the  poem  is,  what  it 
teaches,  and  what  it  means.  No  critic  with 
in  the  last  fifty  years  has  read  more  than  a 
hundred  lines  of  it,  and  even  this  effort  of 
attention  has  been  a  deadly  fight  with  those 
merciful  tendencies  in  the  human  organiza 
tion  which  softly  wrap  the  overworked  mind 
in  the  blessedness  of  sleep.  It  is  the  im 
possibility  of  reading  "The  Columbiad" 
which  prevents  any  critical  estimate  of  its 
numberless  demerits. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that,  admitting  all  the 
poetic  talent  that  our  versifiers  from  1776  to 
1810  can  claim,  they  are  exceeded  in  all  the 
requisites  of  poetry  by  contemporary  prose 
writers.  Fisher  Ames,  in  a  political  article 
contributed  to  a  newspaper,  often  display 
ed  a  richness  of  imagery,  a  harmony  of  dic 
tion,  and  an  intensity  of  sentiment  and  pas 
sion  which  would  have  more  than  supplied 
our  rhymers  with  materials  for  a  canto. 
John  Jay  was  not,  like  Fisher  Ames,  a  man 
who  thought  in  images,  yet  in  one  instance 
his  fervid  honesty  enabled  him  to  outleap 
every  versifier  of  his  time  in  the  exercise  of 
impassioned  imagination.  In  a  letter  ad 
dressed  to  the  States  of  the  Confederation 
he  showed  the  horrible  injustice  wrought 
by  the  depreciated  currency  of  the  country. 
"Humanity,"  he  said,  "as  well  as  justice, 
makes  this  demand  upon  you ;  the  com 
plaints  of  ruined  widows  and  the  cries  of  fa 
therless  children,  whose  whole  support  has 
been  placed  in  your  hands  and  melted  away, 
have  doubtless  reached  you;  take  care  that 
they  ascend  no  higher."  And,  if  we  consider 
poetry  in  its  inmost  essence,  what  can  ex 
ceed  in  sentiment  and  imagination  the  state 
ment  in  prose  of  the  perfections  of  the  maid 
en  whom  Jonathan  Edwards,  the  austere 


theologian,  was  so  fortunate  as  to  win  for 
his  wife  ?  To  be  sure,  the  description  runs 
back  to  the  year  1723,  when  Edwards  was 
only  twenty  years  old.  "  They  say,"  he 
writes,  "there  is  a  young  lady  in  New  Ha 
ven  who  is  beloved  of  that  Great  Being  who 
made  and  rules  the  world,  and  that  there 
are  certain  seasons  in  which  this  Great  Be 
ing,  in  some  way  or  other  invisible,  comes 
to  her  and  fills  her  mind  with  exceeding 
sweet  delight,  and  that  she  hardly  cares  for 
any  thing  except  to  meditate  on  Him,  that 
she  expects,  after  a  while,  to  be  received  up 
where  He  is,  to  be  raised  up  out  of  the  world 
and  caught  up  into  heaven,  being  assured 
that  He  loves  her  too  well  to  let  her  remain 
at  a  distance  from  Him  always.  There  she 
is  to  dwell  with  Him,  and  to  be  ravished 
with  His  love  and  delight  forever.  There 
fore,  if  you  present  all  the  world  before 
her,  with  the  richest  of  its  treasures,  she  dis 
regards  it  and  cares  not  for  it,  and  is  un 
mindful  of  any  pain  or  affliction.  She  has 
a  strange  sweetness  in  her  mind,  and  singu 
lar  purity  in  her  affections;  is  most  just  and 
conscientious  in  all  her  conduct ;  and  you 
could  not  persuade  her  to  do  any  thing 
wrong  or  sinful  if  you  would  give  her  all 
the  world,  lest  she  should  offend  this  Great 
Being.  She  is  of  a  wonderful  sweetness, 
calmness,  and  universal  benevolence  of 
mind,  especially  after  this  Great  God  has 
manifested  Himself  to  her  mind.  She  will 
sometimes  go  about  from  place  to  place 
singing  sweetly,  and  seems  to  be  always 
full  of  joy  and  pleasure,  and  no  one  knows  for 
what.  She  loves  to  be  alone,  walking  in  the 
fields  and  groves,  and  seems  to  have  some 
one  invisible  always  conversing  with  her." 
The  "  sage  and  serious"  Spenser,  in  all  his 
lovely  characterizations  of  feminine  excel 
lence,  never  succeeded  in  depicting  a  soul 
more  exquisitely  beautiful  than  this  of  Sa 
rah  Pierrepont  as  viewed  through  the  con 
secrating  imagination  of  Jonathan  Edwards. 
The  leading  writers  of  fiction  during  the 
period  immediately  succeeding  the  Revolu 
tion  were  Susanna  Rowson,  Hugh  Henry 
Brackenridge,  and  Charles  Brockdeu  Brown. 
Mrs.  Rowson's  novel  of  Charlotte  Temple  at 
tained  the  unprecedented  circulation  of 
25,000  copies,  not  so  much  for  its  literary 
merits  as  on  account  of  its  foundation  in  a 
mysterious  domestic  scandal  which  affected 


358 


A  CENTUKY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


the  reputation  of  a  number  of  prominent 
American   families.      Brackenridge   was    a 
Democrat  of  a  peculiar  kind,  generally  sup 
porting  his  party,  but  reserving  to  himself 
the  right  of  criticising  and  satirizing  it.    At 
the  time  the  autislavery  section  of  the  Dem 
ocratic  party  in  the  State  of  New  York  was 
called  by  the  nickname  of  "  Barnburners," 
Mr.  J.  G.  Saxe,  the  poet,  was  asked  to  define 
his  position.     "  I  am,"  he  replied,  "  a  Demo 
crat  with  a  proclivity  to  arson."     Bracken- 
ridge  at  an  earlier  period  showed  a  similar 
restlessness  in  his  dissent  from  the  policy 
of  a  party  whose  principles  he  generally 
advocated.     His  principal  work  is  Modern 
Chivalry;  or,  the  Adventures  of  Captain  Far 
rago  and  Teagutt  O'Regan,  his  Servant.     The 
author  had  a  vague  idea  of  Americanizing 
Don  Quixote  and  Sancho  Panza.     The  ad 
ventures  are  somewhat  coarsely  and  clum 
sily  portrayed,  but  it  gave  Brackeuridge  an 
opportunity  to  satirize  the  practical  work 
ings  of  Democracy,  and  he  did  it  with  piti 
less'  severity.     Teague  is  represented  as  a 
creature  only  a  little  raised  above  the  con 
dition  of  a  beast,  ignorant,  credulous,  greedy, 
and  brutal,  lacking  both  common-sense  and 
moral  sense,  but  still  ambitious  to  attain  po 
litical  office,  and  willing  to  put  himself  for 
ward  as  a  candidate  for  posts  the  duties  of 
which  he  could  not  by  any  possibility  per 
form.     The  exaggeration  is  heightened  at 
times  into  the  most  farcical  caricature,  but 
the  book  can  be  read  even  now  with  profit 
by  the  champions  of  civil  service  reform. 
There  are  also  in  the  course  of  the  narra 
tive  some  deadly  shafts  launched,  in  a  hu 
morous  way,  against  the  institution  of  slav 
ery.     Charles  Brockden  Brown  (1771-1810) 
was  our  first  novelist  by  profession.     At  the 
time  he  wrote  Arthur  Mervyn,  Edgar  Huntley, 
Clara  Howard,  and  Wieland  the  remunera 
tion  of  the  novelist  was  so  small  that  he 
could  only  make  what  is  called  "a  living" 
by  sacrificing  every  grace   and  felicity  of 
style  to  the  inexorable  need  of  writing  rap 
idly,  and  therefore  inaccurately.     Brown,  in 
his  depth  of  insight  into  the  morbid  phe 
nomena  of  the  human  mind,  really  antici 
pated  Hawthorne ;  but  hurried  as  he  was 
by  that  most  malignant  of  literary  devils, 
the  printer's,  he  produced  no  such  master 
pieces  of  literary  art  as  The  Scarlet  Letter, 
The  Blithedale  Romance,  and  The  Marble  Faun. 


Brown  is  one  of  the  most  melancholy  in 
stances  of  a  genius  arrested  in  its  orderly 
development  by  the  pressure  of  circum 
stances.  In  mere  power  his  forgotten  nov 
els  rank  very  high  among  the  products  of 
the  American  imagination.  And  it  should  be 
added  that  though  he  is  unread,  he  is  by  no 
means  unreadable.  Wieland;  or,  the  Trans 
formation,  has  much  of  the  thrilling  interest 
which  fastens  our  attention  as  we  read  God 
win's  Caleb  Williams,  or  Hawthorne's  Scarlet 
Letter.  With  all  his  faults,  Brown  does  not 
deserve  to  be  the  victim  of  the  bitterest 
irony  of  criticism,  that,  namely,  of  not  being 
considered  worth  the  trouble  of  a  critical  ex- 
amiuation.  His  writings  are  contemptuous 
ly  classed  among  dead  books,  interesting  to 
the  antiquary  alone.  Still,  they  have  that 
vitality  which  conies  from  the  presence  of 
genius,  and  a  little  stirring  of  the  ashes  un 
der  which  they  are  buried  would  reveal 
sparks  of  genuine  fire. 

The  progress  of  theology  during  the  thir 
ty  years  which  followed  the  Revolution  is 
illustrated  by  the  works  of  many  men  of 
mark  in  their  profession,  and  by  two  men 
of  original  though  somewhat  crotchety  re 
ligious  genius,  Samuel  Hopkins  and  Na 
thaniel  Ernmous.  It  is  the  rightful  boast 
of  Calvinism,  that  whatever  judgment  may 
be  passed  on  the  validity  of  its  dogmas, 
nobody  can  question  its  power  to  give 
strength  to  character,  to  educate  men  into 
strict  habits  of  deductive  reasoniug,  and  to 
comfort  regenerated  and  elected  souls  with 
the  blissful  feeling  that  they  are  in  direct 
communication  with  the  Divine  mind.  But 
even  before  the  Revolution  broke  out  there 
was  a  widely  diffused  though  somewhat 
lazy  mental  insurrection  against  its  doc 
trines  by  men  who  were  formally  connected 
with  its  churches ;  and  Jonathan  Edwards, 
the  greatest  successor  of  Calvin,  was  dis 
missed  from  his  pastoral  charge  in  North 
ampton  because  he  had  attempted  to  re 
fuse  Christian  fellowship  to  those  members 
of  the  church  who,  though  they  assented  to 
Calvinistic  opinions,  had  given  "no  evi 
dence  of  saving  grace"  in  their  hearts.  The 
devil,  Edwards  said,  was  very  orthodox  in 
faith,  and  his  speculative  knowledge  in  di 
vinity  exceeded  that  of  "  a  hundred  saints 
of  ordinary  education."  It  was  but  natural 
that  the  unconverted  members  of  orthodox 


THOMAS  PAINE. 


359 


churches,  who  were  distinguished  more  by 
their  social  position,  wealth,  and  good  moral 
character  than  by  their  capacity  to  stand 
Edwards's  test  of  vital  piety,  should  end  in 
doubting  the  truth  of  the  doctrines  by  the 
relentless  application  of  which  they  were  pro 
scribed  as  non-Christian.  The  Revolution 
brought  into  the  country  not  merely  French 
soldiers,  but  the  skeptical  philosophy  of  the 
great  French  writers  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury.  The  French  officers  were  practical 
ly  missionaries  of  unbelief.  The  light  but 
stinging  mockery  of  Voltaire  had  educated 
the  intelligent  French  mind  into  a  shallow 
contempt  for  all  the  mysteries  of  the  Chris 
tian  religion ;  and  in  fighting  for  our  liber 
ties,  these  gay,  bright  Frenchmen  fought 
also  against  our  accredited  theological  faith. 
There  is  something  ludicrous  in  this  contact 
of  the  French  with  the  Yankee  mind.  Men 
like  Franklin,  Jefferson,  John  Adams,  and 
others,  had  already  adopted  opinions  which 
were  opposed  to  Calvinism,  but  they  had  no 
strong  impulse  to  announce  their  religious 
convictions.  The  general  drift  of  the  pop 
ular  mind  set  in  such  an  opposite  direction, 
that  they  hesitated  to  peril  their  political 
aims  in  a  vain  attempt  to  enforce  their 
somewhat  languid  theological  views.  Uni- 
tarianism,  or  Liberal  Christianity,  so  called, 
had  not  yet  arisen  ;  and  the  protest  against 
Calvinism  first  took  the  form  of  an  open  de 
nial  of  the  Christian  faith.  Thus  Ethan 
Allen  published,  in  1784,  a  work  which  he 
called  Reason  the  Only  Oracle  of  Man.  He 
summoned  the  fort  of  Ticouderoga  to  sur 
render  in  "  the  name  of  the  Great  Jehovah, 
and  of  the  Continental  Congress ;"  he  after 
ward  demanded  that  the  impregnable  for 
tress  of  Christianity  should  surrender  in  the 
name  of  Ethan  Allen.  Christianity  declined 
to  obey  the  summons  of  this  stalwart  Ver 
mont  soldier — doubtless  much  to  his  sur 
prise. 

But  the  man  who  was  the  most  influen 
tial  assailant  of  the  orthodox  faith  was 
Thomas  Paine.  He  was  the  arch-infidel, 
the  infidel  par  Eminence,  whom  our  early  and 
later  theologians  have  united  in  holding  up 
as  a  monster  of  iniquity  and  unbelief.  The 
truth  is  that  Paine  was  a  dogmatic,  well- 
meaning  iconoclast,  who  attacked  religion 
without  having  any  religious  experience  or 
any  imaginative  perception  of  the  vital  spir 


itual  phenomena  on  which  religious  faith  is 
based.  Nobody  can  read  his  Age  of  Reason, 
after  having  had  some  preparatory  knowl 
edge  derived  from  the  study  of  the  history 
of  religions,  without  wondering  at  its  shal- 
lowness.  Paine  is,  in  a  spiritual  applica 
tion  of  the  phrase,  color-blind.  He  does 
not  seem  to  know  what  religion  is.  The 
reputation  he  enjoyed  was  due  not  more  to 
his  masterly  command  of  all  the  avenues  to 
the  average  popular  mind  than  to  the  im 
portance  to  which  he  was  lifted  by  his  hor 
rified  theological  adversaries.  His  merit 
as  a  writer  against  religion  consisted  in 
his  hard,  almost  animal,  common-sense,  to 
whose  tests  he  subjected  the  current  theo 
logical  dogmas.  He  was  a  kind  of  vulgar 
ized  Voltaire.  His  eminent  services  to  the 
country  during  the  Revolutionary  war  were 
generally  known — indeed,  were  acknowl 
edged  by  the  leading  statesmen  of  the  Unit 
ed  States.  His  memorable  pamphlet  en 
titled  Common-Sense  reached  a  circulation 
of  a  hundred  thousand  copies.  It  was  fol 
lowed  up  by  a  series  of  tracts,  under  the 
general  name  of  "  The  Crisis,"  which  were 
almost  as  efficient  as  their  predecessor  in 
rousing,  sustaining,  and  justifying  the  pa 
triotism  of  the  nation.  He  was  the  author 
of  the  now  familiar  maxim  that  "  these  are 
the  times  that  try  men's  souls."  His  after- 
career  in  England  and  France  resulted  in 
his  pamphlet  on  The  Eights  of  Man,  direct 
ed  against  Burke's  assault  on  the  principles 
and  methods  of  the  French  Revolutionists 
of  1789.  It  was  unmistakably  the  ablest 
answer  that  any  of  the  democrats  of  France, 
England,  and  the  United  States  had  made 
to  Burke's  eloquent  and  philosophic  im 
peachment  of  the  motives  and  conduct  of 
the  actors  in  that  great  convulsion.  One 
passage  still  survives,  because  it  almost  ri 
vals  Burke  himself  in  the  power  of  making 
a  thought  tell  on  the  general  mind  by  apt 
ness  of  imagery.  "Nature,"  says  Paine, 
"  has  been  kinder  to  Mr.  Burke  than  he  is 
to  her.  He  is  not  affected  by  the  realities 
of  distress  touching  his  heart,  but  by  the 
showy  resemblance  of  it  striking  his  imagi 
nation.  He  pities  the  plumage,  tut  forgets  the 
dying  bird."  A  writer  thus  known  to  the 
American  people  not  only  as  the  champion 
of  their  individual  rights,  but  of  the  rights 
of  all  mankind,  could  not  fail  to  exert  much 


360 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


influence  when  he  brought  his  peculiar  pow 
er  of  simple,  forcible,  and.  sarcastic  state 
ment  to  an  assault  on  the  religion  of  the 
country  whose  nationality  he  had  done  so 
much  to  establish.  He  never  touched  the 
inmost  sanctuaries  of  Calvinism,  though  he 
seriously  damaged  some  of  its  outworks ;  and 
the  fault  of  the  eminent  divines  who  op 
posed  him  was  in  throwing  all  their  strength 
in  defending  what  was  proved  in  the  end 
to  be  indefensible. 

Indeed,  it  is  pitiable  to  witness  the  ob 
structions  which  strong  minds  and  religious 
hearts  raised  against  an  inevitable  tenden 
cy  of  human  thought.  While  infidelity  was 
slowly  undermining  the  system  of  theology 
on  which  they  based  the  sentiment  and  the 
substance  of  religious  belief,  these  theolo 
gians  exerted  their  powers  of  reasoning  in 
controversies,  waged  against  each  other,  re 
lating  to  the  question  whether  deductive 
arguments  from  adroitly  detached  Script 
ural  texts  could  fix  the  time  when  original 
sin  made  infants  liable  to  eternal  damna 
tion.  Some  argued  that  the  spiritual  dis 
ease  was  communicated  in  the  moment  of 
conception ;  others,  a  little  more  humane, 
contended  that  the  child  must  be  born  be 
fore  it  could  righteously  be  damned ;  others 
insisted  that  a  certain  time  after  birth,  left 
somewhat  undetermined,  but  generally  as 
signed  to  the  period  when  the  child  attains 
to  moral  consciousness,  should  elapse  before 
it  was  brought  under  the  penalties  of  the 
universal  curse.  The  current  theology  of 
his  time  could  not  sustain  the  attacks  of 
such  a  hard,  vulgar  reasoner  as  Paine,  ex 
cept  by  withdrawing  into  its  vital  and  un 
assailable  position,  namely,  its  power  of  con 
verting  depraved  souls  into  loving  disciples 
of  the  Lord.  The  thinking  of  the  dominant 
theologians  of  that  period  has  been  quietly 
repudiated  by  their  successors,  and  it  has 
failed  to  establish  any  place  in  literature  be 
cause  it  was  exerted  on  themes  which  the 
human  mind  and  human  heart  have  gradu 
ally  ignored.  Still,  the  practical  effects  of 
the  teaching  of  the  great  body  of  orthodox 
clergymen  have  been  immense.  It  would 
be  unjust  to  measure  their  influence  by  the 
success  or  failure  of  theories  devised  by  the 
speculative  ingenuity  of  their  representa 
tive  divines.  It  is  impossible  to  estimate 
too  highly  the  services  of  the  clergymen  of 


the  country  in  the  formation  of  the  national 
character.  Their  sermons  have  not  passed 
into  literature.  A  band  of  "  ministers,"  con 
tented  with  small  salaries,  on  which  they 
almost  starved,  and  with  no  reputation  be 
yond  their  little  parishes,  labored  year  aft 
er  year  in  the  obscure  work  of  purifying, 
elevating,  and  regenerating  the  individuals 
committed  to  their  pastoral  charge;  and 
when  they  died,  in  all  the  grandeur  with 
which  piety  invests  poverty,  they  were  swift 
ly  succeeded  by  men  who  valiantly  trod  the 
same  narrow  path,  leading  to  no  success 
recognized  on  earth  as  brilliant  or  self-sat 
isfying. 

The  period  of  our  literary  history  between 
1810  and  1840  witnessed  the  rise  and  growth 
of  a  literature  which  was  influenced  by  the 
new  "revival  of  letters"  in  England  during 
the  early  part  of  the  present  century,  repre 
sented  by  Wordsworth,  Coleridge,  Southey, 
Scott,  Campbell,  Byron,  Shelley,  Keats,  and 
Moore.  Most  of  these  eminent  men  were 
not  only  writers  but  powers ;  they  commu 
nicated  spiritual  life  to  the  soul,  as  well  as 
beautiful  images  and  novel  ideas  to  the 
mind ;  and  touching,  as  they  did,  the  pro- 
foundest  sources  of  imagination,  reason,  and 
emotion,  they  quickened  latent  individual 
genius  into  original  activity  by  the  mag 
netism  they  exerted  on  sympathetic  souls, 
and  thus  stimulated  emulation  rather  than 
imitation.  The  wave  of  Wordsworthiauism 
swept  gently  over  New  England,  and  here 
and  there  found  a  mind  which  was  men 
tally  and  morally  refreshed  by  drinking 
deeply  of  this  new  water  of  life.  But  Pope 
was  still  for  a  long  time  the  pontiff  of  po 
etry,  recognized  by  the  cultivated  men  of 
Boston  no  less  than  by  the  cultivated  men 
of  London  and  Edinburgh.  Probably  there 
occurred  no  greater  and  more  sudden  change 
from  the  old  school  to  the  new  than  in  the 
case  of  a  precocious  lad  who  bore  the  name 
of  William  Cullen  Bryant.  At  the  age  of 
fourteen,  in  the  year  1808,  he  produced  a 
versified  satire  on  Jefferson's  administra 
tion  called  "  The  Embargo."  It  was  just  as 
good  and  just  as  bad  as  most  American  imi 
tations  of  Pope ;  but  the  boy  indicated  a  fa 
cility  in  using  the  accredited  verse  of  the 
time  which  excited  the  wonder  and  admira 
tion  of  his  elders.  Vigor,  compactness,  ring 
ing  emphasis  in  the  constantly  recurring 


WILLIAM  C.  BRYANT. 


361 


rhymes,  all  seemed  to  show  that  a  new  Pope 
had  been  born  in  Massachusetts.  The  gen 
ius  of  the  lad,  however,  was  destined  to  take 
a  different  road  to  fame  than  that  which  was 
marked  out  by  his  admirers.  He  read  the  lyr 
ical  ballads  of  Wordsworth ;  and  his  friend, 
R.  H.  Dana,  informs  us  that  Bryant  confess 
ed  to  him  that  on  reading  that  volume  "  a 
thousand  springs  seemed  to  gush  up  at  once 
into  his  heart,  and  the  face  of  nature  of  a 
sudden  changed  into  a  strange  freshness 
and  life."  Accordingly  his  next  poem  of 
any  importance  was  "  Thauatopsis."  We 
are  told  that  it  was  written  when  he  was 
only  eighteen.  It  was  published  in  the 
North  American  Iteview  for  1816,  when  he 
was  twenty-two.  The  difference  of  four 
years  makes  little  difference  in  the  remark 
able  fact  that  the  poem  indicates  no  sign 
of  youth  whatever.  The  perfection  of  its 
rhythm,  the  majesty  and  dignity  of  the 
tone  of  matured  reflection  which  breathes 
through  it,  the  solemnity  of  its  underlying 
sentiment,  and  the  austere  unity  of  the  per 
vading  thought,  would  deceive  almost  any 
critic  into  affirming  it  to  be  the  product  of 
an  imaginative  thinker  to  whom  "  years  had 
brought  the  philosophic  mind."  Still  it  must 
be  remembered  that  the  poets  in  whom  med 
itation  and  imagination  have  been  most  har 
moniously  blended  have  produced  some  of 
their  best  works  when  they  were  compara 
tively  young.  This  is  specially  the  case  as 
regards  Wordsworth.  His  poem  on  revisiting 
Tintern  Abbey,  written  when  he  was  twen 
ty-eight,  introduced  an  absolutely  new  ele 
ment  into  English  poetry,  and  was  specially 
characterized  by  that  quality  of  calm,  deep, 
solid  reflection  which  is  commonly  consid 
ered  to  be  the  peculiarity  of  genius  when  it 
has  attained  the  maturity  which  age  and 
experience  alone  can  give.  The  wonder 
ful  "  Ode  on  the  Intimations  of  Immortali 
ty  from  Recollections  of  Early  Childhood," 
written  about  four  years  later,  indicates  the 
highest  point  which  the  poetic  insight  and 
the  philosophic  wisdom  of  Wordsworth  ever 
reached ;  and  it  ought,  on  ordinary  princi 
ples  of  criticism,  to  have  been  written  thir 
ty  years  later  than  the  date  which  marks 
its  birth.  Nothing  which  Wordsworth  aft 
erward  wrote,  though  precious  in  itself,  dis 
played  any  thing  equal  to  these  poems  in 
maturity  of  thought  and  imagination.  It 


is  doubtful  if  Bryant's  "  Thanatopsis"  has 
been  excelled  by  the  many  deep  and  beauti 
ful  poems  which  he  has  written  since.  In 
his  case,  as  in  that  of  Wordsworth,  we  are 
puzzled  by  the  old  head  suddenly  erected  on 
young  shoulders.  They  leap  over  the  age 
of  passion  by  a  single  bound,  and  become 
poetic  philosophers  at  an  age  when  other 
poets  are  in  the  sensuous  stage  of  imagina 
tive  development.  In  estimating  the  claim 
of  Bryant  to  be  ranked  as  the  foremost  of 
American  poets,  it  may  be  said  that  he 
opened  a  rich  and  deep,  if  somewhat  nar 
row,  vein,  which  he  has  worked  with  mar 
velous  skill,  and  that  he  has  obtained  more 
pure  gold  from  his  mine  than  many  others 
who  have  sunk  shafts  here  and  there  into 
more  promising  deposits  of  the  precious 
metal.  He  is,  perhaps,  unequaled  among 
our  American  poets  in  his  grasp  of  the  ele 
mental  life  of  nature.  His  descriptions  of 
natural  scenery  always  imply  that  nature, 
in  every  aspect  it  turns  to  the  poetic  eye, 
is  thoroughly  alive.  Nobody  can  read  his  po 
ems  called  "The  Evening  Wind,"  "Green 
River,"  "  The  Death  of  the  Flowers,"  the 
invocation  "  To  a  Water-Fowl,"  "  An  Even 
ing  Reverie,"  "  To  the  Fringed  Gentian," 
not  to  mention  others,  without  feeling  that 
this  poet  has  explored  the  inmost  secrets 
of  nature,  and  has  shown  how  natural  ob 
jects  can  be  wedded  to  the  human  mind 
in  "love  and  holy  passion."  In  the  ab 
stract  imagination  which  celebrates  the 
fundamental  idea  and  ideal  of  our  Ameri 
can  life,  what  can  excel  his  noble  verses 
on  "The  Antiquity  of  Freedom?"  "The 
Land  of  Dreams"  is  perhaps  the  most  ex 
quisite  of  Bryant's  poems,  as  in  it  thought, 
sentiment,  and  imagination  are  more  com 
pletely  dissolved  in  melody  than  in  any  oth 
er  of  his  poems.  In  a  criticism  of  the  range 
of  Bryant's  mind  it  must  be  remembered 
that  his  poetry  is  only  one  expression  of 
it.  His  life  has  been  generally  passed  in 
political  struggles  which  have  called  forth 
all  his  powers  of  statement  and  reasoning, 
based  on  a  patient  study  of  the  phenomena 
presented  by  our  social  and  political  life. 
As  the  editor  of  the  New  York  Evening  Post, 
he  has  shown  himself  an  able  publicist,  an 
intelligent  economist,  and  a  resolute  party 
champion.  And  at  a  period  of  life  when 
most  men  are  justified  in  resting  from  their 


362 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


labors,  he  undertook  the  gigantic  task  of 
translating  into  blank  verse  such  as  few  but 
he  can  give,  the  whole  of  the  Iliad  and  the 
Odyssey. 

Another  eminent  writer  of  the  period,  and 
one  who  also  happily  survives,  at  the  ad 
vanced  age  of  eighty-eight,  an  object  of  the 
deserved  respect  and  admiration  of  his  coun 
trymen,  was  Richard  Henry  Dana.  His  ar 
ticles  in  the  North  American  Review,  from  1817 
to  1819,  were  remarkable  compositions  for 
the  time.  The  long  paper  on  the  English 
poets,  published  in  1819,  surveys  the  whole 
domain  of  English  poetry  from  Chaucer  to 
Wordsworth.  It  exhibits  a  comprehensive 
ness  of  taste,  a  depth  and  delicacy  of  critical 
perception,  and  a  grasp  of  the  spiritual  ele 
ments  which  enter  into  the  highest  efforts  of 
creative  minds,  unexampled  in  any  previous 
American  contribution  to  the  philosophy  of 
criticism.  His  discernment  of  the  relative 
rank  and  worth  of  British  poets  is  special 
ly  noticeable.  He  interpreted  before  he 
judged  ;  and  in  interpreting  he  showed,  in 
old  George  Chapman's  phrase,  that  he  pos 
sessed  the  "  fit  key,"  that  is,  the  "  deep  and 
treasurous  heart," 

"With  poesy  to  open  poesy." 

Even  among  the  cultivated  readers  of  the 
North  American,  there  were  few  who  could 
appreciate  Dana's  profound  analysis  of  the 
genius  of  Wordsworth  and  Coleridge.  In 
1821  he  began  The  Idle  Man,  of  which  six 
numbers  were  published.  In  this  appeared 
his  celebrated  paper  on  Edmund  Kean,  the 
best  piece  of  theatrical  criticism  in  Amer 
ican  literature ;  two  novels,  Tom  Thornton 
and  Paul  Felton,  dealing  with  the  darker 
passions  of  our  nature  in  a  style  so  abrupt, 
a  feeling  so  intense,  and  a  moral  purpose  so 
inexorable  that  they  rather  terrified  than 
pleased  the  "  idle  men"  who  read  novels ; 
and  several  of  those  beautiful  meditations 
on  nature  and  human  life,  in  which  the  au 
thor  exhibits  himself  as 

"  A  being  breathing  thoughtful  breath, 
A  traveler  betwixt  life  and  death." 

The  Idle  Man  did  not  succeed.  In  1827  he 
published  a  thin  volume  entitled  The  Buc 
caneer,  and  Other  Poems.  These  are  suffi 
cient  to  give  him  a  high  rank  among  Amer 
ican  poets,  though  they  have  obtained  but 


little  hold  on  popular  sympathy.  "The 
Buccaneer"  is  remarkable  for  its  represen 
tation,  equally  clear,  of  external  objects 
and  internal  moods  of  thought  and  passion. 
In  one  sense  it  is  the  most  "objective"  of 
poems;  in  another,  the  most  "subjective." 
The  truth  would  seem  to  be  that  Dana's 
overpowering  conception  of  the  terrible  re 
ality  of  sin — a  conception  almost  as  strong 
as  that  which  was  fixed  in  the  imagination 
of  Jonathan  Edwards — interferes  with  the 
artistic  disposition  of  his  imagined  scenes 
and  characters,  and  touches  even  some  of 
his  most  enchanting  pictures  with  a  certain 
baleful  light.  An  uneasy  spiritual  discon 
tent,  a  moral  despondency,  is  evident  in  his 
verse  as  well  as  in  his  prose,  and  his  large 
powers  of  reason  and  imagination  seem 
never  to  have  been  harmoniously  blended 
in  his  artistic  creations.  Still,  he  remains 
one  of  the  prominences  of  our  literature, 
whether  considered  as  poet,  novelist,  critic, 
or  general  thinker. 

Washington  Allston,  the  greatest  of  Amer 
ican  painters,  was  also  a  graceful  poet. 
"  His  mind,"  says  Mr.  Dana,  "  seems  to  have 
in  it  the  glad  but  gentle  brightness  of  a 
star,  as  you  look  up  to  it,  sending  pure  in 
fluences  into  your  heart,  and  making  it  kind 
and  cheerful."  As  a  poet,  however,  he  is 
now  but  little  known.  As  a  prose  writer, 
his  lectures  on  Art,  and  especially  his  ro 
mance  of  Monaldi,  show  that  he  could  paint 
with  the  pen  as  well  as  with  the  brush.  It 
is  difficult  to  understand  why  Monaldi  has 
not  obtained  a  permanent  place  in  our  lit 
erature.  There  is  in  it  one  description  of  a 
picture  representing  the  visible  struggle  of 
a  soul  in  the  toils  of  sin  which,  in  intensity 
of  conception  and  passion,  exceeds  any  pic 
ture  he  ever  painted.  The  full  richness  of 
Allstou's  mind  was  probably  only  revealed 
to  those  who  for  years  enjoyed  the  inesti 
mable  privilege  of  hearing  him  converse. 
It  is  to  be  regretted  that  no  copious  notes 
were  taken  of  his  conversations.  Mrs. 
Jameson,  in  her  visit  to  the  United  States, 
was  so  surprised  to  witness  such  opulence 
of  thought  conveyed  in  such  seemingly 
careless  talk,  that  she  took  a  few  notes  of 
his  deep  and  beautiful  sayings.  It  would 
have  been  well  if  Dana  and  others  who 
from  day  to  day  and  year  to  year  saw  the 
clear  stream  of  conversation  flow  ever  on 


WASHINGTON  IRVING. 


363 


from  the  same  inexhaustible  mind,  had 
made  the  world  partakers  of  the  wealth 
with  which  they  were  enriched.  Allston, 
indeed,  was  one  of  those  men  whose  works 
are  hardly  the  measure  of  their  powers — 
who  can  talk  better  than  they  can  write, 
and  conceive  more  vividly  than  they  can 
execute. 

The  "revival"  of  American  literature  in 
New  York  dilfered  much  in  character  from 
its  revival  in  New  England.  In  New  York 
it  was  purely  human  in  tone ;  in  New  En 
gland  it  was  a  little  superhuman  in  tone. 
In  New  England  they  feared  the  devil ;  in 
New  York  they  dared  the  devil ;  and  the 
greatest  and  most  original  literary  dare 
devil  in  New  York  was  a  young  gentleman 
of  good  family,  whose  "schooling"  ended 
with  his  sixteenth  year,  who  had  rambled 
much  about  the  island  of  Manhattan,  who 
had  in  his  saunterings  gleaned  and  brooded 
over  many  Dutch  legends  of  an  elder  time, 
who  had  read  much  but  had  studied  little, 
who  possessed  fine  observation,  quick  intel 
ligence,  a  genial  disposition,  and  an  indo 
lently  original  genius  in  detecting  the  lu 
dicrous  side  of  things,  and  whose  name  was 
Washington  Irving.  After  some  prelimina 
ry  essays  in  humorous  literature,  his  genius 
arrived  at  the  age  of  indiscretion,  and  he 
produced,  at  the  age  of  twenty-six,  the  most 
deliciously  audacious  work  of  humor  in  our 
literature,  namely,  The  History  of  New  York, 
by  Diedrich  Knickerbocker.  It  is  said  of 
some  reformers  that  they  have  not  only 
opinions,  but  the  courage  of  their  opinions. 
It  may  be  said  of  Irving  that  he  not  only 
caricatured,  but  had  the  courage  of  his  car 
icatures.  The  persons  whom  he  covered 
with  ridicule  were  the  ancestors  of  the  lead 
ing  families  of  New  York,  and  these  families 
prided  themselves  on  their  descent.  Aft 
er  the  publication  of  such  a  book  he  could 
hardly  enter  the  "best  society"  of  New  York, 
to  which  he  naturally  belonged,  without 
running  the  risk  of  being  insulted,  espe 
cially  by  the  elderly  women  of  fashion ;  but 
he  conquered  their  prejudices  by  the  same 
grace  and  geniality  of  manner,  by  the  same 
unmistakable  tokens  that  he  was  an  inborn 
gentleman,  through  which  he  afterward  won 
his  way  into  the  first  society  of  England, 
France,  Germany,  Italy,  and  Spain.  Still, 
the  promise  of  Knickerbocker  \vas  not  ful 


filled.  That  book,  if  considered  as  an  imi 
tation  at  all,  was  an  imitation  of  Rabelais, 
or  Swift,  or  of  any  author  in  any  language 
who  had  shown  an  independence  of  all  con 
vention,  who  did  not  hesitate  to  commit  in 
decorums,  and  who  laughed  at  all  the  regal 
ities  of  the  world.  The  author  lived  long 
enough  to  be  called  a  timid  imitator  of  Ad- 
dison  and  Goldsmith.  In  fact,  he  imitated 
nobody.  His  genius,  at  first  riotous  and 
unrestrained,  became  tamed  and  regulated 
by  a  larger  intercourse  with  the  world,  by 
the  saddening  experience  of  life,  and  by  the 
gradual  development  of  some  deep  senti 
ments  which  held  in  check  the  audacities 
of  his  wit  and  humor.  But  even  in  the  por 
tions  of  The  Sketch-Book  relating  to  England 
it  will  be  seen  that  his  favorite  authors  be 
longed  rather  to  the  age  of  Elizabeth  than 
to  the  age  of  Anne.  In  Bracebridge  Hall 
there  is  one  chapter  called  "  The  Rookery," 
which  in  exquisitely  poetic  humor  is  hardly 
equaled  by  the  best  productions  of  the  au- 
'thors  he  is  said  to  have  made  his  models. 
That  he  possessed  essential  humor  and  pa 
thos,  is  proved  by  the  warm  admiration  he 
excited  in  such  masters  of  humor  and  pathos 
as  Scott  and  Dickens ;  and  style  is  but  a 
secondary  consideration  when  it  expresses 
vital  qualities  of  genius.  If  he  subordinated 
energy  to  elegance,  he  did  it,  not  because 
he  had  the  ignoble  ambition  to  be  ranked 
as  "  a  fine  writer,"  but  because  he  was  free 
from  the  ambition,  equally  ignoble,  of  sim 
ulating  a  passion  which  he  did  not  feel. 
The  period  which  elapsed  between  the  pub 
lication  of  Knickerbocker's  history  and  The 
Sketch-Book  was  ten  years.  During  this 
time  his  mind  acquired  the  habit  of  tran 
quilly  contemplating  the  objects  which  filled 
his  imagination,  and  what  it  lost  in  sponta 
neous  vigor  it  gained  in  sureness  of  insight 
and  completeness  of  representation.  Eip 
Van  Winkle  and  The  Legend  of  Sleepy  Hollow 
have  not  the  humorous  inspiration  of  some 
passages  in  Knickerbocker,  but  perhaps  they 
give  more  permanent  delight,  for  the  scenes 
and  characters  are  so  harmonized  that  they 
have  the  effect  of  a  picture,  in  which  all 
the  parts  combine  to  produce  one  charming 
whole.  Besides,  Irving  is  one  of  those  ex 
ceptional  authors  who  are  regarded  by  their 
readers  as  personal  friends,  and  the  felicity 
of  nature  by  which  he  obtained  this  dis- 


364 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


tiuction  was  expressed  in  that  amenity,  that 
amiability  of  tone,  which  some  of  his  au 
stere  critics  have  called  elegant  feebleness. 
As  a  biographer  and  historian,  his  Life  of 
Columbus  and  his  Life  of  Washington  have 
iudissolubly  connected  his  name  with  the 
discoverer  of  the  American  continent  and 
the  champion  of  the  liberties  of  his  country. 
In  The  Chronicle  of  the  Conquest  of  Granada 
and  The  Alhambra  he  occupies  a  unique  po 
sition  among  those  writers  of  fiction  who 
have  based  fiction  on  a  laborious  investiga 
tion  into  the  facts  of  history.  His  reputa 
tion  is  not  local,  but  is  recognized  by  all 
cultivated  people  who  speak  the  English 
language.  If  Great  Britain  established  an 
English  intellectual  colony  in  the  United 
States,  such  men  as  Irving  and  Cooper  may 
be  said  to  have  retorted  by  establishing  an 
American  intellectual  colony  in  England. 

James  Fenimore  Cooper  was  substantially 
a  New  Yorker,  though  accidentally  born  (in 
1789)  in  New  Jersey.  He  entered  Yale  Col 
lege  in  1802,  and,  three  years  after,  left  it 
without  graduating,  having  obtained  a  mid 
shipman's  warrant  in  the  United  States 
navy.  He  remained  in  the  naval  service 
for  six  years.  In  1811  he  married,  and  in 
1821  began  a  somewhat  memorable  literary 
career  by  the  publication  of  a  novel  of  En 
glish  life,  called  Precaution,  which  failed  to 
attract  much  attention.  In  the  same  year, 
however,  he  published  another  novel,  rela 
ting  to  the  Revolutionary  period  of  our  his 
tory,  called  The  Spy,  and  rose  at  once  to  the 
position  of  a  power  of  the  first  class  in  our 
literature.  The  novels  which  immediately 
followed  did,  on  the  whole,  increase  his  rep 
utation  ;  and  after  the  publication  of  The 
lied  Rover,  in  1827,  his  works  were  not  only 
eagerly  welcomed  by  his  countrymen,  but 
•were  translated  into  almost  all  the  lan 
guages  of  Europe.  Indeed,  it  seemed  at 
one  time  that  Cooper's  fame  was  co-exten 
sive  with  American  commerce.  The  novels 
were  intensely  American  in  spirit,  and  in 
tensely  American  in  scenery  and  characters ; 
but  they  were  also  found  to  contain  in  them 
something  which  appealed  to  human  nature 
every  where.  Much  of  their  popularity  was 
doubtless  due  to  Cooper's  vivid  presentation 
of  the  wildest  aspects  of  nature  in  a  com 
paratively  new  country,  and  his  creation  of 
characters  corresponding  to  their  physical 


environment ;  but  the  essential  influence  he 
exerted  is  to  be  referred  to  the  pleasure  all 
men  experience  in  the  kindling  exhibition 
of  man  as  an  active  being.  No  Hamlets,  or 
Werthers,  or  Rends,  or  Childe  Harolds  were 
allowed  to  tenant  his  woods  or  appear  on 
his  quarter-decks.  Will,  and  the  trained 
sagacity  and  experience  directing  will,  were 
the  invigorating  elements  of  character 
which  he  selected  for  romantic  treatment. 
Whether  the  scene  be  laid  in  the  primitive 
forest  or  on  the  ocean,  his  men  are  always 
struggling  with  each  other  or  with  the 
forces  of  nature.  This  primal  quality  of 
robust  manhood  all  men  understand,  and  it 
shines  triumphantly  through  the  interpos 
ing  fogs  of  French,  German,  Italian,  and 
Russian  translations.  A  physician  of  the 
mind  could  hardly  prescribe  a  more  efficient 
tonic  for  weak  and  sentimental  natures  than 
a  daily  diet  made  up  of  the  most  bracing 
passages  in  the  novels  of  Cooper. 

Another  characteristic  of  Cooper,  which 
makes  him  universally  acceptable,  is  his 
closeness  to  nature.  He  agrees  with  Words 
worth  in  this,  that  in  all  his  descriptions 
of  natural  objects  he  indicates  that  he  and 
nature  are  familiar  acquaintances,  and,  as 
Dana  says,  have  "talked  together."  He 
takes  nothing  at  second-hand.  If  brought 
before  a  justice  of  the  peace,  he  could  sol 
emnly  swear  to  the  exact  truth  of  his  rep 
resentations  without  running  any  risk  of 
being  prosecuted  for  perjury.  Cooper  as 
well  as  Wordsworth  took  nature,  as  it  were, 
at  first-hand,  the  perceiving  mind  coming 
into  direct  contact  with  the  thing  per 
ceived  ;  but  Wordsworth  primarily  con 
templated  nature  as  the  divinely  appoint 
ed  food  for  the  nourishment  of  the  spirit 
that  meditates,  while  Cooper  felt  its  power 
as  a  stimulus  to  the  spirit  that  acts.  No 
two  minds  could,  in  many  respects,  be  more 
different,  yet  both  agree  in  the  instinctive 
sagacity  which  detects  the  heroic  under  the 
guise  of  the  homely.  The  greatest  creation 
of  Cooper  is  the  hunter  and  trapper,  Leath- 
erstockiug,  who  appears  in  five  of  his  best 
novels,  namely,  The  Pioneers,  The  Last  of  the 
Mohicans,  The  Prairie,  The  Pathfinder,  and 
TheDeerslayer,  and  who  is  unmistakably  the 
life  of  each.  The  simplicity,  sagacity,  and 
intrepidity  of  this  man  of  the  woods,  his 
quaint  sylvan  piety  and  humane  feeling, 


JAMES  FENIMORE  COOPER. 


365 


the  perfect  harmony  established  between 
his  will  and  reason,  his  effectiveness  equal 
to  all  occasions,  and  his  determination  to 
dwell  on  those  vanishing  points  of  civiliza 
tion  which  faintly  mark  the  domain  of  the 
settler  from  that  of  the  savage,  altogether 
combine  to  make  up  a  character  which  is 
admired  equally  in  log-cabins  and  palaces. 
Wordsworth,  in  one  of  the  most  exquisite 
of  his  minor  poems  —  "  Three  Years  She 
grew  in  Sun  and  Shower" — has  traced  the 
process  of  nature  in  making  "  a  lady  of  her 
own."  Certainly  Leatherstockiug  might  be 
quoted  as  a  successful  attempt  of  the  same 
austere  goddess  to  make,  out  of  ruder  mate 
rials,  a  man  of  "  her  own." 

Cooper  lived  to  write  thirty-four  novels, 
the  merits  of  which  are  so  unequal  that  at 
times  we  are  puzzled  to  conceive  of  them  as 
the  products  of  one  mind.  His  failures  are 
not  to  be  referred  to  that  decline  of  power 
which  accompanies  increasing  age,  for  The 
Deerslayer,  one  of  his  best  novels,  was  writ 
ten  six  years  after  his  worst  novel,  The  Man 
ikins.  He  often  failed,  early  as  well  as  late 
in  his  career,  not  because  his  faculties  were 
impaired,  but  because  they  were  misdirect 
ed.  One  of  the  secrets  of  his  fascination 
was  also  one  of  the  causes  of  his  frequent 
dullness.  He  equaled  De  Foe  in  the  art  of 
giving  reality  to  romance  by  the  dextrous 
accumulation  and  management  of  details. 
In  his  two  great  sea  novels,  The  Pilot  and 
The  Eed  Rover,  the  important  events  are 
preceded  by  a  large  number  of  minor  inci 
dents,  each  of  which  promises  to  be  an 
event.  The  rocks  which  the  vessel  by  cun 
ning  seamanship  escapes  are  described  as 
minutely  as  the  rocks  on  which  she  is  final 
ly  wrecked.  It  is  difficult  for  the  reader  to 
conceive  that  he  is  not  reading  an  account 
of  an  actual  occurrence.  He  unconsciously 
transports  himself  to  the  deck  of  the  ship, 
participates  in  all  the  hopes  and  fears  of  the 
crew,  thanks  God  when  tile  keel  just  grazes 
a  ledge  without  being  seriously  injured,  and 
finally  goes  down  into  the  "hell  of  waters" 
in  company  with  his  imagined  associates. 
In  such  scenes  the  imagination  of  the  read 
er  is  so  excited  that  he  has  no  notion  wheth 
er  the  writer's  style  is  good  or  bad.  He  is 
made  by  some  magic  of  words  to  see,  feel, 
realize,  the  situation ;  the  verbal  method  by 
which  the  miracle  is  wrought  he  entirely 


ignores  or  overlooks.  But  then  the  prelim 
inaries  to  these  grand  scenes  which  exhibit 
intelligent  man  in  a  life-and-death  contest 
with  the  unintelligent  forces  of  nature — how 
tiresome  they  often  are !  The  early  chap 
ters  of  The  Eed  Rover,  for  example,  are  dull 
beyond  expression.  The  author's  fondness 
for  detail  trespasses  on  all  the  reserved  fund 
of  human  patience.  It  is  only  because  "  ex 
pectation  sits  i'  the  air"  that  we  tolerate  his 
tediousness.  If  we  desire  to  witness  the 
conduct  of  the  man-of-war  in  the  tempest 
and  the  battle,  we  must  first  submit  to  fol 
low  all  the  cumbersome  details  by  which 
she  is  slowly  detached  from  the  dock  and 
laboriously  piloted  into  the  open  sea.  There 
is  more  "  padding"  in  Cooper's  novels  than  in 
those  of  any  author  who  can  make  any  pre 
tensions  to  rival  him.  His  representative 
sailors,  Long  Tom  Coffin,  Tom  Tiller,  Night 
ingale,  Bolthrope,  Trysail,  Bob  Yarn,  not  to 
mention  others,  are  admirable  as  characters, 
but  they  are  allowed  to  inflict  too  much  of 
their  practical  wisdom  on  the  reader.  In 
fact,  it  is  a  great  misfortune,  as  it  regards 
the  permanent  fame  of  Cooper,  that  he  wrote 
one-third,  at  least,  of  his  novels  at  all,  and 
that  he  did  not  condense  the  other  two- 
thirds  into  a  third  of  their  present  length. 

Cooper,  on  his  return  from  Europe  in 
1833  or  1834,  published  a  series  of  novels 
satirizing  what  he  considered  the  faults  and 
vices  of  his  countrymen.  The  novels  have 
little  literary  merit,  but  they  afforded  an 
excellent  opportunity  to  exhibit  the  inde 
pendence,  intrepidity,  and  integrity  of  the 
author's  character.  It  is  a  pity  he  ever 
wrote  them ;  still,  they  proved  that  he  be 
came  a  bad  novelist  in  order  to  perform 
what  he  deemed  to  be  the  duties  of  a  good 
citizen.  Indeed,  as  a  brave,  high-spirited, 
noble-minded  man,  somewhat  too  proud  and 
dogmatic,  but  thoroughly  honest,  he  was 
ever  on  a  level  with  the  best  characters  in 
his  best  works. 

The  names  of  Joseph  Rodman  Drake  and 
Fitz- Greene  Halleck  are  connected,  not 
merely  by  personal  friendship,  but  by  part 
nership  in  poetry.  Both  were  born  in  the 
same  year  (1795),  but  Drake  died  in  1820, 
while  Halleck  survived  to  1867.  Halleck, 
in  strength  of  constitution  as  well  as  in 
power  of  mind,  was  much  superior  to  his 
fragile  companion ;  but  Drake  had  a  real  en- 


366 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


thusiasm  for  poetry,  which  Halleck,  though 
a  poet,  did  not  possess.  Drake's  "  Culprit 
Fay"  is  an  original  American  poem,  formed 
out  of  materials  collected  from  .the  scenery 
and  traditions  of  the  classical  American 
river,  the  Hudson,  but  it  was  too  hastily 
written  to  do  justice  to  the  fancy  by  which 
it  was  conceived.  His  "  Ode  on  the  Ameri 
can  Flag"  derives  its  chief  strength  from  the 
resounding  quatrain  by  which  it  is  closed, 
and  these  four  lines  were  contributed  by 
Halleck.  Indeed,  Drake  is,  on  the  whole, 
less  remembered  by  his  own  poems  than  by 
the  beautiful  tribute  which  Halleck  made 
to  his  memory.  They  were  coadjutors  in  the 
composition  of  the  "  Croaker  Papers,"  orig 
inally  contributed  to  the  New  York  Evening 
Post;  but  the  superiority  of  Halleck  to  his 
friend  is  manifest  at  the  first  glance.  One 
of  the  puzzles  which  arrest  the  attention 
of  a  historian  of  American  literature  is  to 
account  for  the  strange  indifference  of  Hal 
leck  to  exercise  often  the  faculty  which  on 
occasions  he  showed  he  possessed  in  super 
abundance.  All  the  subjects  he  attempted 
— the  "  Croaker  Papers,"  "  Fanny,"  "  Burns," 
"  Red  Jacket,"  "  Aluwick  Castle,"  "  Connect 
icut,"  the  magnificent  heroic  ode,  "  Marco 
Bozzaris" — show  a  complete  artistic  mastery 
of  the  resources  of  poetic  expression,  wheth 
er  his  theme  be  gay  or  grave,  or  compound 
ed  of  the  two.  His  extravagant  admiration 
of  Campbell  was  founded  on  Campbell's  ad 
mirable  power  of  compression.  Halleck 
thought  that  Byron  was  a  mere  rhetorician 
in  comparison  with  his  favorite  poet.  Yet 
it  is  evident  to  a  critical  reader  that  a  good 
deal  of  Campbell's  compactness  is  due  to  a 
studied  artifice  of  rhythm  and  rhyme,  while 
Halleck  seemingly  writes  in  verse  as  if  he 
were  not  trammeled  by  its  laws ;  and  his 
rhymes  naturally  recur  without  suggesting 
to  the  reader  that  his  condensation  of 
thought  and  feeling  is  at  all  affected  by 
the  necessity  of  rhyming.  Prose  has  rarely 
been  written  with  more  careless  ease  and 
more  melodious  compactness  than  Halleck 
has  shown  in  writing  ver^e.  The  wonder  is 
that  with  this  conscious  command  of  bend 
ing  verse  into  the  brief  expression  of  all  the 
moods  of  his  mind,  he  should  have  written 
so  little.  The  only  explanation  is  to  be 
found  in  his  skepticism  as  to  the  vital  real 
ity  of  those  profound  states  of  conscious 


ness  which  inspire  poets  of  less  imaginative 
faculty  than  he  possessed  to  incessant  ac 
tivity.  He  was  among  poets  what  Thacke 
ray  is  among  novelists.  Being  the  well-paid 
clerk  and  man  of  business  of  a  millionaire, 
his  grand  talent  was  not  stung  into  exertion 
by  necessity.  Though  he  lived  to  the  age 
of  seventy-two,  he  allowed  year  after  year 
to  pass  without  any  exercise  of  his  genius. 
"  What's  the  use  ?" — that  was  the  deaden 
ing  maxim  which  struck  his  poetic  faculties 
with  paralysis.  Yet  what  he  has  written, 
though  very  small  in  amount,  belongs  to  the 
most  precious  treasures  of  our  poetical  liter 
ature.  What  he  might  have  written,  had  he 
so  chosen,  would  have  raised  him  to  a  rank 
among  our  first  men  of  letters,  which  he 
does  not  at  present  hold. 

James  K.  Paulding  (1778-1860)  completes 
this  peculiar  group  of  New  York  authors. 
He  was  connected  with  Irving  in  the  pro 
duction  of  the  "  Salmagundi"  essays,  and 
was  at  one  time  prominent  as  a  satirist,  hu 
morist,  and  novelist.  Most  of  his  writings 
are  now  forgotten,  though  they  evinced  a 
somewhat  strong  though  coarse  vein  of  hu 
mor,  which  was  not  without  its  effect  at  the 
period  when  its  local  and  political  allusions 
and  personalities  were  understood.  A  scene 
in  one  of  his  novels  indicates  the  kind  of 
comicality  in  which  he  excelled.  The  house 
of  an  old  reprobate  situated  on  the  bank  of 
a  river  is  carried  away  by  a  freshet.  In  the 
agony  of  his  fear  he  strives  to  recall  some 
prayer  which  he  learned  when  a  child ;  but 
as  he  rushes  distractedly  up  and  down  the 
stairs  of  his  floating  mansion,  he  can  only 
remember  the  first  line  of  the  baby's  hymn, 
"  Now  I  lay  me  down  to  sleep,"  which  he  in 
cessantly  repeats  as  he  runs. 

While  these  New  York  essayists,  humor 
ists,  and  novelists  were  laughing  at  the  New 
Englander  as  a  Puritan  and  satirizing  him 
as  a  Yankee,  there  was  a  peculiar  revival  of 
spiritual  sentiment  in  New  England,  which 
made  its  mark  in  general  as  well  as  in  the 
ological  literature.  In  the  very  home  of 
Puritanism  there  was  going  on  a  reaction 
against  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  Cal 
vinism  and  the  inexorable  faith  of  the  Pil 
grim  Fathers.  This  reaction  began  before 
the  Revolutionary  war,  and  continued  after 
it.  Jonathan  Mayhew,  the  pastor  of  the 
West  Church,  of  Boston,  was  not  only  a  flam- 


CHAINING  AND  NORTON. 


ing  defender  of  the  political  rights  of  the 
colonies,  but  his  sermons  also  teemed  with 
theological  heresies.  He  rebelled  against 
King  Calvin  as  well  as  against  King  George. 
Probably  Paine's  Age  of  Eeason  had  after 
ward  some  effect  in  inducing  prominent  Bos 
ton  clergymen,  reputed  orthodox,  to  silently 
drop  from  their  preaching  the  leading  dog 
mas  of  the  accredited  creed.  With  such 
accomplished  ministers  as  Freeman,  Buck- 
minster,  Thacher,  and  their  followers,  ser 
monizing  became  more  and  more  a  form  of 
moralizing,  and  the  "scheme  of  salvation" 
was  ignored  or  overlooked  in  the  emphasis 
laid  on  the  performance  of  practical  duties. 
What  would  now  be  called  rationalism,  ei 
ther  expressed  or  implied,  seemed  to  threat 
en  the  old  orthodox  faith  with  destruction 
by  the  subtle  process  of  sapping  and  under 
mining  without  directly  assailing  it.  The 
sturdy  Calvinists  were  at  first  puzzled  what 
to  do,  as  the  new  heresiarchs  did  not  so 
much  offend  by  what  they  preached  as  by 
what  they  omitted  to  preach ;  but  they  at 
last  forced  those  who  were  Unitarians  in 
opinion  to  become  Unitarians  in  profession, 
and  thus  what  was  intended  as  a  peaceful 
evolution  of  religious  faith  was  compelled 
to  assume  the  character  of  a  revolutionary 
protest  against  the  generally  received  dog 
mas  of  the  Christian  churches.  The  two 
men  prominent  in  this  insurrection  against 
ancestral  orthodoxy  were  William  Ellery 
Channing  and  Andrews  Norton.  Channing 
was  a  pious  humanitarian ;  Norton  was  an 
accomplished  Biblical  scholar.  Channing 
assailed  Calvinism  because,  in  his  opinion, 
it  falsified  all  right  notions  of  God;  Nor 
ton,  because  it  falsified  the  true  interpreta 
tion  of  the  Word  of  God.  Channing's  soul 
was  filled  with  the  idea  of  the  dignity  of 
human  nature,  which,  he  thought,  Calvin 
ism  degraded ;  Norton's  mind  resented  what 
he  considered  the  illogical  combination  of 
Scripture  texts  to  sustain  an  intolerable 
theological  theory.  Channing  delighted  to 
portray  the  felicities  of  a  heavenly  frame  of 
mind ;  Norton  delighted  to  exhibit  the  felic 
ities  of  accurate  exegesis.  Both  were  mas 
ters  of  style ;  but  Channing  used  his  rheto 
ric  to  prove  that  the  doctrines  of  Calvinism 
were  abhorrent  to  the  God-given  moral  na 
ture  of  man;  Norton  employed  his  somewhat 
dry  and  bleak  but  singularly  lucid  powers  of 


statement,  exposition,  and  logic  to  show  that 
his  opponents  were  deficient  in  scholarship 
and  sophistical  in  argumentation.  Chan- 
ning's  literary  reputation,  which  overleaped 
all  the  boundaries  of  his  sect,  was  primarily 
due  to  his  essay  on  Milton  ;  but  Norton 
could  not  endure  the  theological  system  on 
which  "  Paradise  Lost"  was  based,  and  there 
fore  laughed  at  the  poem.  Norton  had  lit 
tle  of  that  imaginative  sympathy  with  the 
mass  of  mankind  for  which  Chanuing  was 
pre-eminently  distinguished.  Any  body 
who  has  mingled  much  with  Unitarian  di 
vines  must  have  heard  their  esoteric  pleas 
antry  as  to  what  these  two  redoubtable 
champions  of  the  Unitarian  faith  would  say 
when  they  were  transferred  from  earth  to 
heaven.  Channiug,  as  he  looks  upon  the 
bright  rows  of  the  celestial  society,  raptur 
ously  declares,  "This  gives  me  a  new  idea 
of  the  dignity  of  human  nature  ;"  Norton, 
with  a  certain  patrician  exclusiveness  born 
of  scholarly  tastes,  folds  his  hands,  and  qui 
etly  says  to  St.  Peter  or  St.  Paul,  "  Eather  a 
miscellaneous  assemblage."  But  on  earth 
they  worked  together,  each  after  his  gifts, 
to  draw  out  all  the  resources  of  sentiment, 
scholarship,  and  reasoning  possessed  by  such 
able  opponents  as  they  found  in  Stuart, 
Woods,  and  Park.  There  can  be  no  doubt 
that  Calvinism,  in  its  modified  Hopkinsian 
form,  gained  increased  power  by  the  whole 
some  shaking  which  Unitariauism  gave  it ; 
for  this  shaking  kindled  the  zeal,  sharpened 
the  intellects,  stimulated  the  mental  activ 
ity  of  every  professor  of  the  evangelical 
faith.  Neither  Channing  nor  Norton,  in  as 
sailing  the  statements  in  which  the  Calvin- 
istic  creed  was  mechanically  expressed,  ex 
hibited  an  interior  view  of  the  creed  as  it 
vitally  existed  in  the  souls  of  Calvinists. 
Channing,  however,  was  still  the  legitimate 
spiritual  successor  of  Jonathan  Edwards  in 
affirming,  with  new  emphasis,  the  funda 
mental  doctrine  of  Christianity,  that  God  is 
in  direct  communication  with  the  souls  of 
His  creatures.  The  difference  is  that  Ed 
wards  holds  the  doors  of  communication  so 
nearly  closed  that  only  the  elect  can  pass  in ; 
Channing  throws  them  wide  open,  and  in 
vites  every  body  to  be  illumined  in  thought 
and  vitalized  in  will  by  the  ever-fresh  out 
pourings  of  celestial  light  and  warmth.  But 
Channing  wrote  on  human  nature  as  though 


368 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


the  world  was  tenanted  by  actual  or  possible 
Chanuings,  who  possessed  his  exceptional 
delicacy  of  spiritual  perception,  and  his  ex 
ceptional  exemption  from  the  temptations 
of  practical  life.  He  was,  as  far  as  a  con 
stant  contemplation  of  the  Divine  perfec 
tions  was  concerned,  a  meditative  saint,  and 
had  he  belonged  to  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church,  he  probably  would,  on  the  ground 
of  his  spiritual  gifts,  have  been  eventually 
canonized.  Still,  the  seductive  subjectivity 
of  his  holy  outlook  on  nature  and  human 
life  tended  to  make  the  individual  conscious 
ness  of  what  was  just  and  good  the  measure 
of  Divine  justice  and  goodness ;  and  in  some 
mediocre  minds,  which  his  religious  genius 
magnetized,  this  tendency  brought  forth 
distressing  specimens  of  spiritual  sentimen 
tality  and  pious  pertness.  The  most  curious 
result,  however,  of  Channing's  teachings 
was  the  swift  way  in  which  his  disciples 
overleaped  the  limitations  set  by  their  mas 
ter.  In  the  course  of  a  single  generation 
some  of  the  most  vigorous  minds  among 
the  Unitarians,  practicing  the  freedom  of 
thought  which  he  inculcated  as  a  duty,  in 
dulged  in  theological  audacities  of  which 
he  never  dreamed.  He  was  the  intellectual 
father  of  Theodore  Parker,  and  the  intel 
lectual  grandfather  of  Octavius  B.  Froth- 
ingham.  Parker  and  Frothingham,  both 
humanitarians,  but  students  also  of  the  ad 
vanced  school  of  critical  theologians,  soon 
made  Channing's  heresies  tame  when  com 
pared  with  the  heresies  they  promulgated. 
The  Free  Religionists  are  the  legitimate 
progeny  of  Channing. 

But,  in  the  interim,  the  theologian  and 
preacher  who  came  nearest  to  Channing  in 
the  geniality  and  largeness  of  his  nature, 
and  the  persuasiveness  with  which  he  en 
forced  what  may  be  called  the  conservative 
tenets  of  Unitarianism,  was  Orville  Dewey,  a 
man  whose  mind  was  fertile,  whose  religious 
experience  was  deep,  and  who  brought  from 
the  Calvinism  in  which  he  had  been  trained 
an  interior  knowledge  of  the  system  which 
he  early  rejected.  He  had  a  profound  sense 
not  only  of  the  dignity  of  human  nature,  but 
of  the  dignity  of  human  life.  In  idealizing 
human  life  he  must  still  be  considered  as 
giving  some  fresh  and  new  interpretations 
of  it,  and  his  discourses  form,  like  Chan 
ning's,  an  addition  to  American  literature, 


as  well  as  a  contribution  to  the  theology  of 
Unitarianism.  He  defended  men  from  the 
assaults  of  Calviuists,  as  Channing  had  de 
fended  Man.  Carlyle  speaks  somewhere  of 
"  this  dog-hole  of  a  world ;"  Dewey  consid 
ered  it,  with  all  its  errors  and  horrors,  as  a 
good  world  on  the  whole,  and  as  Avorthy  of 
the  Divine  beneficence. 

The  work  which  may  be  said  to  have 
bridged  over  the  space  which  separated 
Chanuing  from  Theodore  Parker  was  Aca 
demical  Lectures  on  the  Jewish  Scriptures  and 
Antiquities,  by  Dr.  John  G.  Palfrey,  Professor 
of  Biblical  Literature  in  the  University  of 
Cambridge,  published  in  1838,  but  which 
had  doubtless  influenced  the  students  who 
had  listened  to  them  many  years  before 
their  publication.  This  book  is  noticeable 
for  the  scholarly  method  by  which  most  of 
the  miracles  recorded  in  the  Old  Testament 
are  explained  on  natural  principles,  and  the 
calm,  almost  prim  and  polite,  exclusion  of 
miracle  from  the  Hebrew  Scriptures.  Ac 
cepting  miracle  when  he  considered  it  nec 
essary,  Dr.  Palfrey  broke  the  spell  and  charm, 
at  least  among  Unitarian  students  of  theol 
ogy,  which  separated  the  Hebrew  Bible  from 
other  great  works  which  expressed  the  re 
ligious  mind  of  the  human  race ;  and  his 
Academical  Lectures  remain  as  a  palpable 
landmark  in  the  progress  of  American  ra 
tionalism. 

But  probably  the  greatest  literary  result 
of  the  Unitarian  revolt  was  the  appearance 
in  our  literature  of  such  a  phenomenon  as 
Ralph  Waldo  Emerson.  He  came  from  a 
race  of  clergymen ;  doubtless  much  of  his 
elevation  of  character  and  austere  sense  of 
the  grandeur  of  the  moral  sentiment  is  his 
by  inheritance ;  but  after  entering  the  min 
istry  he  soon  found  that  even  Unitarianism 
was  a  limitation  of  his  intellectual  inde 
pendence  to  which  he  could  not  submit; 
and,  in  the  homely  New  England  phrase, 
"  he  set  up  on  his  account,"  responsible  for 
nobody,  and  not  responsible  to  any  body. 
His  radicalism  penetrated  to  the  very  root 
of  dissent,  for  it  was  founded  on  the  idea 
that  in  all  organizations,  social,  political, 
and  religious,  there  must  be  an  element 
which  checks  the  free  exercise  of  individual 
thought ;  and  the  free  exercise  of  his  indi 
vidual  thinking  he  determined  should  be 
controlled  by  nothing  instituted  and  au- 


RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON. 


369 


thoritative  on  the  planet.  Descartes  him 
self  did  not  begin  his  philosophizing  with 
a  more  complete  self-emancipation  from  all 
the  opinions  generally  accepted  by  man 
kind.  But  Descartes  was  a  reasoner ;  Em 
erson  is  a  seer  and  a  poet ;  and  he  was  the 
last  man  to  attempt  to  overthrow  accredit 
ed  systems  in  order  to  substitute  for  them 
a  dogmatic  system  of  his  own.  In  his  view 
of  the  duty  of  "  man  thinking,"  this  course 
would  have  been  to  violate  his  fundamental 
principle,  which  was  that  nobody  "could 
lay  copyright  on  the  world ;"  that  no  theo 
ry  could  include  nature  ;  that  the  greatest 
thinker  and  discoverer  could  only  add  a 
few  items  of  information  to  what  the  hu 
man  mind  had  previously  won  from  "  the 
vast  and  formless  infinite ;"  and  that  the 
true  work  of  a  scholar  was  not  to  inclose 
the  field  of  matter  and  mind  by  a  system 
which  encircled  it,  but  to  extend  our  knowl 
edge  in  straight  lines,  leading  from  the  van 
ishing  points  of  positive  knowledge  into  the 
illimitable  unknown  spaces  beyond.  Emer 
son's  peculiar  sphere  was  psychology.  By 
a  certain  felicity  of  his  nature  he  was  a 
non-combatant ;  indifferent  to  logic,  he  sup 
pressed  all  the  processes  of  his  thinking, 
and  announced  its  results  in  affirmations ; 
and  none  of  the  asperities  which  commonly 
afflict  the  apostles  of  dissent  ever  ruffled 
the  serene  spirit  of  this  universal  dissenter. 
He  could  never  be  seduced  into  controversy. 
He  was  assailed  both  as  an  atheist  and  as  a 
pantheist ;  as  a  writer  so  obscure  that  no 
body  could  understand  what  he  meant,  and 
also  as  a  mere  verbal  trickster,  whose  only 
talent  consisted  in  vivifying  commonplaces, 
or  in  converting,  by  inversion,  stale  truisms 
into  brilliant  paradoxes ;  and  all  these  va 
rying  charges  had  only  the  effect  of  lighting 
up  his  face  with  that  queer,  quizzical,  in 
scrutable  smile,  that  amused  surprise  at  the 
misconceptions  of  the  people  who  attacked 
him,  which  is  noticeable  in  all  portraits  and 
photographs  of  his  somewhat  enigmatical 
countenance.  His  method  was  very  simple 
and  very  hard.  It  consisted  in  growing  up 
to  a  level  with  the  spiritual  objects  he  per 
ceived,  and  his  elevation  of  thought  was 
thus  the  sign  and  accompaniment  of  a  cor 
responding  elevation  of  character.  In  his 
case,  as  in  the  case  of  Channing,  there  was 
an  unconscious  return  to  Jonathan  Ed- 
24 


wards,  and  to  all  the  great  divines  whose 
"souls  had  sight"  of  eternal  verities.  What 
the  orthodox  saints  called  the  Holy  Ghost, 
he,  without  endowing  it  with  personality, 
called  the  Over  Soul.  He  believed  with 
them  that  in  God  we  live  and  move  and 
have  our  being;  that  only  by  communica 
ting  with  this  Being  can  we  have  any  vital 
individuality  ;  and  that  the  record  of  a  com 
munication  with  Him  or  It  was  the  most 
valuable  of  all  contributions  to  literature, 
whether  theological  or  human.  The  no 
blest  passages  in  his  writings  are  those  in 
which  he  celebrates  this  august  and  gra 
cious  communion  of  the  Spirit  of  God  with 
the  soul  of  man ;  and  they  are  the  most  se 
rious,  solemn,  and  uplifting  passages  which 
can  perhaps  be  found  in  our  literature. 
Here  was  a  man  who  had  earned  the  right 
to  utter  these  noble  truths  by  patient  medi 
tation  and  clear  insight.  Carlyle  exclaim 
ed,  in  a  preface  to  an  English  edition  of  one 
of  Emerson's  later  volumes :  "  Here  comes 
our  brave  Emerson,  with  news  from  the  em 
pyrean  !"  That  phrase  exactly  hits  Emer 
son  as  a  transcendental  thinker.  His  in 
sights  were,  in  some  sense,  revelations ;  he 
could  "  gossip  on  the  eternal  politics ;"  and 
just  at  the  time  when  science,  relieved  from 
the  pressure  of  theology,  announced  mate 
rialistic  hypotheses  with  more  than  the  con 
fidence  with  which  the  bigots  of  theological 
creeds  had  heretofore  announced  their  dog 
mas,  this  serene  American  thinker  had  won 
his  way  into  all  the  centres  of  European 
intelligence,  and  delivered  his  quiet  protest 
against  every  hypothesis  which  put  in  peril 
the  spiritual  interests  of  humanity.  It  is 
curious  to  witness  the  process  by  which 
this  heresiarch  has  ended  in  giving  his  evi 
dence,  or  rather  his  experience,  that  God  is 
not  the  Unknowable  of  Herbert  Spencer, 
but  that,  however  infinitely  distant  He  may 
be  from  the  human  understanding,  He  is 
still  intimately  near  to  the  human  soul. 
And  Emerson  knows  by  experience  what 
the  word  soul  really  means ! 

"  Were  she  a  body,  how  could  she  remain 

Within  the  body,  which  is  less  than  she? 
Or  how  could  she  the  world's  great  shape  contain, 
And  in  our  narrow  breasts  contained  be? 

"All  bodies  are  confined  within  some  place, 
But.  she  all  place  within  herself  confines; 
All  bodies  have  their  measure  and  their  space, 
But  who  can  draw  the  will's  dimensive  lines?" 


370 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


In  an  unpublished  speech  at  a  celebra 
tion  of  Shakspeare's  birthday,  he  spoke  of 
Shakspeare  as  proving  to  us  that  "  the  soul 
of  man  is  deeper,  wider,  higher  than  the 
spaces  of  astronomy ;"  and  in  another  con 
nection  he  says  that  "a  man  of  thought 
must  feel  that  thought  is  the  parent  of  the 
universe,"  that  "  the  world  is  saturated  with 
deity  and  with  law." 

It  is  this  depth  of  spiritual  experience 
and  subtilty  of  spiritual  insight  which  dis 
tinguish  Emerson  from  all  other  Ameri 
can  authors,  and  make  him  an  elementary 
power  as  well  as  an  elementary  thinker. 
The  singular  attractiveness,  however,  of  his 
writings  comes  from  his  intense  perception 
of  Beauty,  both  in  its  abstract  quality  as 
the  "awful  loveliness"  which  such  poets 
as  Shelley  celebrated,  and  in  the  more  con 
crete  expression  by  which  it  fascinates  or 
dinary  minds.  His  imaginative  faculty, 
both  in  the  conception  and  creation  of 
beauty,  is  uucorrupted  by  any  morbid  sen 
timent.  His  vision  reaches  to  the  very 
sources  of  beauty — the  beauty  that  cheers. 
The  great  majority  even  of  eminent  poets 
are  "  saddest  when  they  sing."  They  con 
trast  life  with  the  beautiful  possibilities  of 
life  which  their  imaginations  suggest,  and 
though  their  discontent  with  the  actual 
may  inspire  by  the  energy  of  its  utterance, 
it  tends  also  to  depress  by  emphasizing  the 
impossibility  of  realizing  the  ideals  it  de 
picts.  But  the  perception  of  beauty  in  na 
ture  or  in  human  nature,  whether  it  be  the 
beauty  of  a  flower  or  of  a  soul,  makes  Em 
erson  joyous  and  glad ;  he  exults  in  cele 
brating  it,  and  he  communicates  to  his 
readers  his  own  ecstatic  mood.  He  has 
been  a  diligent  student  of  many  literatures 
and  many  religions ;  but  all  his  quotations 
from  them  show  that  he  rejects  every  thing 
in  his  manifold  readings  which  does  not 
tend  to  cheer,  invigorate,  and  elevate,  which 
is  not  nutritious  food  for  the  healthy  human 
soul.  If  he  is  morbid  in  any  thing,  it  is  in 
his  comical  hatred  of  all  forms  of  physical, 
mental,  and  moral  disease.  He  agrees  with 
Dr.  Johnson  in  declaring  that  "  every  man 
is  a  rascal  as  soon  as  he  is  sick."  "I  once 
asked,"  he  says,  "  a  clergyman  in  a  retired 
town  who  were  his  companions — what  men 
of  ability  he  saw.  He  replied  that  he  spent 
his  time  with  the  sick  and  the  dying.  I 


said  he  seemed  to  me  to  need  quite  other 
company,  and  all  the  more  that  he  had  this ; 
for  if  people  were  sick  and  dying  to  any  pur 
pose,  we  should  leave  all  and  go  to  them, 
but,  as  far  as  I  had  observed,  they  were  as 
frivolous  as  the  rest,  and  sometimes  much 
more  frivolous."  Indeed,  Emerson,  glorying 
in  his  own  grand  physical  and  moral  health, 
and  fundamentally  brave,  is  impatient  of 
all  the  weaknesses  of  humanity,  especially 
those  of  men  of  genius.  He  never  could  be 
made  to  recognize  the  genius  of  Shelley,  ex 
cept  in  a  few  poems,  because  he  was  dis 
gusted  with  the  wail  that  persistently  runs 
through  Shelley's  wonderfully  imaginative 
poetry.  In  his  taste,  as  in  his  own  practice 
as  a  writer,  he  is  a  stout  believer  in  the  de 
sirableness  and  efficacy  of  mental  tonics, 
and  a  severe  critic  of  the  literature  of  dis 
content  and  desperation.  He  looks  curious 
ly  on  while  a  poet  rages  against  destiny 
and  his  own  miseries,  and  puts  the  ironical 
query,  "  Why  so  hot,  my  little  man  ?"  His 
ideal  of  manhood  was  originally  derived 
from  the  consciousness  of  his  own  some 
what  haughty  individuality,  and  it  has  been 
fed  by  his  study  of  the  poetic  and  histor 
ic  records  of  persons  who  have  dared  to 
do  heroic  acts  and  dared  to  utter  heroic 
thoughts.  Beauty  is  never  absent  from  his 
celebration  of  these,  but  it  is  a  beauty  that 
never  enfeebles,  but  always  braces  and 
cheers. 

Take  the  six  or  eight  volumes  in  which 
Emerson's  genius  and  character  are  embod 
ied — that  is,  in  which  he  has  converted  truth 
into  life,  and  life  into  more  truth — and  you 
are  dazzled  on  every  page  by  his  superabun 
dance  of  compactly  expressed  reflection  and 
his  marvelous  command  of  all  the  resources 
of  imaginative  illustration.  Every  para 
graph  is  literally  "rammed  with  life."  A 
fortnight's  meditation  is  sometimes  con 
densed  in  a  sentence  of  a  couple  of  lines. 
Almost  every  word  bears  the  mark  of  delib 
erate  thought  in  its  selection.  The  most 
evanescent  and  elusive  spiritual  phenome 
na,  which  occasionally  flit  before  the  steady 
gaze  of  the  inner  eye  of  the  mind,  are  fixed 
in  expressions  which  have  the  solidity  of 
marble.  The  collection  of  these  separate 
insights  into  nature  and  human  life  he  iron 
ically  calls  an  essay ;  and  much  criticism 
has  been  wasted  in  showing  that  the  apho- 


THEODOEE  PARKER. 


371 


ristic  and  axiomatic  sentences  are  often  con 
nected  by  mere  juxtaposition  on  the  page, 
and  not  by  logical  relation  witb/each  other, 
and  that  at  the  end  we  have  no  perception 
of  a  series  of  thoughts  leading  up  to  a  clear 
idea  of  the  general  theme.  This  criticism 
is  just ;  but  in  reading  Emerson  we  have 
not  to  do  with  such  economists  of  thought 
as  Addison,  Johnson,  and  Goldsmith — with 
the  writers  of  the  Spectator,  the  Rambler,  and 
the  Citizen  of  the  World.  Emerson's  so-called 
essay  sparkles  with  sentences  which  might 
be  made  the  texts  for  numerous  ordinary 
essays  ;  and  his  general  title,  it  may  be  add 
ed,  is  apt  to  be  misleading.  He  is  fragment 
ary  in  composition  because  he  is  a  fanatic 
for  compactness ;  and  every  paragraph,  some 
times  every  sentence,  is  a  record  of  an  in 
sight.  Hence  comes  the  impression  that  his 
sentences  are  huddled  together  rather  than 
artistically  disposed.  Still,  with  all  this 
lack  of  logical  order,  he  has  the  immense 
advantage  of  suggesting  something  new  to 
the  diligent  reader  after  he  has  read  him 
for  the  fiftieth  time. 

It  is  also  to  be  said  of  Emerson  that  he  is 
one  of  the  wittiest  and  most  practical  as 
well  as  one  of  the  profoundest  of  American 
writers,  that  his  wit,  exercised  on  the  ordi 
nary  affairs  of  life,  is  the  very  embodiment 
of  brilliant  good  sense,  that  he  sometimes 
rivals  Franklin  in  humorous  insight,  and 
that  both  his  wit  and  humor  obey  that  law 
of  beauty  which  governs  every  other  exer 
cise  of  his  peculiar  mind.  He  has  many  de 
fects  and  eccentricities  exasperating  to  the 
critic  who  demands  symmetry  in  the  men 
tal  constitution  of  the  author  whose  pecul 
iar  merits  he  is  eager  to  acknowledge.  He 
occasionally  indulges,  too,  in  some  strange 
freaks  of  intellectual  and  moral  caprice 
which  his  own  mature  judgment  should  con 
demn — the  same  pen  by  which  they  were 
recorded  being  used  to  blot  them  out  of 
existence.  They  are  audacities,  but  how 
unlike  his  grand  audacities !  In  short,  they 
are  somewhat  small  audacities,  unworthy 
of  him  and  of  the  subjects  with  which  he 
deals — escapades  of  epigram  on  topics  which 
should  have  exacted  the  austerest  exercise 
of  his  exceptional  faculty  of  spiritual  in 
sight.  Nothing,  however,  which  can  be  said 
against  him  touches  his  essential  quality 
of  manliness,  or  lowers  him  from  that  rank 


of  thinkers  in  whom  the  seer  and  the  poet 
combine  to  give  the  deepest  results  of  med 
itation  in  the  most  exquisite  forms  of  vital 
beauty.  And  then  how  superb  and  anima 
ting  is  his  lofty  intellectual  courage !  "The 
soul,"  he  says,  "  is  in  her  native  realm,  and 
it  is  wider  than  space,  older  than  time, 
wide  as  hope,  rich  as  love.  Pusillanimity 
and  fear  she  refuses  with  a  beautiful  scorn. 
They  are  not  for  her  who  putteth  on  her 
coronation  robes,  and  goes  through  univers 
al  love  to  universal  power." 

Emerson,  though  in  some  respects  con 
nected  with  the  Unitarian  movement  as 
having  been  a  minister  of  the  denomina 
tion,  soon  cut  himself  free  from  it,  and  was 
as  independent  of  that  form  of  Christian 
faith  as  he  was  of  other  forms.  He  drew 
from  all  quarters,  and  whatever  fed  his  re 
ligious  sense  of  mystery,  of  might,  of  beauty, 
and  of  Deity  was  ever  welcome  to  his  soul. 
As  he  was  outside  of  all  religious  organiza 
tions,  and  never  condescended  to  enter  into 
any  argument  with  his  opponents,  he  was 
soon  allowed  silently  to  drop  out  of  theo 
logical  controversy.  But  a  fiercer  and  more 
combative  spirit  now  appeared  to  trouble 
the  Unitarian  clergymen — a  man  who  con 
sidered  himself  a  Unitarian  minister,  who 
had  for  Calvinism  a  stronger  repulsion  than 
Channing  or  Norton  ever  felt,  and  who  at 
tempted  to  drag  on  his  denomination  to  con 
clusions  at  which  most  of  its  members  stood 
aghast. 

This  man  was  Theodore  Parker,  a  born 
controversialist,  who  had  the  challenging 
chip  always  on  his  shoulder,  which  he  in 
vited  both  his  Unitarian  and  his  orthodox 
brethren  to  knock  off.  There  never  was  a 
man  who  more  gloried  in  a  fight.  If  any 
theologians  desired  to  get  into  a  controversy 
with  him  as  to  the  validity  of  their  opposing 
beliefs,  he  was  eager  to  give  them  as  much 
of  it  as  they  desired.  The  persecution  he 
most  keenly  felt  wras  the  persecution  of  in 
attention  and  silence.  He  was  the  Luther 
of  radical  Uuitarianism.  When  the  Unita 
rian  societies  refused  fellowship  with  his 
society,  he  organized  a  church  of  his  own, 
and  made  it  one  of  the  most  powerful  in 
New  England.  There  was  nothing  but  dis 
ease  which  could  check  and  nothing  but 
death  which  could  close  his  controversial 
activity.  He  became  the  champion  of  rad- 


372 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


ical  as  against  conservative  Unitarianism, 
and  the  persistent  adversary  even  of  the 
most  moderate  Calvinism.  Besides  his  work 
in  these  fields  of  intellectual  effort,  he  threw 
himself  literally  head  -  foremost  —  and  his 
head  was  large  and  well  stored — into  every 
unpopular  reform  which  he  could  aid  by  his 
will,  his  reason,  his  learning,  and  his  mor 
al  power.  He  was  among  the  leaders  in 
the  attempt  to  apply  the  rigid  maxims  of 
Christianity  to  practical  life ;  and  many 
orthodox  clergymen,  who  combined  with 
him  in  his  assaults  on  intemperance,  slav 
ery,  and  other  hideous  evils  of  our  civiliza 
tion,  almost  condoned  his  theological  here 
sies  in  their  admiration  of  his  fearlessness 
in  practical  reforms.  He  was  au  enormous 
reader  and  diligent  student,  as  well  as  a 
resolute  man  of  affairs.  He  also  had  great 
depth  and  fervency  of  piety.  His  favorite 
hymn  was  "Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee." 
While  assailing  what  the  great  body  of 
New  England  people  believed  to  be  the 
foundations  of  religion,  he  startled  vigorous 
orthodox  reasoners  by  his  confident  teach 
ing  that  every  individual  soul  had  a  con 
sciousness  of  its  immortality  independent 
of  revelation,  and  superior  to  the  results 
of  all  the  modern  physical  researches  which 
seemed  to  place  it  in  doubt.  Indeed,  his 
own  incessant  activity  was  an  argument  for 
the  soul's  immortality.  In  spite  of  all  the 
outside  calls  on  his  energies,  he  found  time 
to  attend  strictly  to  his  ministerial  duties, 
to  make  himself  one  of  the  most  accom 
plished  theological  and  general  scholars  in 
New  England,  and  to  write  and  translate 
books  which  required  deep  study  and  pa 
tient  thought.  The  physical  frame,  stout 
as  it  was,  at  last  broke  down — his  mind  still 
busy  in  meditating  new  works  which  were 
never  to  be,  written.  Probably  no  other 
clergyman  of  his  time,  not  even  Mr.  Beech- 
er,  drew  his  society  so  closely  to  himself, 
and  became  the  object  of  so  much  warm 
personal  attachment  and  passionate  devo 
tion.  Grim  as  he  appeared  when,  arrayed 
in  his,  theological  armor,  he  went  forth  to 
battle,  he  w#s,  in  private  intercourse,  the 
gentlest,  moat  genial,  and  most  affectionate 
of  men.  And  it  is  to  be  added  that  few  or 
thodox  clergymen  had  a  more  intense  re 
ligious  faith  in  the  saving  power  of  their 
doctrines  than  Theodore  Parker  had  in  the 


regenerating  efficacy  of  his  rationalistic  con 
victions.  When  Luther  was  dying,  Dr.  Jo 
nas  said  to  him,  "  Reverend  father,  do  you 
die  in  implicit  reliance  on  the  faith  you  have 
taught  ?"  And  from  those  lips,  just  closing 
in  death,  came  the  steady  answering  "Yes." 
Theodore  Parker's  answer  to  such  a  ques 
tion,  put  to  him  on  his  death-bed,  would 
have  been  the  same. 

The  theological  protest  against  Unitari- 
anism  was  made  by  some  of  the  most  pow 
erful  minds  and  learned  scholars  in  the 
country — by  Stuart,  Park,  Edwards,  Barnes, 
Robinson,  Lyman  Beecher,  the  whole  family 
of  the  Alexanders,  of  which  Addison  Alex 
ander  was  the  greatest,  not  to  mention  fifty 
others.  The  thought  of  these  men  still  con 
trols  the  theological  opinion  of  the  country, 
and  their  works  are  much  more  extensively 
circulated,  and  exert  a  greater  practical  in 
fluence,  than  the  writings  of  such  men  as 
Channing,  Norton,  Dewey,  Emerson,  and 
Parker;  but  still  they  have  not  affected  in 
a  like  degree  the  literature  which  springs 
from  the  heart,  the  imagination,  and  the 
spiritual  sentiment.  Unitarianism,  through 
its  lofty  views  of  the  dignity  of  human  na 
ture,  naturally  allied  itself  with  the  senti 
ment  of  philanthropy.  While  it  has  not 
been  more  practically  conspicuous  than  oth 
er  denominations  for  the  love  of  man,  as 
expressed  in  works  to  ameliorate  his  con 
dition,  it  has  succeeded  better  in  domesti 
cating  philanthropy  in  literature,  especial 
ly  in  poetry.  Witness  Bryant,  Longfellow, 
Whittier,  Holmes,  Lowell,  and  Mrs.  Howe. 

Longfellow  is  probably  the  most  popular 
poet  of  the  country.  The  breadth  of  his 
sympathy,  the  Arariety  of  his  acquisitions, 
the  plasticity  of  his  imagination,  the  sono 
rousness  and  weight  of  his  verse,  the  vivid 
ness  of  his  imagery,  the  equality,  the  beau 
ty,  the  beneficence  of  his  disposition,  make 
him  universally  attractive  and  universally 
intelligible.  Each  of  his  minor  poems  is 
pervaded  by  one  thought,  and  has  that  ar 
tistic  unity  which  conies  from  the  economic 
use  of  rich  material.  There  is  a  solidity  in 
them  in  which  many  occasional  poems  are 
wanting,  though  they  may  exhibit  more  fer 
tility  of  thought  and  imagery ;  this  fertility 
is  less  directed  to  produce  one  impressive 
effect.  Take  the  "Hymn  to  the  Night," 
"  A  Psalm  of  Life,"  "  Footsteps  of  Angels," 


LONGFELLOW  AND  WHITTIER. 


373 


"The  Skeleton  in  Armor,"  "The  Wreck  of 
the  Hesperus,"  "The  Village  Blacksmith," 
"Excelsior,"  "The  Arsenal  at  Springfield," 
"Sea-Weed,"  "Resignation,"  and  other  of 
his  minor  poems  have  found  a  lodgment  in 
the  memory  of  every  body,  and  it  will  be 
found  that  their  charm  consists  in  their  uni 
ty  as  well  as  in  their  beauty,  that  they  are 
as  much  poems,  complete  in  themselves,  as 
"  Evaugeliue"  or  "  Hiawatha."  In  "  Maid 
enhood"  and  "  Eudymiou,"  especially  in  the 
latter,  the  poet  is  revealed  in  all  the  exqui- 
eiteness,  the  delicacy,  the  refinement,  of  his 
imaginative  faculty ;  but  they  are  less  pop 
ular  than  the  poems  previously  mentioned, 
because  they  embody  more  subtile  moods 
of  the  poetic  mind.  Longfellow's  power  of 
picturing  to  the  eye  and  the  soul  a  scene,  a 
place,  an  event,  a  person,  is  almost  unrivaled. 
His  command  of  many  metres,  each  adapted 
to  his  special  subject,  shows  also  how  artist 
ically  he  uses  sound  to  re-enforce  vision, 
and  satisfy  the  ear  while  pleasing  the  eye. 

"When  descends  on  the  Atlantic 

The  gigantic 

Storm-wind  of  the  equinox, 
Landward  in  his  wrath  he  scourges 

The  toiling  surges, 
Laden  with  sea-weed  from  the  rocks." 

The  ear  least  skilled  to  detect  the  harmo 
nies  of  verse  feels  the  obvious  effect  of  lines 
like  these.  In  his  long  poems,  such  as 
"Evangeline,"  "The  Golden  Legend,"  "Hi 
awatha,"  "The  Courtship  of  Miles  Stan- 
dish,"  "  The  New  England  Tragedies,"  Long 
fellow  never  repeats  himself.  He  occupies 
a  new  domain  of  poetry  with  each  succes 
sive  poem,  and  always  gives  the  public  the 
delightful  shock  of  a  new  surprise.  In  his 
prose  works,  Outre-Mcr,  Hyperion,  and  Kava- 
nayh,  he  is  the  same  man  as  in  his  verse — 
ever  sweet,  tender,  thoughtful,  weighty,  vig 
orous,  imaginative,  and  humane.  His  great 
translation  of  Dante  is  not  the  least  of  his 
claims  to  the  gratitude  of  his  countrymen, 
for  it  is  a  new  illustration  of  his  life-long 
devotion — rare.in  an  American — to  the  serv 
ice  of  literature,  considered  as  one  of  the 
highest  exercises  of  patriotism. 

Longfellow  has  enjoyed  every  advantage 
that  culture  can  give,  and  his  knowledge 
of  many  nations  and  many  languages  un 
doubtedly  has  given  breadth  to  his  mind, 
and  opened  to  him  ever  new  sources  of  po 


etic  interest ;  but  John  Greenleaf  Whittier, 
who  contests  with  him  the  palm  of  popu 
larity  as  a  poet,  was  one  of  those  God-made 
men  who  are  in  a  sense  self-made  poets.  A 
musing  farmer's  boy,  working  in  the  fields, 
and  ignorant  of  books,  he  early  felt  the  po 
etic  instinct  moving  in  his  soul,  but  thought 
his  surroundings  were  essentially  prosaic, 
and  could  never  be  sung.  At  last  one  after 
noon,  \vhile  he  was  gathering  in  the  hay, 
a  peddler  dropped  a  copy  of  Burns  into  his 
hands.  Instantly  his  eyes  were  unsealed. 
There  in  the  neighboring  field  was  "  High 
land  Mary;"  "The  Cotter's  Saturday  Night" 
occurred  in  his  own  father's  pious  New  En 
gland  home;  and  the  birds  which  caroled 
over  his  head,  the  flowers  which  grew  under 
his  feet,  were  as  poetic  as  those  to  which 
the  Scottish  plowman  had  given  perennial 
interest.  Burns  taught  him  to  detect  the 
beautiful  in  the  common,  but  Burns  could 
not  corrupt  the  singularly  pure  soul  of  the 
lad  by  his  enticing  suggestions  of  idealized 
physical  enjoyment  and  unregulated  pas 
sion.  The  boy  grew  into  a  man,  cultivating 
assiduously  his  gift  of  song,  though  shy  of 
showing  it.  The  antislavery  storm  swept 
over  the  laud,  awakening  consciences  as 
well  as  stimulating  intellects.  Whittier 
had  always  lived  in  a  region  of  moral  ideas, 
and  this  antislavery  inspiration  inflamed 
his  moral  ideas  into  moral  passion  and  mor 
al  wrath.  If  Garrison  may  be  considered 
the  prophet  of  antislavery,  and  Phillips  its 
orator,  and  Mrs.  Stowe  its  novelist,  and  Surn- 
ner  its  statesman,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  Whittier  was  its  poet.  Quaker  as  he 
was,  his  martial  lyrics  had  something  of  the 
energy  of  a  primitive  bard  urging  on  hosts 
to  battle.  Every  word  was  a  blow,  as  ut 
tered  by  this  newly  enrolled  soldier  of  the 
Lord.  "  The  silent,  shy,  peace-loving  man" 
became  a  "  fiery  partisan,"  and  held  his  in 
trepid  way 

"against  the  public  frown, 

The  ban  of  church  and  state,  the  fierce  mob's  hound 
ing  down." 

It  is  impossible  even  now  to  read  his  kin 
dling  lyrics  of  that  shameful  period  in  our 
history  without  feeling  the  blood  boil  in 
the  veins,  and  experiencing  the  hot  impulse 
to  instant  battle.  They  had  a  vast  effect 
in  rousing,  condensing,  and  elevating  the 
public  sentiment  against  slavery.  The  po- 


374 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


etry  was  as  genuine  as  the  wrath  was  ter 
rific,  and  many  a  political  time-server,  who 
was  proof  against  Garrison's  hottest  de 
nunciations  and  Phillips's  most  stinging 
invectives,  quailed  before  Whittier's  smit 
ing  rhymes.  Yet  he  tells  us  he  was  essen 
tially  a  poetic  dreamer,  unfit  "  to  ride  the 
winged  hippogriff  Reform." 

"  For  while  he  wrought  with  strenuous  will 

The  work  his  hands  had  found  to  do, 
He  heard  the  fitful  music  still 
Of  winds  that  out  of  dream-land  blew. 

"The  common  air  was  thick  with  dreams — 

He  told  them  to  the  toiling  crowd; 
Such  music  as  the  woods  and  streams 
Sang  in  his  ear  he  sang  aloud. 

"In  still,  shut  bays,  on  windy  capes, 
He  heard  the  call  of  beckoning  shapes, 
And,  as  the  gray  old  shadows  prompted  him, 
To  homely  moulds  of  rhyme  he  shaped  their  le 
gends  grim." 

In  these  lines  he  refers  to  two  kinds  of  po 
etry  in  which  he  has  obtained  almost  equal 
eminence — his  intensely  imaginative  and 
meditative  poems,  and  his  ringing,  legend 
ary  ballads,  the  material  of  the  latter  hav 
ing  been  gathered,  in  his  wanderings,  from 
the  lips  of  sailors,  farmers,  and  that  class 
of  aged  women  who  connect  each  event 
they  relate  with  the  superstitions  originally 
ingrafted  upon  it.  It  is  needless  to  add 
that  during  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  and 
the  political  contests  accompanying  recon 
struction,  the  voice  of  Whittier  rang  through 
the  land  to  cheer,  to  animate,  to  uplift,  and 
also  to  warn  and  denounce.  All  sorts  of 
cowardice,  physical,  mental,  political,  mor 
al,  felt  mean  and  abashed  when  detected 
and  smitten  by  one  of  his  heroic  lyrics.  In 
all  his  poetry,  whether  descriptive,  medi 
tative,  narrative,  or  impassioned,  the  power, 
in  the  last  analysis,  is  found  to  reside  in  the 
soul  of  the  poet  rather  than  in  his  excep 
tional  gifts  of  sensibility,  understanding,  and 
imaginative  vision  and  faculty.  This  soul 
touched  what  remains  of  soul  existed  in  the 
most  selfish  and  malignant  natures ;  for  it 
was  a  soul  that  drew  its  force  from  the  Soul 
of  souls,  and  ever  reverently  listened  to  the 
slightest  whisper  of  command,  of  monition, 
of  consolation,  of  cheer,  coming  to  it  from 
the  Divine  Being  it  recognized  as  Master, 
Inspirer,  and  Friend.  Whittier,  indeed, 
though  creedless,  is  one  of  the  most  relig 
ious  of  our  poets.  In  these  days  of  skepti 


cism  as  to  the  possibility  of  the  communi 
cation  of  the  Divine  Mind  with  the  human, 
it  is  consolatory  to  read  his  poem  on  "  The 
Eternal  Goodness" — especially  this  stanza : 

"I  know  not  where  His  islands  lift 

Their  fronded  palms  in  air: 
I  only  know  I  can  not  drift 
Beyond  His  love  and  care." 

It  is  curious  that  Whittier,  whose  general 
style  is  so  clear  that  every  body  can  under 
stand  it,  should,  in  this  beautiful  declara 
tion  of  his  abiding  faith — a  faith  full  of  the 
"  magnanimous  might  of  meekness" — have 
used  a  technical  epithet,  drawn  from  the 
science  of  botany,  like  "  fronded." 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes — wit,  satirist,  hu 
morist,  novelist,  scholar,  scientist — is,  above 
every  thing,  a  poet,  for  the  qualities  of  the 
poet  pervade  all  the  operations  of  his  vari 
ously  gifted  mind.  His  sense  of  the  ludi 
crous  is  not  keener  than  his  sense  of  the 
beautiful;  his  wit  and  humor  are  but  the 
sportive  exercise  of  a  fancy  and  imagina 
tion  which  he  has  abundantly  exercised  on 
serious  topics;  and  the  extensive  learning 
and  acute  logic  of  the  man  of  science  are 
none  the  less  solid  in  substance  because  in 
expression  they  are  accompanied  by  a  throng 
of  images  and  illustrations  which  endow 
erudition  with  life,  and  give  a  charm  to  the 
most  closely  linked  chain  of  reasoning.  The 
first  thing  which  strikes  a  reader  of  Holmes 
is  the  vigor  and  elasticity  of  his  nature. 
He  is  incapable  of  weakness.  He  is  fresh 
and  manly  even  when  he  securely  treads  the 
scarcely  marked  line  which  separates  senti 
ment  from  sentimentality.  This  prevailing 
vigor  proceeds  from  a  strength  of  individ 
uality  which  is  often  pushed  to  dogmatic 
self-assertion.  It  is  felt  as  much  in  his 
airy,  fleering  mockeries  of  folly  and  preten 
sion,  as  in  his  almost  Juvenalian  invectives 
against  baseness  and  fraud — in  the  pleasant 
way  in  which  he  stretches  a  coxcomb  on 
the  rack  of  wit,  as  in  the  energy  with  which 
he  grapples  an  opponent  in  the  tussle  of  ar 
gumentation.  He  never  seems  to  imagine 
that  ho  can  be  inferior  to  the  thinker  whose 
position  he  assails,  any  more  than  to  the 
noodle  whose  nonsense  he  jeers  at.  In  ar 
gument  he  is  sometimes  the  victor,  in  vir 
tue  of  scornfully  excluding  what  another 
reasoner  would  include,  and  thus  seems  to 
make  his  own  intellect  the  measure  of  the 


HOLMES  AND  LOWELL. 


375 


whole  subject  in  discussion.  When  in  his 
Autocrat,  or  his  Professor,  or  his  Poet,  at 
the  Breakfast  Table,  he  touches  theological 
themes,  he  is  peculiarly  exasperating  to  the 
ological  opponents,  not  only  for  the  effect 
iveness  of  his  direct  hits,  but  for  the  easy 
way  in  which  he  gayly  overlooks  considera 
tions  which  their  whole  culture  has  induced 
them  to  deem  of  vital  moment.  The  truth 
is  that  Holmes's  dogmatism  comes  rather 
from  the  vividness  and  rapidity  of  his  per 
ceptions  than  from  the  arrogance  of  his  per 
sonality.  "  This,"  he  seems  to  say,  "  is  not 
my  opinion  ;  it  is  a  demonstrated  law  which 
you  willfully  ignore  while  pretending  to  be 
scholars."  The  indomitable  courage  of  the 
man  carries  him  through  all  the  exciting 
controversies  he  scornfully  invites ;  and  it 
has  been  found  that  to  attack  him  by  ar 
gument  pointed  with  wit  is  as  futile  as  at 
tacking  a  porcupine  armed  on  all  sides 
with  his  quills.  Holmes,  for  the  last  forty 
years,  has  been  expressing  this  inexhausti 
ble  vitality  of  nature  in  various  ways,  and 
to-day  he  appears  as  vigorous  as  he  was  in 
his  prime,  and  more  vigorous  than  he  was 
in  his  youth.  Indeed,  he  has  rather  grown 
younger  in  sentiment  as  he  has  grown  older 
in  years.  His  early  poems  sparkled  with 
thought  and  abounded  in  energy;  but  still 
they  can  not  be  compared  in  wit,  in  humor, 
in  depth  of  sentiment,  in  beauty  of  diction, 
in  thoughtfulness,  in  lyrical  force,  with  the 
poems  of  the  past  twenty-five  years  of  his 
life.  It  is  needless  to  give  even  the  titles 
of  the  many  pieces  which  are  fixed  in  the 
memory  of  all  cultivated  readers  among 
his  countrymen.  His  novels,  Elsie  Venner 
and  The  Guardian  Angel,  rank  high  among 
original  American  contributions  to  the  do 
main  of  romance.  In  prose,  as  in  verse,  his 
fecundity  and  vigor  of  thought  have  found 
adequate  expression  in  a  corresponding 
point  and  compactness  of  style. 

James  Russell  Lowell  is  now  in  the  prime 
of  his  genius  and  at  the  height  of  his  repu 
tation.  His  earlier  poems,  pervaded  by  the 
transcendental  tone  of  thought  current  in 
New  England  at  the  time  they  were  written, 
were  full  of  promise,  but  gave  little  evidence 
of  the  wide  variety  of  power  he  has  since 
displayed.  The  spirituality  of  his  thinking 
has  deepened  with  advancing  years.  Noth 
ing  in  his  first  volume,  A  Yeai-'s  Life,  sug 


gests  the  depth  of  moral  beauty  he  afterward 
embodied  in  "The  Vision  of  Sir  Launfal," 
the  throng  of  subtle  thoughts  and  images 
which  almost  confuse  us  by  their  multiplic 
ity  in  "The  Cathedral,"  and  the  grandeur 
of  "  The  Commemoration  Ode."  Still  less 
could  it  have  been  supposed  that  the  youth 
ful  poetical  enthusiast,  singing  of  sirens  and 
such  questionable  folks,  should  have  sup 
pressed  that  side  of  his  richly  endowed  na 
ture,  by  which  he  has  since  obtained  a  prom 
inent  rank  among  the  greatest  wits,  satirists, 
and  humorists  of  the  century.  The  Biglow 
Papers  are  unique  in  our  literature.  Low 
ell  adds  to  his  other  merits  that  of  being  an 
accomplished  philologist ;  but  granting  his 
scholarship  as  an  investigator  of  the  pop 
ular  idioms  of  foreign  speech,  he  must  be 
principally  esteemed  for  his  knowledge  of 
the  Yankee  dialect.  Hosea  Biglow  is  al 
most  the  only  writer  who  uses  the  dialect 
properly,  and  most  other  pretenders  to  a 
knowledge  of  it  must  be  considered  carica 
turists  as  compared  with  him;  for  Biglow, 
like  Burns,  makes  the  dialect  he  employs 
flexible  to  every  mood  of  thought  and  pas 
sion,  from  good  sense  as  solid  as  granite  to 
the  most  bewitching  descriptions  of  nature 
and  the  loftiest  affirmations  of  conscience. 
Lowell  has  been  doubly  doctored  by  the  En 
glish  universities  of  Oxford  and  Cambridge, 
but  it  is  understood  that  this  exceptional 
distinction  was  not  so  much  due  to  the  range 
of  his  scholarship  and  the  beauty  and  power 
of  his  English  prose  and  verse  as  to  the  new 
vein  of  sense,  sentiment,  and  imagination 
he  opened  in  The  Biglow  Papers — some  of 
which,  by-the-way,  are  the  sharpest  satires 
on  England  ever  written,  especially  in  com 
menting  on  her  conduct  to  this  country  dur 
ing  the  storm  and  stress  of  the  Southern  re 
bellion.  As  a  prose  writer,  Lowell  is  quite 
as  eminent  as  he  is  as  a  poet.  His  essays, 
where  nature  is  his  theme,  are  brimful  of  de 
licious  descriptions,  and  his  critical  papers 
on  Chaucer,  Shakspeare,  Spenser,  Dryden, 
Pope,  and  Rousseau,  not  to  mention  others, 
are  masterpieces  of  their  kind.  His  defect, 
both  as  poet  and  prose  writer,  comes  from 
the  too  lavish  use  of  his  seemingly  inex 
haustible  powers  of  wit,  fancy,  and  imagina 
tion.  He  is  apt  to  sacrifice  unity  of  general 
effect  by  overloading  his  paragraphs  with 
suggestive  meaning.  The  mind  is  some- 


376 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


times  dazzled  away  from  the  general  sub 
ject  by  the  wit  and  beauty  of  the  separate 
illustrations  and  images  which  are  intended 
to  enforce  it.  Aline  or  a  sentence  contains 
something  so  charming  in  itself  that  we 
forget  the  end  in  the  means.  That  wise 
reserve  of  expression  to  which  Longfellow 
owes  so  much  of  his  reputation,  that  subor 
dination  of  minor  thoughts  to  the  leading 
thought  of  the  poem  or  essay,  are  frequent 
ly  disregarded  by  Lowell.  His  mind  is  too 
rich  to  submit  even  to  artistic  checks  on  its 
fertility. 

Julia  Ward  Howe,  one  of  the  most  ac 
complished  women  in  the  United  States,  a 
scholar,  a  reasoner,  an  excellent  prose  writer, 
a  poet  with  the  power  to  uplift  as  well  as 
to  please,  is  also  generally  known  as  a 
champion  of  the  right  of  women  to  vote. 
In  the  facts,  arguments,  and  appeals  which 
she  brings  to  bear  on  this  debated  question, 
and  the  felicity  of  the  occasional  sarcastic 
strokes  with  which  she  smites  an  opponent 
who  has  offended  her  reason  as  well  as 
vexed  her  patience,  we  find  a  woman  fully 
equipped  to  do  battle  for  the  cause  of  wom 
an  ;  and  certainly  that  man  must  be  excep 
tionally  endowed  with  brains  who  can  af 
ford  to  indulge  in  the  luxury  of  despising 
her  intellect.  Loftiness  of  sentiment  and 
force  of  mind  are  her  prevailing  character 
istics  ;  but  she  also  possesses  a  certain  de 
mure  humor  which  is  all  the  more  effective 
from  its  seeming  innocence  of  humorous  in 
tent.  It  was  she  who  said,  when  she  saw  a 
sign  on  which  in  large  letters  was  printed, 
"Boston  Charitable  Eye  and  Ear  Infirm 
ary,"  that  she  did  not  know  till  then  that 
there  were  any  charitable  eyes  and  ears  in 
Boston.  As  a  poet  she  is  comparatively  lit 
tle  appreciated  as  regards  the  depth  and 
subtilty  of  thought  and  imagination  which 
are  discernible  to  the  critical  eye  in  her  vol 
ume  of  Later  Lyrics.  That  volume,  to  be 
sure,  includes  the  poems  which  have  made 
her  reputation ;  but  they  are  known  to  the 
public  through  newspapers  rather  than 
from  the  possession  of  the  volume,  of  which 
they  form  but  a  small  portion.  The  thrill 
ing  "Battle  Hymn  of  the  Republic"  is  an 
artistic  variation  on  the  John  Brown  song. 
The  original  is  incomparable  of  its  kind. 
No  poet  could  have  written  it.  Such  rude 
ness  and  wildness  are  beyond  the  concep 


tion  even  of  Walt  Whitman  and  the  author 
of  "Festus."  One  would  say  that  it  was 
written  by  the  common  soldiers  who  sang 
it  as  they  advanced  to  battle ;  that  it  was 
an  elemental  tune,  suited  to  the  rugged  na 
tures  that  shouted  its  refrain  as  they  reso 
lutely  faced  death,  with  the  confident  as 
surance  of  immortality.  The  words  are  ver 
bal  equivalents  of  rifle-bullets  and  cannon- 
balls  ;  the  tune  is  a  noise,  like  the  shriek 
of  the  shell  as  it  ascends  to  the  exact  point 
whence  it  can  most  surely  descend  to  blast 
and  kill.  Mrs.  Howe's  hymn  has  not  this 
elemental  character,  but  it  is  still  wonder 
fully  animating  and  invigorating ;  and  the 
constant  use  of  Scripture  phrases  shows 
the  high  level  of  thought  and  sentiment 
to  which  her  soul  had  mounted,  and  from 
which  she  poured  forth  her  exulting  strains. 
"  Our  Country,"  "  The  Flag,"  "  Our  Orders," 
are  also  thoughtful  or  impassioned  outbreaks 
of  the  same  spiritual  feeling  which  gives  vi 
tality  to  the  "  Battle  Hymn." 

The  authors  thus  grouped  together,  differ 
ing  so  widely  as  they  do  in  the  individuality 
impressed  on  their  genius,  are  still  connect 
ed  by  that  peculiar  impulse  given  to  Amer 
ican  literature  by  Channing's  revolt  against 
the  Calvinistic  view  of  human  nature,  and 
by  the  emphasis  they  all  lay  on  the  ethical 
sentiment,  not  merely  in  its  practical  appli 
cation  to  the  concerns  of  actual  life,  but  as 
highly  idealized  in  its  application  to  that 
life  which  is  called  divine.  In  all  the  seri 
ous  efforts  of  these  men  and  women  of  gen 
ius  human  nature  is  glorified  through  its 
receptivity  of  influences  which  transcend 
the  sphere  of  ordinary  moral  maxims,  and 
touch  whatever  is  aspiring,  heroic,  and  holy 
in  the  human  soul ;  and  though  theology  at 
first  interposed  objections,  it  has,  on  the 
whole,  accepted  the  contributions  made  to 
its  spiritual  wealth  by  authors  it  was  still 
compelled  to  consider  as  somewhat  unau 
thorized  explorers  of  its  special  domain. 
There  still  remained  a  class  of  writers  whom 
it  could  accept  as  men  of  letters,  and  whom 
it  could  not  assail  as  impertinent  intruders 
into  its  province.  Charles  Sprague  was  the 
earliest  and  most  eminent  of  these.  The 
new  poetical  metaphysics  and  theology  had 
not  touched  the  mind  of  this  upholder  of 
the  school  of  Dryden,  of  Pope,  of  Goldsmith, 
of  Gray,  of  Cowper,  of  Burns.  His  poem  of 


SPRAGUE  AND  WILLIS. 


377 


"  Curiosity,"  delivered  in  1829  before  the  Phi 
Beta  Society  of  Harvard  College,  is  so  ex 
cellent  in  description,  in  the  various  pictures 
it  gives  of  human  life,  in  the  pungency  of 
its  wit  and  satire,  that  it  deserves  a  place 
among  the  best  productions  of  the  school 
of  Pope  and  Goldsmith.  His  odes  are  more 
open  to  criticism,  though  they  contain  many 
thoughtful,  impassioned,  and  resounding 
lines.  His  "  Shakspeare"  ode  is  the  best  of 
these ;  and  he  concludes  it  with  a  very  felic 
itous  image,  contrasting  the  success  of  the 
great  poet  of  England  in  doing  that  which 
her  statesmen  and  soldiers  could  not  per 
form: 

"Our  Roman-hearted  fathers  broke 
Thy  parent  empire's  galling  yoke ; 
But  thou,  harmonious  monarch  of  the  mind, 
Around  their  sons  a  gentler  chain  shall  bind. 
Still  o'er  our  land  shall  Albion's  sceptre  wave, 
And  what  her  mighty  lion  lost  her  mightier  swan 
shall  save." 

A  more  homely  illustration  of  the  fact  that 
Shakspeare  binds  the  English  race  togeth 
er  whithersoever  it  wanders,  is  afforded  by 
the  remark  of  a  sturdy  New  England  farmer 
when  he  heard  the  rumor  that  England  in 
tended  to  make  the  Mason  and  Slidell  affair 
an  occasion  for  war  with  the  United  States, 
and  thus  insure  success  to  the  Confederates. 
The  farmer  paused,  reflected,  sought  out  in 
his  mind  something  which  would  indicate 
his  complete  severance  not  only  from  the 
people  of  England,  but  from  the  English 
mind,  and  at  last  condensed  all  his  wrath 
in  this  intense  remark,  "  Well,  if  that  report 
is  true,  all  I  can  say  is  that  Lord  Lyons  is 
welcome  to  my  copy  of  Shakspeare." 

Perhaps  Sprague's  most  original  poems  are 
those  in  which  he  consecrated  his  domestic 
affections.  Wordsworth  himself  would  have 
hailed  these  with  delight.  Any  body  who 
can  read  with  unwet  eyes  "  I  See  Still," 
"The  Family  Meeting,"  "  The  Brothers,"  and 
"Lines  on  the  Death  of  M.  S.  C."  is  a  critic 
who  has  as  little  perception  of  the  language 
of  natural  emotion  as  of  the  reserves  and 
refinements  of  poetic  art. 

Sprague  had  the  good  fortune,  as  the 
cashier  of  a  leading  Boston  bank,  to  be  in 
dependent  of  his  poetic  gifts,  considered  as 
means  of  subsistence.  But  Nathaniel  Par 
ker  Willis  was,  perhaps,  the  first  of  our  poets 
to  prove  that  literature  could  be  relied  upon 
as  a  good  business.  He  certainly  enjoyed 


all  those  advantages  which  accompany  com 
petence,  and  the  only  bank  he  could  draw 
upon  was  his  brain.  He  thoroughly  under 
stood  the  art  of  producing  what  people  de 
sired  to  read,  and  for  which  publishers  were 
willing  to  pay.  His  early  Scripture  sketch 
es,  written  when  he  was  a  student  of  Yale, 
gave  him  the  reputation  of  a  promising  gen 
ius,  and  though  the  genius  did  not  after 
ward  take  the  direction  to  which  its  first 
successes  pointed,  it  gained  in  strength  and 
breadth  with  the  writer's  advancing  years. 
In  his  best  poems  he  displayed  energy  both 
of  thought  and  imagination ;  but  his  pre 
dominant  characteristics  were  keenness  of 
observation,  fertility  of  fancy,  quickness  of 
wit,  shrewdness  of  understanding,  a  fine 
perception  of  beauty,  a  remarkable  felicity 
in  the  choice  of  words,  and  a  subtle  sense 
of  harmony  in  their  arrangement,  whether 
his  purpose  was  to  produce  melodious  verse 
or  musical  prose.  But  he  doubtless  squan 
dered  his  powers  in  the  attempt  to  turn 
them  into  commodities.  To  this  he  was 
driven  by  his  necessities,  and  he  always 
frankly  acknowledged  that  he  could  have 
done  better  with  his  brain  had  he  possessed 
an  income  corresponding  to  that  of  other 
eminent  American  men  of  letters,  who  could 
select  their  topics  without  regard  to  the 
immediate  market  value  of  what  they  wrote. 
He  became  the  favorite  poet,  satirist,  and 
"  organ"  of  the  fashionable  world.  He  wrote 
editorials,  letters,  essays,  novels,  which  were 
full  of  evidences  of  his  rare  talent  without 
doing  justice  to  it.  He  idealized  triviali 
ties  ;  he  gave  a  kind  of  reality  to  the  un 
real  ;  and  week  after  week  he  lifted  into 
importance  the  unsubstantial  matters  Avhich 
for  the  time  occupied  the  attention  of"  good 
society."  Some  of  his  phrases,  such  as  "  the 
upper  ten  thousand,"  "Fifth-Ave-uudity," 
are  still  remembered.  The  paper  which 
Willis  edited,  the  Home  Journal,  exerted  a 
great  deal  of  influence.  However  slight 
might  be  the  subjects,  there  can  be  no  ques 
tion  that  the  editor  worked  hard  in  bring 
ing  the  resources  of  his  knowledge,  observa 
tion,  wit,  and  fancy  to  place  them  in  their 
most  attractive  lights.  The  trouble  was 
not  in  the  vigor  of  the  faculties,  but  in  the 
thinness  of  much  of  the  matter.  As  an  ed 
itor,  however,  Willis  had  an  opportunity  to 
display  his  grand  generosity  of  heart,  and 


378 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


the  peculiar  power  he  had  of  detecting  the 
slightest  trace  of  genius  in  writers  who 
were  the  objects  of  his  appreciative  eulogy. 
In  the  whole  history  of  American  literature 
there  is  no  other  example  of  a  prominent 
man  of  letters  who  showed,  like  Willis,  such 
a  passionate  desire  to  make  his  natural  in 
fluence  effective  in  dragging  into  promi 
nence  writers  who  either  had  no  reputation 
at  all,  or  whose  reputation  was  notoriously 
less  than  his.  Authors  who  have  obtained 
reputation  are  commonly  so  much  occupied 
in  keeping  or  adding  to  it  that  they  are  not 
•wont  to  take  an  active  part  in  celebrating 
the  merits  of  aspirants  for  renown.  There 
must  be  scores  of  persons  still  living  who 
remember  with  love  and  gratitude  Willis's 
generous  recognition  of  their  first  immature 
efforts,  and  all  the  more  because  at  the  time 
Willis's  cordial  praise,  unlike  that  of  an  or 
dinary  notice  in  a  newspaper  or  magazine, 
arrested  public  attention  to  their  merits. 
As  a  poet,  Willis  still  survives  as  the  author 
of  some  of  the  most  beautiful  and  graceful 
poems  in  our  literature ;  as  a  prose  writer, 
he  deserves  a  higher  position  than  he  now 
occupies,  because  nobody  has  yet  attempted 
to  separate  the  wheat  from  the  chaff  in  his 
prose  works ;  as  an  interpretive  critic,  he  is 
much  underrated,  not  only  because  it  is  dif 
ficult  to  estimate  how  much  impulse  he  com 
municated  to  other  minds  by  his  genial  es 
timate  of  their  early  promise,  but  because 
it  is  the  fashion  now  to  crush  budding  tal 
ent  rather  than  to  encourage  it.  Many  of 
our  present  critics  are  inspired  not  so  much 
by  taste  as  by  distaste.  Like  Indian  chiefs 
on  the  war-path,  they  glory  in  the  number 
of  scalps  they  have  deftly  detached  from  the 
heads  of  their  victims.  Perhaps  it  would 
be  sentimental  to  bemoan  the  coarse  mas 
culine  locks  which  cling  to  most  of  the  scalps 
these  gentlemen  ostentatiously  display  as 
evidence  of  their  skill;  but  one  thinks  ad 
miringly  of  the  chivalry  of  Willis  when  he 
sees  the  fine  hair  of  women  triumphantly 
flourished  in  his  eyes  as  an  indication  that, 
in  invading  the  literary  household,  these 
critical  "braves"  are  as  regardless  of  sex  as 
of  age,  and  scalp  maidens,  wives,  and  moth 
ers  with  the  same  impartial  ferocity  which 
leads  them  to  scalp  brothers,  husbands,  and 
fathers. 

James  G.  Fercival  had  not  Willis's  happy 


disposition  and  adaptive  talent.  Though 
recognized  by  friends  as  a  poet  of  the  first 
(American)  class,  he  never  succeeded  in  in 
teresting  the  great  body  of  his  intelligent 
countrymen  in  any  but  a  few  of  his  minor 
poems.  He  ranks  among  the  great  sorrow 
ing  class  of  neglected  geniuses.  A  man  of 
large  though  somewhat  undigested  erudi 
tion,  knowing  many  languages  and  many 
sciences,  he  was  seemingly  ignorant  of  the 
art  of  marrying  his  knowledge  to  his  imagi 
nation.  When  he  wrote  in  prose,  he  was 
full  of  matter ;  when  he  wrote  in  verse,  he 
was  full  of  glow  and  aspiration  and  fancy, 
but  wanting  in  matter.  Allston's  imagined 
painter  grinds  up  every  thing  he  feels  and 
knows  "  into  paint ;"  Tennyson  and  Long 
fellow,  as  poets,  do  the  same ;  but  Percival 
seems  to  have  had  no  power  of  so  melting 
and  fusing  his  learning  as  to  make  it  the 
auxiliary  of  his  fancy,  and  thus  give  sub 
stance  to  his  poetic  dreams.  At  least  his 
best  poems,  however  much  they  may  charm 
the  ear  by  their  melody,  and  the  eye  by 
their  flashing  pictures  of  bits  of  natural 
scenery,  are  deficient  in  thought  and  in 
those  burning  or  suggestive  epithets  which 
awake  a  whole  train  of  associations  in  cul 
tivated  minds,  and  "  make  the  burial-places 
of  memory  give  up  their  dead."  Hence  the 
vagueness  of  the  impression  he  leaves  on 
the  reader.  It  is  sad,  however,  to  think 
that  neither  his  erudition  nor  his  inspira 
tion  gave  him  a  decent  livelihood.  Some 
infirmities  of  character,  not  vicious,  may 
have  led  to  this  result.  The  period  in  which 
he  lived  was  one  in  which  no  man  of  let 
ters  could,  without  shrewd  management, 
be  maintained  by  his  writings  alone.  His 
failure  as  a  poet  is  primarily  due  to  the  de 
liberate  disunion  between  what  he  knew 
and  what  he  sang.  At  present,  the  poet 
is  required  to  supply  nutriment  as  well  as 
stimulant.  Tennyson's  immense  populari 
ty,  which  makes  every  new  poem  from  his 
pen  a  literary  event,  is  to  be  referred  not 
merely  to  his  imaginative  power,  but  to  his 
keeping  himself  on  a  level  with  the  science 
and  scholarship  of  his  age.  "In  Memoriam" 
would  not  have  attracted  so  much  atten 
tion  had  it  not  been  felt  that  the  poet  who 
celebrates  a  dead  friend  was,  at  the  same 
time,  all  alive  to  the  importance  of  prob 
lems,  now  vehemently  discussed  by  theolo- 


POE. 


379 


gians  and  scientists,  "Which  relate  to  the 
question  of  the  reality  and  immortality  of 
the  human  soul.  Even  the  poet's  affirma 
tions  are  at  present  hesitatingly  received  if 
they  do  not  imply  a  knowledge  of  the  physi 
ological  science  which  seems  to  cast  doubt 
on  their  validity.  Emerson,  also,  is  not  more 
noted  for  his  grand  reliance  on  the  soul  than 
for  his  acquaintance  with  the  scientific  facts 
and  theories  which  appear  to  deny  its  ex 
istence. 

Edgar  Allan  Poe,  like  Willis  and  Perci- 
val,  adopted,  or  was  forced  into,  literature 
as  a  profession.  He  was  a  man  of  rare  orig 
inal  capacity,  cursed  by  an  incurable  per 
versity  of  character.  It  can  not  be  said  he 
failed  of  success.  The  immediate  recogni 
tion  as  positive  additions  to  our  literature 
of  such  poems  as  "  The  Eaven,"  "  Annabel 
Lee,"  and  "  The  Bells,"  and  of  such  prose 
stories  as  "  The  Gold  Bug,"  "  The  Purloined 
Letter,"  "The  Murders  of  Kue  Morgue,"  and 
"The  Fall  of  the  House  of  Usher,"  indi 
cates  that  the  public  was  not  responsible 
for  the  misfortunes  of  his  life.  He  also  as 
sumed  the  position  of  general  censor  and 
supervisor  of  American  letters,  and  in  this 
he  also  measurably  succeeded  ;  for  his  crit 
ical  power,  when  not  biased  by  his  ca 
prices,  was  extraordinarily  acute,  and  dur 
ing  the  period  of  his  domination  no  critic's 
praise  was  more  coveted  than  his,  and  no 
critic's  blame  more  dreaded.  In  most  of  his 
literary  work  he  displayed  that  rare  com 
bination  of  reason  and  imagination  to  which 
may  be  given  the  name  of  imaginative  an 
alysis.  He  was  so  proud  of  this  power  that 
he  was  never  weary  of  unfolding,  even  to 
a  chance  acquaintance,  the  genesis  of  his 
poems  .and  stories,  accounting,  on  reason 
able  grounds,  for  every  melodious  variation 
in  the  verse,  every  little  incident  touched 
upon  in  the  narrative,  as  steps  in  a  deduct 
ive  argument  from  assumed  premises.  One 
of  two  things  was  necessary  to  quicken  his 
mind  into  full  activity.  The  first  was  ani 
mosity  against  an  individual ;  the  second 
was  some  chance  suggestion  which  awaken 
ed  and  tasked  all  the  resources  of  his  in 
tellectual  ingenuity.  The  wild,  weird,  un 
earthly,  under-natural,  as  distinguished  from 
supernatural,  element  in  his  most  popular 
poems  and  stories  is  always  accompanied 
by  an  imagination  which  not  only  spiritu 


ally  discerns  but  relentlessly  dissects.  The 
morbid  element,  directing  his  powers,  came 
from  his  character;  the  perfection  of  his 
analysis  came  from  an  intellect  as  fertile  as 
it  was  calm,  and  as  delicate  in  selecting 
every  minute  thread  of  thought  as  in  seiz 
ing  every  evanescent  shade  of  feeling.  Poe, 
as  a  writer,  though  admired  by  his  own 
countrymen,  is  more  highly  appreciated  in 
London  and  Paris  than  in  New  York  and 
Philadelphia.  He  should  have  been  a  nat 
uralized  Frenchman,  the  associate  of  Meri- 
me"e,  De  Musset,  Gautier,  and  Baudileire,  and 
been  allowed  to  develop  the  unmoral  but 
artistic  character  of  his  genius  in  a  free 
way.  In  France  his  peculiar  theory  of 
practical  as  distinguished  from  intellectual 
life  would  have  been  understood.  In  con 
duct  he  justified  all  his  escapes  from  moral 
rules  by  his  theory  of  poetic  ecstasy ;  and 
he  was  irritated  when  any  of  his  friends 
suggested  that  ecstasy,  though  laudable  in 
the  realm  of  imagination,  was  of  doubtful 
authority  in  the  concerns  of  daily  life.  In 
Paris  his  adherence  to  a  certain  artistic 
mechanism  in  verse  and  prose  would  have 
condoned  any  improprieties  he  might  have 
committed  in  carrying  the  fine  frenzy,  the 
bold  promptings  of  the  poetic  instinct — the 
poetic  ecstasy,  in  short — into  such  an  insig 
nificant  matter  as  private  conduct.  And  it 
is  also  to  be  remembered  that  Poe's  esca 
pades  were  only  occasional.  The  worst 
thing  in  him  was  his  perversity,  which 
made  many  of  the  sincerest  admirers  of  his 
genius  unable  to  benefit  him.  The  fact  that 
he  often  needed  assistance  vexed  him  against 
those  who  were  ready  to  afford  it.  To  do 
him  a  favor  was  to  run  the  risk  of  incurring 
his  enmity. 

Bayard  Taylor  is  justly  esteemed  as  one 
of  the  most  eminent  of  American  men  of 
letters.  He  is  not  a  "  self-made"  man,  for 
his  books  give  evidence  that  the  Lord  had 
some  share  at  least  in  making  him ;  but  he 
is  one  of  our  best  specimens  of  a  self-edu 
cated  man.  A  graduate  of  no  university, 
he  has  mastered  many  languages ;  born  in 
a  Pennsylvania  village,  he  may  be  said  to 
have  been  every  Avhere  and  to  have  seen 
every  body ;  and  all  that  he  has  achieved  is 
due  to  his  own  persistent  energy  and  tran 
quil  self-reliance.  Journalist,  traveler,  es 
sayist,  critic,  novelist,  scholar,  and  poet,  he 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


has  ever  preserved  the  simplicity  of  nature 
which  marked  his  first  book  of  travels,  and 
the  simplicity  of  style  which  the  knowledge 
of  many  lands  and  many  tongues  has  never 
tempted  him  to  abandon.  His  books  of 
voyages  and  travels  are  charming,  but  their 
charm  consists  in  the  austere  closeness  of 
the  words  he  uses  to  the  facts  he  records, 
the  scenery  he  depicts,  and  the  adventures 
he  narrates.  The  same  simplicity  of  style 
characterizes  his  poems,  his  few  novels,  and 
numerous  stories.  The  richness  of  his  vo 
cabulary  never  impels  him  to  sacrifice  truth 
of  representation  to  the  transient  effective 
ness  which  is  readily  secured  by  indulgence 
in  declamation.  One  sometimes  wonders 
that  the  master  of  so  many  languages  should 
be  content  to  express  himself  with  such  rig 
id  economy  of  word  and  phrase  in  the  one 
he  learned  at  his  mother's  knee.  As  a  poet, 
though  kindling  with  his  theme,  and  with 
all  the  dictionaries  at  his  beck,  he  ever  dis 
criminates  between  inspiration  and  aspira 
tion.  He  ascends  easily  to  that  peak  of 
imaginative  contemplation  or  rapture  which 
he  has  earned  the  right  to  occupy  by  expe 
rience  and  character,  and  he  would  think  it 
ridiculous  to  attempt  to  carry  higher  ele 
vations,  not  by  force  of  genius,  but  by  dint 
of  spasmodic  ejaculations  and  a  parade  of 
resounding  adjectives.  Among  Taylor's  mi 
nor  poems,  it  is  difficult  to  select  those 
which  exhibit  his  genius  at  its  topmost 
point.  Perhaps  "Camadeva"  may  be  in 
stanced  as  best  showing  his  power  of  blend 
ing  exquisite  melody  with  serene,  satisfy 
ing,  uplifting  thought.  The  song  which 
begins  with  the  invocation,  "Daughter  of 
Egypt,  veil  thine  eyes !"  is  as  good  as  could 
be  selected  from  his  many  pieces  to  indi 
cate  the  energy  and  healthiness  of  his  lyric 
impulse.  His  longer  poems  would  reward 
a  careful  criticism.  The  best  of  them  is 
"The  Masque  of  the  Gods" — a  poem  com 
prehensive  in  conception,  noble  in  purpose, 
and  admirable  in  style.  Taylor  has  also 
done  a  great  work  in  translating,  or  rath 
er  transfusing,  the  two  parts  of  Goethe's 
"  Faust"  into  various  English  metres  corre 
sponding  to  the  original  German  verse,  liter 
al  not  only  in  reproducing  ideas,  but  in  re 
producing  melodies.  This  long  labor  could 
only  have  been  undertaken  by  an  American 
man  of  letters  whose  love  of  lucre  was  en 


tirely  subordinate  to  his  love  of  literature. 
A  few  weeks  devoted  to  lecturing  before  ly- 
ceums  would  have  given  him  more  visible 
returns  in  money  than  he  could  hope  to  ob 
tain  by  the  sale  of  this  translation  during 
the  next  twenty  years.  Longfellow  and 
Bryant,  men  of  property,  could  afford  to 
translate  Dante  and  Homer ;  but  Bayard 
Taylor  devoted  the  leisure  of  ten  years,  gen 
erally  passed  in  what  is  called  "getting  a 
living,"  in  giving  English  life  to  the  greatest 
work  of  German  genius.  He  is  now  en 
gaged  in  a  Life  of  Goethe  which  promises  to 
be  the  best  biography  of  the  serene  autocrat 
of  German  literature  that  has  appeared  ei 
ther  in  German  or  English.  Such  unremu- 
nerated  labors  deliberately  entered  upon  by 
a  man  who  has  depended  upon  his  pen  for 
his  subsistence,  who  has  never  degraded  his 
profession  by  pandering  to  any  thing  mean 
or  base,  and  who  has  become  popular  only 
by  means  which  do  him  honor,  are  worthy 
of  a  cordial  recognition  by  every  well-wish 
er  of  American  letters. 

Another  American  writer  who  has  made 
literature  a  profession  is  George  William 
Curtis.  Mr.  Curtis  opened  a  new  vein  of 
satiric  fiction  in  The  Potipliar  Papers,  Prue 
and  /,  and  Trumps  ;  but  probably  the  great 
exten,t  of  his  popularity  is  due  to  his  papers 
in  Harper's  Magazine,  under  the  general  title 
of  the  Editor's  Easy  Chair.  In  these  he  has 
developed  every  faculty  of  his  mind  and 
every  felicity  of  his  disposition ;  the  large 
variety  of  the  topics  he  has  treated  would 
alone  be  sufficient  to  prove  the  generous 
breadth  of  his  culture ;  but  it  is  in  the  treat 
ment  of  his  topics  that  his  peculiarly  at 
tractive  genius  is  displayed  in  all  its  abun 
dant  resources  of  sense,  knowledge,  wit, 
fancy,  reason,  and  sentiment.  His  tone  is 
not  only  manly,  but  gentlemanly ;  his  per 
suasiveness  is  an  important  element  of  his 
influence ;  and  no  reformer  has  equaled  him 
in  the  art  of  insinuating  sound  principles 
into  prejudiced  intellects  by  putting  them 
in  the  guise  of  pleasantries.  He  can  on 
occasion  send  forth  sentences  of  ringing  in 
vective  ;  but  in  the  Easy  Chair  he  generally 
prefers  the  attitude  of  urbanity  which  the 
title  of  his  department  suggests.  His  style, 
in  addition  to  its  other  merits,  is  rhythmic 
al  ;  so  that  his  thoughts  slide,  as  it  were, 
into  the  reader's  mind  in  a  strain  of  music. 


BANCROFT. 


381 


Not  the  least  remarkable  of  his  characteris 
tics  is  the  undiminished  vigor  and  elastici 
ty  of  his  intelligence,  in  spite  of  the  inces 
sant  draughts  he  has  for  years  been  making 
upon  it. 

In  the  domain  of  history  and  biography, 
American  literature,  during  the  past  fifty 
years,  can  boast  of  works  of  standard  value. 
The  most  indefatigable  of  all  explorers  into 
the  unpublished  letters  and  documents  il 
lustrating  the  history  of  the  United  States 
was  Jared  Sparks.  His  voluminous  editions 
of  The  Life  and  Writings  of  Washington  and 
Franklin,  his  Diplomatic  Correspondence  of  the 
Revolution,  and  other  books  devoted  to  the 
task  of  adding  to  the  authentic  materials  of 
American  history,  are  mines  of  information 
to  the  students  of  history;  but  Mr.  Sparks, 
though  a  clear  and  forcible  writer,  had  not 
the  gift  of  attractiveness ;  and  the  results  of 
his  investigations  have  been  more  popularly 
presented  by  Irving,  in  his  Life  of  Washing 
ton,  and  Partou,  in  his  Life  of  Franklin,  than 
by  his  own  biographies  of  those  eminent  men, 
based  on  the  results  of  tireless  original  re 
search  extending  through  many  years,  and 
of  which  both  Irving  and  Parton,  with  the 
usual  polite  display  of  gratitude  to  the 
drudge  who  had  saved  them  from  so  much 
disgusting  toil,  gladly  availed  themselves  in 
writing  their  more  captivating  biographies. 

In  the  political  history  of  the  country 
there  only  remain  two  "  families,"  in  the 
English  sense  of  the  term.  These  are  the 
Adamses  and  the  Hamiltons.  Charles  F. 
Adams  has  published  a  collection  of  his 
grandfather's  works,  in  ten  volumes,  intro 
duced  by  a  life  of  John  Adams,  which  is 
one  of  the  most  delightful  of  American 
biographies,  and,  at  the  same  time,  a  posi 
tive  addition  to  the  early  history  of  the 
United  States  under  our  first  two  Presi 
dents.  An  edition  of  Hamilton's  works  has 
also  been  published ;  and  one  of  Hamilton's 
sons  has  written  a  History  of  the  Republic  of 
the  United  States,  "  as  traced  in  the  writings 
of  Alexander  Hamilton  and  of  his  contem 
poraries."  It  is  needless  to  say  that  the 
controversies  between  the  two  families  have 
added  new  matter  of  great  value  to  the 
mass  of  documents  which  shed  light  on  our 
early  history  as  a  united  nation. 

It  would  be  tedious  to  enumerate  other 
works,  which  are  valuable  contributions  to 


our  annals ;  but,  in  1834,  George  Bancroft 
appeared  as  the  historian  of  the  United 
States,  or  rather  the  historian  of  the  process 
by  which  the  States  became  united.  He 
professed  to  have  seized  on  the  underlying 
Idea  which  shaped  the  destinies  of  the 
country ;  in  later  volumes  he  indicated  his 
initiation  in  the  councils  of  Providence ; 
and  though  his  last  volume  (the  tenth),  pub 
lished  in  1874,  only  brings  the  history  down 
to  the  conclusion  of  the  Revolutionary  war, 
his  labor  of  forty  years  has  confirmed  him 
in  his  historical  philosophy.  Bancroft  has 
been  prominent  in  American  politics  during 
all  this  period ;  he  has  been  successively 
Collector  of  the  port  of  Boston,  Secretary 
of  the  Navy,  American  minister  in  London 
and  Berlin,  and  has  thus  enjoyed  every  pos 
sible  advantage  of  correcting  his  declama 
tion  by  his  experience ;  but  his  tendency 
to  rhapsody  has  not  diminished  with  the 
increase  of  his  knowledge  and  his  years. 
He  has,  to  be  sure,  availed  himself  of  every 
opportunity  to  add  to  the  materials  which 
enter  into  the  composition  of  American  his 
tory,  and  has  been  as  indefatigable  in  re 
search  as  confident  in  theorizing.  The  dif 
ferent  volumes  of  his  work  are  of  various 
literary  merit,  but  they  are  all  stamped  by 
the  unmistakable  impress  of  the  historian's 
individuality.  There  is  no  dogmatism  more 
exclusive  than  that  of  fixed  ideas  and  ideals, 
and  this  dogmatism  Mr.  Bancroft  exhibits 
throughout  his  history  both  in  its  declama 
tory  ami  speculative  form.  Indeed,  there  are 
chapters  in  each  of  his  volumes  which,  con 
sidered  apart,  might  lead  one  to  suppose  that 
the  work  was  misnamed,  and  that  it  should 
be  entitled,  "  The  Psychological  Autobiog 
raphy  of  George  Bancroft,  as  Illustrated  by 
Incidents  and  Characters  in  the  Annals  of 
the  United  States."  Generally,  however,  his 
fault  is  not  in  suppressing  or  overlooking 
facts,  but  in  disturbing  the  relations  of  facts 
— substituting  their  relation  to  the  peculiar 
intellectual  and  moral  organization  of  the 
historian  to  their  natural  relations  with 
each  other.  Other  eminent  historians  might 
be  quoted  as  too  apt  to  disturb  the  natural 
relations  of  things  by  the  intrusion  of  their 
individual  point  of  view ;  but  they  so  con 
trive  to  diffuse  their  prepossessions  through 
every  part  of  the  narrative  that  the  conclu 
sions  they  reach  seem  to  be  the  inevitable 


382 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


result  of  their  presentation  of  the  facts. 
Mr.  Bancroft  begins  with  an  emphatic  state 
ment  of  lofty  abstractions,  which  his  nar 
rative  by  no  means  sustains.  There  is  a 
palpable  gulf  between  his  theories  and  the 
realities  he  brings  in  to  support  his  theories. 
This  inartistic  separation  of  thoughts  from 
things  deprives  his  history  of  the  unity 
which  we  feel  in  reading  such  historians  as 
Gibbon,  Grote,  and  Macaulay.  He  is  also 
accused  of  doing  gross  injustice  to  certain 
prominent  Americans,  and  of  refusing  to 
correct  his  demonstrated  mistakes.  His  pa 
triotism,  likewise,  is  sometimes  of  that  kind 
which  looks  not  so  much  to  the  glory  of  his 
country  as  to  its  glorification.  Admitting, 
however,  all  the  charges  against  him,  it 
must  still  be  said  that  he  has  written  the 
most  popular  history  of  the  United  States 
(up  to  1782)  which  has  yet  appeared,  and 
that  he  has  made  a  very  large  addition  to 
the  materials  on  which  it  rests.  Perhaps 
he  would  not  have  been  so  tireless  in  re 
search  had  he  not  been  so  passionately  ear 
nest  in  speculation. 

The  necessarily  slow  progress  of  Mr.  Ban 
croft's  history,  and  the  various  protests 
against  his  theories  and  his  judgments,  im 
pelled  Richard  Hildreth,  a  bold,  blunt,  hard- 
headed,  and  resolute  man,  caustic  in  temper, 
keen  in  intellect,  indefatigable  in  industry, 
and  blessed  with  an  honest  horror  of  shams, 
to  write  a  history  of  the  United  States,  in 
which  our  fathers  should  be  presented  ex 
actly  as  they  were,  "unbedaubed  with  pa 
triotic  rouge."  The  first  volume  was  pub 
lished  in  1849,  the  sixth  in  1852.  The  whole 
work  included  the  events  between  the  dis 
covery  and  colonization  of  the  continent 
and  the  year  1821.  As  a  book  of  reference, 
this  history  still  remains  as  the  best  in  our 
catalogues  of  works  on  American  history. 
The  style  is  concise,  the  facts  happily  com 
bined,  the  judgments  generally  good ;  and 
while  justice  is  done  to  our  great  men,  there 
is  every  where  observable  an  almost  vindic 
tive  contempt  of  persons  who  have  made 
themselves  "  great"  by  the  arts  of  the  dem 
agogue.  Hildreth  studied  carefully  all  the 
means  of  information  within  his  reach;  but 
his  plan  did  not  contemplate  original  re 
search  on  the  large  scale  in  which  it  was 
prosecuted  by  Bancroft. 

The  History  of  New  England,  by  John  G. 


Palfrey,  is  distinguished  by  thoroughness 
of  investigation,  fairness  of  judgment,  and 
clearness  and  temperance  of  style.  It  is 
one  of  the  ablest  contributions  as  yet  made 
to  our  colonial  history.  The  various  histo 
ries  of  Francis  Parkman,  The  Conspiracy  of 
Pontiac,  The  Pioneers  of  France  in  the  New 
World,  The  Jesuits  in  North  America,  The  Dis- 
covei-y  of  the  Great  West,  exhibit  a  singular 
combination  of  the  talents  of  the  historian 
with  those  of  the  novelist.  The  materials 
he  has  laboriously  gathered  are  disposed  in 
their  just  relations  by  a  sound  understand 
ing,  while  they  are  vivified  by  a  realizing 
mind.  The  result  is  a  series  of  narratives 
in  which  accuracy  in  the  slightest  details  is 
found  compatible  with  the  most  glowing  ex 
ercise  of  historical  imagination,  and  the  use 
of  a  style  singularly  rapid,  energetic,  and 
picturesque. 

William  H.  Prescott  had  one  of  those  hap 
pily  constituted  natures  in  which  intellect 
ual  conscientiousness  is  in  perfect  harmony 
with  the  moral  quality  which  commonly  mo 
nopolizes  the  name  of  conscience.  He  was 
as  incapable  of  lies  of  the  brain  as  of  lies 
of  the  heart.  When  he  undertook  to  write 
histories,  he  employed  an  ample  fortune  to 
obtain  new  materials,  sifted  them  with  the 
utmost  care,  weighed  opposing  statements 
in  an  understanding  which  was  unbiased 
by  prejudice,  and,  suppressing  the  laborious 
processes  by  which  he  had  arrived  at  defi 
nite  conclusions,  presented  the  results  of  his 
toil  in  a  narrative  so  easy,  limpid,  vivid,  and 
picturesque  that  his  delighted  readers  hard 
ly  realized  that  what  was  so  pleasing  and 
instructive  to  them  could  have  cost  much 
pain  and  labor  to  him.  Echoes  beyond  the 
Atlantic,  coming  from  England,  France,  Ger 
many,  Italy,  and  Spain,  gradually  forced  the 
conviction  into  the  ordinary  American  mind 
that  the  historian  of  Ferdinand  and  Isabel 
la,  of  the  conquerors  of  Mexico  and  Peru,  of 
Philip  the  Second,  had  in  his  quiet  Boston 
home  made  large  additions  to  the  history  of 
Europe  in  one  of  its  most  important  epochs. 
Humboldt  was  specially  emphatic  in  his 
praise.  Prescott  was  enrolled  among  the 
members  of  many  foreign  academies,  whose 
doors  were  commonly  shut  to  all  who  could 
not  show  that  they  had  made  contributions 
to  human  knowledge  as  well  as  to  human 
entertainment.  Much  of  his  foreign  repu- 


PRESCOTT  AND  MOTLEY. 


383 


tation  was  doubtless  due  to  his  lavish  ex 
penditure  of  mouey  to  obtain  rare  books  and 
copies  of  rare  MSS.  which  contained  novel 
and  important  facts ;  but  his  wide  popular 
ity  is  to  be  referred  to  his  possession  of  the 
faculty  of  historical  imagination ;  that  is, 
his  power  of  realizing  and  reproducing  the 
events  and  characters  of  past  ages,  and  of 
becoming  mentally  a  contemporary  of  the 
persons  whose  actions  he  narrated.  His 
partial  blindness,  which  compelled  him  to 
listen  rather  than  to  read,  and  to  employ  a 
cunningly  contrived  apparatus  in  order  to 
write,  was  in  his  case  an  advantage.  He 
had  the  eyes  of  friends  and  faithful  secreta 
ries  eager  to  serve  him.  What  passed  into 
his  ear  became  an  image  in  his  mind,  and  his 
bodily  infirmity  quickened  his  mental  sight. 
His  judgment  and  imagination  brooded  over 
the  throng  of  details  to  which  he  listened ; 
he  formed  a  mental  picture  out  of  the  dry 
facts ;  and  by  assiduous  thinking  he  dis 
posed  the  facts  in  their  right  relations  with 
out  losing  his  hold  on  their  vitality  as  pic 
tures  of  a  past  age.  People  who  passed  him 
in  his  daily  afternoon  walks  around  Boston 
Common  knew  that  his  thoughts  were  busy 
on  Ferdinand,  or  Cortez,  or  Pizarro,  or  Phil 
ip,  and  not  on  the  news  of  the  day ;  and  his 
rapid  pace  and  the  peculiar  swing  of  his 
cane  as  he  trudged  on  indicated  that  he  was 
looking  not  on  what  was  imperfectly  pres 
ent  to  his  bodily  eye,  but  on  objects  to  which 
physical  exercise  had  given  new  life  and  sig 
nificance  as  surveyed  by  the  eye  of  his  mind. 
His  intense  absorption  in  the  snbject-matter 
of  his  various  histories  gave  to  them  a  pe 
culiar  attractiveness  which  few  novels  pos 
sess.  Any  body  who,  after  reading  Lew  Wal 
lace's  recent  romance  of  The  Fair  God,  or  Dr. 
Bird's  Calavar,  will  then  turn  to  Prescott's 
History  of  the  Conquest  of  Mexico,  can  not  fail 
to  be  impressed  with  the  historian's  superi 
ority  to  the  romancer  in  the  mere  point  of 
romantic  interest. 

Another  American  historian,  John  Lothrop 
Motley,  the  author  of  The  Rise  of  the  Dutch 
Republic,  The  History  of  the  United  Nether 
lands,  The  History  of  John  of  Barneveld,  and, 
it  is  to  be  hoped,  of  the  great  Thirty  Years' 
War,  has  been,  like  Prescott,  untiring  in  re 
search,  has  made  large  additions  to  the  facts 
of  European  history,  has  decisively  settled 
many  debatable  questions  which  have  tried 


the  sagacity  of  French  and  German  histo 
rians  of  the  sixteenth  century,  and  has 
poured  forth  the  results  of  his  researches 
in  a  series  of  impassioned  narratives,  which 
warm  the  blood  and  kindle  the  imagination 
as  well  as  inform  the  understanding.  His 
histories  are,  in  some  degree,  epics.  As  ho 
frequently  crosses  Prescott's  path  in  his 
presentation  of  the  ideas,  passions,  and  per 
sons  of  the  sixteenth  century,  it  is  curious 
to  note  the  serenity  of  Prescott's  narrative 
as  contrasted  with  the  swift,  chivalric  im 
patience  of  wrong  which  animates  almost 
every  page  of  Motley.  Both  imaginatively 
reproduce  what  they  have  investigated ; 
both  have  the  eye  to  see  and  the  reason 
to  discriminate ;  both  substantially  agree 
in  their  judgment  as  to  events  and  char 
acters  ;  but  Prescott  quietly  allows  his  read 
ers,  as  a  jury,  to  render  their  verdict  on  the 
statement  of  the  facts,  while  Motley  some 
what  fiercely  pushes  forward  to  anticipate 
it.  Prescott  calmly  represents ;  Motley  in 
tensely  feels.  Prescott  is  On  a  watch-tower 
surveying  the  battle ;  Motley  plunges  into 
the  thickest  of  the  fight.  In  temperament 
no  two  historians  could  be  more  apart ;  in 
judgment  they  are  identical.  As  both  histo 
rians  are  equally  incapable  of  lying,  Motley 
finds  it  necessary  to  overload  his  narrative 
with  details  which  justify  his  vehemence, 
while  Prescott  can  afford  to  omit  them,  on 
account  of  his  reputation  for  a  benign  im 
partiality  between  the  opposing  parties.  A 
Roman  Catholic  disputant  would  find  it 
hard  to  fasten  a  quarrel  on  Prescott ;  but 
with  Motley  he  could  easily  detect  an  occa 
sion  for  a  duel  to  the  death.  It  is  to  be  said 
that  Motley's  warmth  of  feeling  never  be 
trays  him  into  intentional  injustice  to  any 
human  being ;  his  histories  rest  on  a  basis 
of  facts  which  no  critic  has  shaken ;  and  to 
the  merit  of  being  a  historian  of  wide  re 
pute,  it  is  to  be  added  that  he  has  ever  been 
a  stanch  friend,  in  the  emergencies  of  the 
politics  of  the  country,  to  every  cause  based 
on  truth,  honor,  reason,  freedom,  and  justice. 
The  same  high  chivalrous  tone  which  rings 
through  his  histories  has  been  heard  in  ev 
ery  crisis  of  his  public  career. 

The  European  histories  of  Prescott  and 
Motley  required  an  introduction,  and  this 
was  furnished  by  John  Foster  Kirk,  in  his 
History  of  Charles  the  Bold,  Duke  of  Bur- 


384 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


gundy.  The  breaking  up  of  the  feudal  sys 
tem  of  Europe,  and  the  gradual  establish 
ment  of  monarchies  and  states  after  the 
modern  fashion,  were  the  slow  results  of 
time.  Prescott  seized  on  an  important 
point  of  this  process  in  his  History  of  Ferdi 
nand  and  Isabella,  as  Robertson  had  in  his 
History  of  Charles  the  Fifth.  There  remain 
ed  for  a  historian  sufficiently  robust  in  re 
search  and  quick  in  intellect  a  domain  of 
history  still  imperfectly  investigated,  name 
ly,  that  of  the  struggles  between  Charles  of 
Burgundy  and  Louis  XI.  of  France,  the  lat 
ter  monarch  being  unquestionably  the  great 
disintegrating  force  which  was  brought  to 
bear  on  the  old  feudal  system.  Mr.  Kirk 
was  one  of  the  ablest,  most  scholarly,  and 
most  enthusiastic  of  Prescott's  secretaries. 
He  had  the  sagacity  to  perceive  the  im 
portance  of  the  period  of  which  he  proposed 
to  write  the  history,  and  the  perseverance 
to  execute  the  difficult  task.  Charles  and 
Louis  were  known  to  all  people  who  spoke 
the  English  tongue  by  Scott's  famous  novel 
of  Quentin  Durward.  and  his  feebler  conclud 
ing  romance  of  Anne  of  Geierstein;  and  Mr. 
Kirk  had  a  right  to  suppose  that  an  ac 
count  of  an  important  era  of  European  his 
tory  would  lose  none  of  its  attractiveness 
by  being  rigidly  conformed  to  historical 
facts.  As  to  his  research,  it  is  sufficient 
to  say  that  in  his  investigations  in  the 
archives  of  Switzerland  alone  he  was  proba 
bly  the  first  man  to  disturb  the  dust  which 
nearly  four  centuries  had  heaped  on  pre 
cious  manuscript  documents.  As  a  thinker 
he  is  always  ingenious,  and  as  generally 
sound  as  he  is  original.  In  narrative,  the 
richness  of  his  materials,  as  in  the  case  of 
Motley,  tempts  him  sometimes  into  seeming 
ly  needless  minuteness  of  detail.  All  our 
modern  historians  are  open  to  this  charge. 
It  is  hard,  when  a  writer  has  devoted  a  week 
or  a  month  to  the  discovery  or  verification 
of  a  fact,  that  he  should  be  refused  the  grat 
ification  of  devoting  a  sentence  or  a  para 
graph  to  its  statement.  The  History  of 
Charles  the  Bold  is  redundant  in  matter ;  its 
three  volumes  might  be  judiciously  con 
densed  into  two ;  but  whether  compression 
would  add  to  its  mere  interest  may  be 
doubted. 

Among  other  works  which  do  credit  to 
the  historical  literature  of  the  country  may 


be  named  The  Life  and  Correspondence  of  Na 
thaniel  Greene,  from  original  materials,  by 
George  W.  Greene — a  work  which,  of  its 
kind,  is  of  the  first  class.  The  same  writ 
er's  Historical  View  of  the  American  Revolution 
is  an  excellent  compend  drawn  from  origi 
nal  sources.  The  various  volumes  of  Rich 
ard  Frothiugham  are  admirable  for  accu 
racy  and  research.  On  the  general  subject 
of  history,  the  elaborate  work  of  Dr.  John 
W.  Draper,  The  History  of  the  Intellectual 
Development  of  Europe,  is  comprehensive  in 
scope,  brilliant  in  style,  and  bold  in  specu 
lation.  The  first  volume  of  The  History  of 
France,  by  Parke  Godwin,  is  so  good  that  it 
is  to  be  regretted  the  author  has  not  con 
tinued  his  task.  The  various  biographies 
written  by  James  Parton — namely,  the  lives 
of  Burr,  Jackson,  Franklin,  and  Jefferson — 
have  the  great  merit  of  being  entertaining, 
while  they  rest  on  a  solid  basis  of  facts 
which,  the  writer  has  diligently  explored. 
His  love  of  paradox,  though  a  fault,  cer 
tainly  gives  piquancy  to  his  lucid  narrative. 
He  starts  commonly  with  a  peculiar  theory, 
and  if  sometimes  unjust,  the  injustice  comes 
from  his  surveying  the  subject  from  an  ec 
centric  point  of  view,  and  not  from  any  de 
liberate  intention  to  misstate  facts  or  disturb 
their  relations.  The  Life  ofJosiah  Quincy,  by 
his  son,  Edmund  Quiucy,  is  an  admirably  ex 
ecuted  portrait  of  one  of  the  stoutest  spec 
imens  of  political  manhood  in  American 
history.  Like  Parton,  Quincy  interests  by 
reproducing  the  period  of  which  he  writes, 
and,  like  him,  is  a  painter  of  "interiors." 
The  Rise  and  Fall  of  the  Slave  Power  in  Amer 
ica,  by  Henry  Wilson,  is  the  work  of  a  man 
who  as  Senator  of  the  United  States  was 
long  in  the  thick  of  the  fight  against  slav 
ery,  who  knew  by  experience  the  thoughts, 
passions,  and  policies  of  the  parties  in  the 
contest,  and  who  wrote  the  history  of  the 
contest  with  simplicity,  earnestness,  and 
impartiality.  The  Life  of  Madison,  by  Will 
iam  C.  Rives,  is  a  work  of  interest  and  value. 
Among  the  antiquarians  and  anecdotists  who 
have  illustrated  American  history,  the  high 
est  reputation  belongs  to  Benson  J.  Lossing 
and  the  family  of  the  Drakes. 

In  military  history  and  biography,  the 
most  notable  work  the  country  has  pro 
duced  is  Memoirs  of  General  W.  T.  Sherman, 
Written  ly  Himself — or,  as  it  might  be  called, 


TICKNOR. 


385 


"My  Deeds  in  My  Words."  The  sharpness, 
conciseness,  and  arbitrariness  of  the  auto- 
biographer's  style  are  characteristic  of  the 
man.  He  is  intensely  conscious  of  his  su 
periority.  The  word  of  command  is  heard 
ringing  in  every  page  of  his  two  octavos. 
No  man  could,  without  being  laughed  at, 
have  written  what  he  has  written  unless 
he  had  done  what  he  has  done.  Through 
out  his  autobiography  he  appears  self-cen 
tred,  self-referring,  self-absorbed,  and,  when 
opposed,  prouder  than  a  score  of  Spanish 
hidalgoes.  Like  George  Eliot's  innkeeper, 
he  divides  human  thought  into  two  parts, 
namely,  "  my  idee,"  and  "  humbug ;"  there  is 
no  middle  point ;  but  then  his  intelligence  is 
as  solid,  quick,  broad,  and  full  of  resource  as 
his  will  is  defiantly  self-reliant.  Though 
there  is  something  bare,  bleak,  harsh,  abrupt, 
in  his  style,  his  blunt  egotism  every  now  and 
then  runs  into  a  rude  humor.  He  pats  on 
the  back  men  as  brave  if  not  as  skillful  as 
himself,  and  looks  down  upon  them  with 
good-natured  toleration  as  long  as  they  look 
up  to  him ;  but  when  they  do  not,  disbelief  in 
Sherman  denotes  incompetency  or  maligni 
ty  in  the  critic.  His  enmities  are  hearted, 
and  sometimes  vindictive.  The  grave  has 
closed  over  a  man  who  in  his  sphere  did  at 
least  as  much  as  Sherman  to  overturn  the 
rebellion,  and  yet  Sherman  spares  not  Secre 
tary  Stanton  dead  any  more  than  he  spared 
Stanton  living.  Still,  the  book  is  thorough 
ly  a  soldier's  book,  and  must  take  a  rank 
among  the  most  instructive  and  entertain 
ing  military  memoirs  ever  written. 

In  that  department  of  history  which  de 
scribes  the  rise  and  growth  of  literatures, 
the  most  important  work  which  has  been 
produced  by  an  American  scholar  is  The 
History  of  Spanish  Literature,  by  George  Tick- 
nor.  As  far  as  solid  and  accurate  learning 
is  concerned,  it  is  incomparably  the  best  his 
tory  of  Spanish  literature  in  existence,  and 
is  so  acknowledged  in  Spain.  The  author,  in 
his  travels  in  Europe,  sought  out  every  book 
which  shed  the  slightest  light  on  his  great 
subject.  The  materials  of  his  work  are  a 
carefully  selected  Spanish  library,  purchased 
by  himself.  He  deliberately  took  up  the 
subject  as  a  task  which  would  pleasingly 
occupy  a  lifetime.  The  latest  edition,  pub 
lished  shortly  after  his  death,  showed  that 
the  volumes  always  were  on  his  desk  for 
25 


supervision,  revision,  and  the  introduction 
of  new  facts,  and  that  lie  continued  pruning 
and  enlarging  his  work  to  the  day  when 
the  pen  dropped  from  his  hand.  In  research 
he  was  as  indefatigable  as  he  was  consci 
entious,  and  possessing  ample  leisure  and 
fortune,  he  tranquilly  exerted  the  powers  of 
his  strong  understanding  and  the  refine 
ments  of  his  cultivated  taste  in  forming 
critical  judgments,  which,  if  somewhat  pos 
itive,  had  the  positiveness  of  knowledge 
and  reflection.  Besides,  his  culture  was 
cosmopolitan ;  he  had  enjoyed  as  wide  op 
portunities  for  conversing  with  men  as 
with  books,  and  there  was  hardly  an  illus 
trious  European  scholar  or  man  of  letters 
of  his  time  with  whom  he  had  not  been  011 
terms  of  intimacy;  but  erudition  can  not 
confer  insight,  nor  can  genius  be  communi 
cated  by  mere  companionship  with  it.  Mr. 
Ticknor's  defect  was  a  lack  of  sympathy 
and  imagination,  and,  to  the  historian  of 
literature,  nothing  can  compensate  for  a  de 
ficiency  in  these.  He  could  not  mentally 
transform  himself  into  a  Spaniard,  and 
therefore  could  not  penetrate  into  the  se 
cret  of  the  genius  of  Spain.  He  studied  its 
great  writers,  but  he  did  not  look  into  and 
behold  their  souls.  There  was  something 
cold,  hard,  resisting,  and  repellent  in  his 
mind.  His  criticism,  therefore,  externally 
judicious,  had  not  for  its  basis  mental  facts 
vividly  conceived  and  vitally  interpreted. 
He  never  seemed  to  have  made  himself,  in 
imagination,  an  inhabitant  of  Spain ;  to 
have  felt  the  fine  intoxication  of  its  po 
etic  and  romantic  literature ;  to  have  re 
produced  by  sympathy  the  ecstasy  of  imag 
inative  creation ;  to  have  hospitably  taken 
into  his  mind  all  the  strange  moods  of  Span 
ish  thought  and  emotion  ;  to  have  been  ge 
nially  receptive,  in  short,  of  impressions  ab 
solutely  new  to  his  own  consciousness.  With 
all  his  immense  acquisitions,  he  used  his 
knowledge  somewhat  legally.  The  external 
evidence  was  drawn  from  Spanish  books; 
the  judicial  decisions  bore  unmistakable 
marks  of  having  been  delivered  from  his 
residence  on  Beacon  Hill,  Boston.  Had  Mr. 
Ticknor  possessed  the  realizing  imagination 
of  his  friend  Prescott — who  was  never  in 
Spain — he  would  have  made  what  is  now  a 
valuable  work,  also  a  work  of  fascinating 
interest  and  extensive  popularity. 


386 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


In  the  department  of  history  may  he  in 
cluded  works  on  the  origin,  progress,  or 
ganization,  comparison,  and  criticism  of  the 
religious  ideas  of  various  nations.  Three 
works  of  this  kind  have  heen  produced  in 
the  United  States  during  the  past  twenty 
years,  each  of  which  indicates  a  "  liberal" 
bias.  The  first  is  The  History  of  the  Doc 
trine  of  a  Future  Life,  by  William  R.  Alger. 
This  is  a  mine  of  generalized  information, 
obtained  by  great  labor,  and  sifted,  ana 
lyzed,  and  classified  with  care  and  skill. 
Indeed,  it  is  said  that  some  of  the  author's 
acquaintances,  knowing  the  comprehensive 
ness  of  the  plan,  and  seeing  year  after  year 
pass  by  without  any  signs  of  approaching 
publication,  gently  hinted  to  him  that  the 
book,  as  he  was  writing  it,  would  only  be 
finished  in  that  state  of  existence  which  it 
took  for  its  theme.  The  second  is  Oriental 
Religions,  by  Samuel  Johnson,  the  product 
of  a  learned,  intelligent,  and  intrepid  "  Free 
Religionist."  The  third  is  Ten  Great  Relig 
ions,  by  James  Freeman  Clarke.  The  bold 
ness  of  the  thinking  in  these  works  is  as 
noticeable  as  the  abundance  of  the  knowl 
edge. 

The  number  of  American  statesmen  who 
since  1810  have  combined  literary  with  po 
litical  talent  is  numerous — so  numerous,  in 
deed,  that,  in  despair  of  doing  justice  to  all, 
we  are  forced  to  select  three  representative 
men  as  indicating  three  separate  tendencies 
in  our  national  life.  These  are  John  C.  Cal- 
houn,  Daniel  Webster,  and  Charles  Sumner. 
Calhoun  specially  followed  the  Jefferson 
who  prompted  the  Resolutions  of  '98 ;  Sum 
ner,  the  Jefferson  who  wrote  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence;  Webster,  the  men 
who  drew  up  and  carried  into  effect  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States.  Calhoun 
was  in  politics  what  Calvin  was  in  theolo 
gy — a  great  deductive  reasoner  from  prem 
ises  assumed.  The  austerity  of  his  charac 
ter  found  a  natural  outlet  in  the  rigor  of 
his  logic.  He  had  the  grand  audacity  of 
the  intellectual  athlete,  pushed  his  argu 
mentation  to  its  most  extreme  results,  was 
willing  to  peril  life  and  fortune  on  an  in 
ference  ten  times  removed  from  his  origi 
nal  starting-point,  and  was  always  a  rea 
soning  being  in  matters  where  he  seemed  to 
be,  on  practical  grounds,  an  unreasonable 
one.  Despising  rhetoric,  he  became  a  rhet 


orician  of  a  high  class  by  pure  force  of  log 
ical  statement.  Every  word  he  used  meant 
something,  and  he  never  indulged  in  an  im 
age  or  illustration  except  to  condense  or  en 
force  a  thought.  In  the  discussions  in  the 
Senate  of  the  United  States  regarding  the 
very  foundations  of  the  government,  raised 
by  what  is  called  "  Foote's  Resolution," 
Webster,  in  1830,  made  his  celebrated  speech 
in  reply  to  Hayne.  In  all  the  resources  of  the 
orator — statement,  reasoning,  wit,  humor, 
imagination,  passion — this  speech  has,  like 
one  of  the  masterpieces  of  Burke,  acquired 
reputation  as  a  literary  work,  as  well  as  by 
its  lucid  exposition  of  constitutional  law. 
Webster  was  so  completely  victorious  over 
his  antagonist  in  argument  as  well  as  elo 
quence,  that  only  when  the  question  of  nul 
lification  came  up  was  his  triumph  serious 
ly  questioned.  Calhoun,  who  thought  that 
Hayne  had  not  made  the  most  of  the  argu 
ment  for  State  rights,  introduced,  in  Jan 
uary,  1833,  a  series  of  resolutions  into  the 
Senate,  carefully  modeled  on  the  Resolu 
tions  of  '98,  and  afterward  based  an  argu 
ment  upon  them  as  though  they  were  of  a 
validity  equal  to  that  of  the  Constitution 
itself.  The  speech  was  one  of  the  most  re 
markable  efforts  of  his  ingenious,  penetra 
ting,  and  logical  mind,  and  can  now  be 
studied  with  admiration  by  every  body  who 
enjoys  following  the  processes  of  impassion 
ed  deductive  reasoning  on  a  question  af 
fecting  the  life  of  individuals  and  of  States. 
Webster's  reply,  called  "  The  Constitution 
not  a  Compact  between  Sovereign  States," 
was  his  greatest  intellectual  effort  in  the 
sphere  of  pure  argumentation.  Calhoun,  a 
greater  reasoner  than  Jefferson  or  Madison, 
had  deduced  from  their  propositions — orig 
inally  thrown  out  to  serve  as  a  convenient 
cover  for  a  somewhat  factious  opposition  to 
the  administration  of  John  Adams — a  theo 
ry  of  the  government  of  the  United  States 
for  all  time  to  come.  Webster  resolutely 
attacked  the  premises  of  Calhoun's  speech, 
and  paid  little  attention  to  his  opponent's 
deductive  reasoning  from  the  premises.  Cal 
houn  retorted  in  a  speech  in  which  he  com 
plained  that  Webster  had  not  answered  his 
argument.  It  was  not  Webster's  policy  to 
discredit  Madison,  and  he  simply  declared 
that  Madison,  in  his  old  age,  had  repudiated 
such  inferences  as  Calhoun  had  drawn  from 


DANIEL  WEBSTER. 


387 


the  Resolutions  of  '98.  On  constitutional 
grounds  Webster  was  as  triumphant  in  his 
contest  with  Calhoun  as  he  had  been  in  his 
previous  contest  with  Hayne ;  but  argu 
ments  are  of  small  account  against  interests 
and  passions,  and  it  required  the  bloodiest 
and  most  expensive  of  civil  wars  to  prove 
that  strictly  logical  deductions  from  the 
Resolutions  of  '98  did  not  express  the  mean 
ing  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 
The  victory  intellectually  won  was  eventu 
ally  decided  by  "  blood  and  iron."  In  addi 
tion  to  Webster's  extraordinary  power  of 
lucid  statement,  on  which  he  based  the  suc 
cessive  steps  and  wide  sweep  of  his  argu 
mentation,  he  was  master  of  an  eloquence 
unrivaled  of  its  kind,  because  it  represent 
ed  the  kindling  into  unity  of  all  the  fac 
ulties  and  emotions  of  a  strong,  deep,  and 
broad  individual  nature.  Generally,  under 
standing  was  his  predominant  quality;  in 
statement  and  argument  he  seemed  to  be 
specially  desirous  to  unite  thought  with 
facts ;  he  distrusted  all  rhetoric  which  dis 
turbed  the  relations  of  things ;  but  in  the 
heat  of  controversy  he  occasionally  mount 
ed  to  the  real  elevation  of  his  character,  and 
threw  off  flashes  and  sparks  of  impassion 
ed  imagination  which  had  the  electric,  the 
smiting,  effect  of  a  completely  roused  na 
ture.  It  is  curious  that  he  never  exhibited 
the  higher  qualities  of  imagination  in  his 
speeches  until  the  suppressed  power  flamed 
unexpectedly  out  after  all  his  other  facul 
ties  had  been  thoroughly  kindled,  and  then 
it  came  with  formidable  effect.  That  Web 
ster  is  one  of  the  most  eminent  of  our  prose 
writers  is  acknowledged  both  at  the  North 
and  the  South.  He  was  also  a  magnificent 
specimen  of  physical  manhood;  his  mere 
presence  in  an  assembly  was  eloquence ;  and 
when  he  spoke,  voice  and  gesture  added  im 
mensely  to  the  effect  of  his  majestic  port 
and  bearing.  Fox  said  of  Lord  Chancellor 
Thurlow  that  he  must  be  an  impostor,  for  no 
man  could  be  as  wise  as  he  looked.  Web 
ster  was  wiser  in  look  than  even  Thurlow, 
but  his  works  show  that  he  was  no  impostor 
in  the  matter  of  political  wisdom,  laughable 
as  are  some  of  the  epithets  by  which  his 
admirers  exaggerated  his  claims  to  rever 
ence,  as  though  he  had  clapped  copyright 
on  political  thought.  In  the  heathenism 
of  partisan  feeling,  however,  few  deities  of 


party  were  more  worthy  of  apotheosis  than 
"  the  godlike  Dan !" 

Up  to  1850,  when  he  made  his  memorable 
"  7th  of  March  speech"  in  the  Senate,  Webster 
was  considered  the  leading  champion  of  the 
non-extension  of  slavery ;  but  in  that  speech 
he  waived  the  application  of  the  principle  to 
the  Territories  acquired  by  the  Mexican  war, 
though  he  contended  that  he  still  adhered 
to  the  principle  itself.  He  lost,  by  this 
concession,  his  hold  on  the  minds  and  con 
sciences  of  the  political  antislavery  men, 
and  the  position  he  vacated  was  eventually 
occupied  by  Charles  Sumner,  though  Sum- 
ner  had  numerous  competitors  for  that  sta 
tion  of  glory  and  difficulty.  Webster  must 
have  foreseen  the  inevitable  conflict  be 
tween  the  Slave  and  Free  States,  but  he  la 
bored  to  postpone  a  catastrophe  he  was 
powerless  to  prevent,  thinking  that  judi 
cious  compromise  might  soften  the  shock 
when  the  collision  of  irreconcilable  princi 
ples  and  persons  could  no  longer  be  avoided. 
Sumuer  in  heart  was  as  earnest  an  aboli 
tionist  as  Garrison  or  Phillips ;  his  soul  was 
on  fire  with  moral  enthusiasm ;  but  he  also 
had  a  vigorous  understanding,  and  a  memo 
ry  stored  with  a  vast  amount  of  historical 
and  legal  knowledge.  He  never  forgot  any 
thing  he  had  read,  and  he  passed  not  a  day 
without  reading.  Accordingly,  when  he  en 
tered  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  this 
philanthropic  student  -  statesman  was  as 
ready  in  citing  the  precedents  as  he  was 
fiery  in  declaring  the  principles  of  freedom. 
During  the  years  preceding  the  civil  war 
the  dominant  party  in  the  government  was 
bent  on  establishing  a  slave  power,  which, 
had  it  succeeded,  would  have  disgraced  the 
country  forever.  Law,  logic,  philosophy, 
even  theology,  were  in  the  South  all  subor 
dinated  to  the  permanence  and  extension 
of  negro  slavery,  and  hundreds  of  sermons 
south  of  Mason  and  Dixon's  line  inculcated 
the  refreshing  doctrine  that  if  Christ  came 
primarily  on  earth  to  save  sinners,  his  sec 
ondary,  though  not  less  important,  object 
was  to  enslave  "  niggers."  It  is  easy  to 
say  that  it  requires  no  parade  of  authori 
ties  to  settle  the  proposition  that  two  and 
two  make  four,  but  ethically  and  politically 
this  was  the  proposition  that  Charles  Sum 
ner  had  to  sustain  by  quotations  from  Vico 
and  Leibnitz,  from  Coke,  Mansfield,  Camden, 


388 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


and  Eldon,  from  Adams,  Jefferson,  Madison, 
Marshall,  Story,  and  Webster.  Those  who 
were  foiled  in  their  purposes  by  these  quo 
tations  from  authorities  they  could  not  but 
respect,  called  him  a  pedant ;  but  what  re 
ally  vexed  them  was  that  in  no  case  in 
which  this  pedant  encountered  an  opponent 
did  he  fail  to  justify  his  course  by  the  ex 
tent  of  his  knowledge,  as  well  as  by  the 
keenness  of  his  intellect  and  the  warmth  of 
his  sentiments.  When  the  civil  war  broke 
out,  he  saw  that  negro  slavery  was  doomed. 
In  his  endeavors  to  hasten  emancipation  he 
always  contrived  to  make  himself  unaccept 
able  to  the  more  prudent  statesmen  of  his 
own  party,  by  inaugurating  measures  which 
the  course  of  events  eventually  compelled 
them  to  adopt ;  and  after  the  war  he  dragged 
the  Republican  party  up  to  his  own  policy 
of  reconstruction,  being  in  most  cases  only 
some  six  or  twelve  months  ahead  of  what 
sober  and  judicious  Republicans  found  at 
length  to  be  the  wisest  course.  Throughout 
his  career  Sumner  was  felt  as  a  force  as  well 
as  an  intelligence,  and  probably  the  future 
historian  will  rank  him  high  among  the  se 
lect  class  of  American  public  men  who  have 
the  right  to  be  called  creative  statesmen. 
He  always  courted  obloquy,  not  only  when 
his  party  was  depressed,  but  when  it  was 
triumphant.  "  Forward !"  was  ever  his  mot 
to.  When  his  political  friends  thought  they 
had  at  last  found  a  resting-place,  his  voice 
was  heard  crying  loudly  for  a  new  advance. 
Many  of  his  addresses  belong  to  that  class 
of  speeches  which  are  events.  His  collected 
works,  carefully  revised  by  himself,  have 
now  become  a  portion  of  American  litera 
ture.  They  quicken  the  conscience  of  the 
reader,  but  they  also  teach  him  the  lesson 
that  moral  sentiment  is  of  comparatively 
small  account  unless  it  hardens  into  moral 
character,  and  is  also  accompanied  by  that 
thirst  for  knowledge  by  which  intellect  is 
broadened  and  enriched,  and  is  trained  to 
the  task  of  supporting  by  facts  and  argu 
ments  what  the  insight  of  moral  manliness 
intuitively  discerns.  Probably  no  states 
man  that  the  country  has  produced  has  ex 
ceeded  Sumner  in  his  passion  for  rectitude. 
In  every  matter  that  came  up  for  discussion 
he  vehemently  put  the  question,  "  Which  of 
the  two  sides  is  Right?"  He  so  persistent 
ly  capitalized  this  tremendous  monosylla 


ble;  and  poured  into  its  utterance  such  an 
amount  of  moral  fervor  or  moral  wrath,  that 
the  modest  word,  which  every  body  used 
without  much  regard  to  its  meaning,  blazed 
out  in  his  rhetoric,  not  as  a  feeble  and  faded 
truism,  but  as  a  dazzling  and  smiting  truth. 
It  is  in  discovering  the  hidden  meaning  of 
simple  words  that  great  men  have  often  ex 
hibited  the  full  force  of  their  genius.  In 
the  political  history  of  the  country  nobody 
has  excelled  Sumner  in  restoring  to  its  orig 
inal  majestic  significance  the  much-abused 
term  of  "  Right." 

A  word  may  be  said  here  of  two  public 
men,  one  of  whom  belongs  to  literature  by 
cultivation  and  of  set  purpose,  the  other  ac 
cidentally  and  in  the  ordinary  discharge  of 
his  public  duties.  Edward  Everett  was  one 
of  the  most  variously  accomplished  of  the 
American  scholars  who  have  been  drawn 
into  public  life  by  ambition  and  patriotism. 
Though  he  attained  high  positions,  his  na 
ture  was  too  sensitive  and  fastidious  for  the 
rough  contentions  of  party,  and  he  could 
not  steel  himself  to  bear  calumny  without 
wincing.  He  suffered  exquisite  mortifica 
tion  and  pain  at  unjust  attacks  on  his  prin 
ciples  and  character,  whereas  such  attacks 
awakened  in  Sumner  a  kind  of  exultation, 
as  they  proved  that  his  own  blows  were  be 
ginning  to  tell.  As  an  orator,  Everett's  spe 
cial  gift  was  persuasion,  not  invective.  The 
four  volumes  of  his  collected  works  are,  in 
elegance  and  energy  of  style,  wealth  of  in 
formation,  and  fertility  of  thought,  impor 
tant  contributions  to  American  literature ; 
but  being  mostly  in  the  form  of  speeches 
and  addresses,  they  have  not  produced  the 
impression  which  less  learning,  talent,  and 
eloquence,  concentrated  on  a  few  subjects, 
would  assuredly  have  made.  A  very  differ 
ent  man  was  Abraham  Lincoln.  He  was  a 
great  rhetorician  without  knowing  it.  The 
statesman  was  doubtless  astonished  that 
messages  and  letters,  written  for  purely 
practical  purposes,  should  be  hailed  by  fas 
tidious  critics  as  remarkable  specimens  of 
style.  The  truth  was  that  Lincoln  was  de 
ficient  in  fluency ;  he  was  compelled  to 
wring  his  expression  out  of  the  very  sub 
stance  of  his  nature  and  the  inmost  life  of 
the  matter  he  had  in  hand ;  and  the  result 
was  seen  in  sinewy  sentences,  in  which 
thoughts  were  close  to  things,  and  words 


THOREAU  AND  WHITMAN. 


389 


were  close  to  thoughts.  And  finally,  in 
November,  1863,  his  soul  devoutly  impressed 
with  the  solemnity  and  grandeur  of  his 
theme,  he  delivered  at  Gettysburg  an  ad 
dress  of  about  twenty  lines,  which  is  con 
sidered  the  top  and  crown  of  American  elo 
quence. 

There  are  certain  writers  in  American  lit 
erature  who  charm  by  their  eccentricity  as 
well  as  by  their  genius,  who  are  both  origi 
nal  and  originals.  The  most  eminent,  per 
haps,  of  these  was  Henry  D.  Thoreau — a  man 
who  may  be  said  to  have  penetrated  nearer 
to  the  physical  heart  of  nature  than  any 
other  American  author.  Indeed,  he  "  expe 
rienced"  nature  as  others  are  said  to  expe 
rience  religion.  Lowell  says  that  in  reading 
him  it  seems  as  "  if  all  out-doors  had  kept  a 
diary,  and  become  its  own  Montaigne."  He 
was  so  completely  a  naturalist  that  the  in 
habitants  of  the  woods  in  which  he  sojourn 
ed  forgot  their  well-founded  distrust  of 
man,  and  voted  him  the  freedom  of  their 
city.  His  descriptions  excel  even  those  of 
Wilson,  Audubon,  and  Wilson  Flagg,  ad 
mirable  as  these  are,  for  he  was  in  closer 
relations  with  the  birds  than  they,  and  car 
ried  no  gun  in  his  hand.  In  respect  to  hu 
man  society,  he  pushed  his  individuality  to 
individualism ;  he  was  never  happier  than 
when  absent  from  the  abodes  of  civiliza 
tion  ;  and  the  toleration  he  would  not 
extend  to  a  Webster  or  a  Calhoun,  he  ex 
tended  freely  to  a  robin  or  a  woodchuck. 
With  all  this  peculiarity,  he  was  a  poet,  a 
scholar,  a  humorist ;  also,  in  his  way,  a  phi 
losopher  and  philanthropist ;  and  those  who 
knew  him  best,  and  entered  most  thoroughly 
into  the  spirit  of  his  character  and  writings, 
are  the  warmest  of  all  the  admirers  of  his 
genius.  Another  Concord  hermit  is  W.  E. 
Channing,  who  has  adopted  solitude  as  a 
profession,  and  seclusion  from  his  kind  as 
the  condition  of  independent  perception 
of  nature.  The  thin  volume  of  poems  in 
which  he  has  embodied  his  insights  and 
experiences  contains  lines  and  verses  which 
are  remarkable  both  for  their  novelty  and 
depth.  A  serener  eccentric,  A.  Bronson  Al- 
cott,  is  eccentric  only  in  this,  that  he  thinks 
the  object  of  life  is  spiritual  meditation ;  that 
all  action  leads  up  to  this  in  the  end ;  and 
he  has  spent  his  life  in  tranquilly  exploring 
those  hidden  or  elusive  facts  of  the  higher 


consciousness  which  practical  thinkers  over 
look  or  ignore.  He  is  a  Yankee  seer  who 
has  suppressed  every  tendency  in  his  Yan 
kee  nature  toward  "argufying"  a  point. 
Very  diiferent  from  all  these  is  Walt  Whit 
man,  who  originally  burst  upon  the  literary 
world  as  "  one  of  the  roughs,"  and  whose 
"  barbaric  yawp"  was  considered  by  a  par 
ticular  class  of  English  critics  as  the  first 
original  note  which  had  been  struck  in 
American  poetry,  and  as  good  as  an  Indian 
war-whoop.  Wordsworth  speaks  of  Chat- 
terton  as  "  the  marvelous  boy  ;"  Walt  Whit 
man,  in  his  first  Leaves  of  Grass,  might  have 
been  styled  the  marvelous  "  b'hoy."  Walt 
protested  against  all  convention,  even  all 
forms  of  conventional  verse ;  he  seemed 
to  start  up  from  the  ground,  an  earth-born 
son  of  the  soil,  and  put  to  all  cultivated 
people  the  startling  question,  "What  do 
you  think  of  Me  ?"  They  generally  thought 
highly  of  him  as  an  original.  Nothing  is 
more  acceptable  to  minds  jaded  with  read 
ing  works  of  culture  than  the  sudden  ap 
pearance  of  a  strong,  rough  book,  expressing 
the  habits,  ideas,  and  ideals  of  the  uncul 
tivated  ;  but  unfortunately  Whitman  de 
clined  to  listen  to  the  suggestion  that  his 
daring  disregard  of  convention  should  have 
one  exception,  and  that  he  must  modify  his 
frank  expression  of  the  relations  of  the  sexes. 
The  author  refused,  and  the  completed  edi 
tion  of  the  Leaves  of  Grass  fell  dead  from 
the  press.  Since  that  period  he  has  un 
dergone  new  experiences ;  his  latest  books 
are  not  open  to  objections  urged  against 
his  earliest ;  but  still  the  Leaves  of  Grass, 
if  thoroughly  cleaned,  would  even  now  be 
considered  his  ablest  and  most  original 
work.  But  when  the  first  astonishment 
subsides  of  such  an  innovation  as  Walt 
Whitman's,  the  innovator  pays  the  penal 
ty  of  undue  admiration  by  unjust  neglect. 
This  is  true  also  of  Joaquiu  Miller,  whose 
first  poems  seemed  to  threaten  all  our  es 
tablished  reputations.  Each  succeeding  vol 
ume  was  more  coldly  received ;  and  though 
the  energy  and  glow  of  his  verse  were  the 
same,  the  public,  in  its  calmer  mood,  found 
that  the  richness  of  the  matter  was  not  up 
to  the  rush  of  the  inspiration. 

This  eccentric  deviation  from  accredited 
models  is  perhaps  best  indicated  in  Ameri 
can  humorists,  whoso  characteristic  is  ludi- 


390 


A  CENTUKY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


crons  absurdity.  George  H.  Derby  (or  John 
Phcenix)  was  perhaps  the  first  who  carried 
the  hyperboles  of  humor  to  the  height  of 
humoristic  extravaganzas.  There  are  few 
men  who  have  roused  a  greater  number 
of  irresistible  bursts  of  laughter  from  so 
limited  a  number  of  humorous  sketches. 
Indeed,  many  of  his  readers  have  his  whole 
works  by  heart,  and  never  recur  to  them 
without  honoriug  his  memory  by  a  fresh 
outbreak  of  merriment.  The  peculiarity  of 
the  whole  school  is  to  revel  in  the  most 
fantastic  absurdities  of  an  ingenious  fancy. 
There  is  a  Western  story  told  of  a  man  who 
was  so  strong  that  his  shadow  once  falling 
on  a  child  instantly  killed  it.  This  is  the 
kind  of  humor  iu  which  Americans  excel. 
Charles  F.  Browne  (Artemus  Ward),  indul 
ging  at  his  will  in  the  oddest  and  wildest 
caricatures,  still  contrived  to  make  his  show 
man  an  original  character,  and  to  stamp  on 
the  popular  imagination  an  image  of  the 
man,  as  well  as  to  tickle  the  risibilities  of 
the  public  by  his  sayings  and  doings.  Per 
haps  the  most  delicious  among  his  many  de 
licious  absurdities  was  his  grave  statement 
that  it  had  been  better  than  ten  dollars  in 
Jeff  Davis's  pocket "  if  he'd  never  been  born." 
S.  L.  Clemens  (Mark  Twain),  the  most  wide 
ly  popular  of  this  class  of  humorists,  is  a 
man  of  wide  experience,  keen  intellect,  and 
literary  culture.  The  serious  portions  of 
his  writings  indicate  that  he  could  win  a 
reputation  in  literature  even  if  he  had  not 
been  blessed  with  a  humorous  fancy  inex 
haustible  in  resource.  He  strikes  his  most 
effective  satirical  blows  by  an  assumption 
of  helpless  innocence  and  bewildered  for- 
lornness  of  mind.  The  reader  or  the  audience 
is  in  convulsious  of  laughter,  while  ho  pre 
serves  an  imperturbable  serenity  of  counte 
nance,  as  if  wondering  why  his  statement  is 
not  received  as  an  important  contribution 
to  human  knowledge.  Occasionally  he  in 
dulges  in  a  sly  and  subtle  stroke  of  humor, 
worthy  of  the  great  masters,  and  indicating 
that  his  extravagancies  are  not  the  limit  of 
his  humorous  faculty.  D.  R.  Locke  (Petro 
leum  V.  Nasby)  is  not  only  a  humorist,  but 
he  was  a  great  force  in  carrying  the  recon 
struction  measures  of  the  Republican  party, 
after  the  war,  by  his  laughable  but  coarse, 
broad,  and  merciless  pictures  of  the  lowest 
elements  in  the  Western  States  that  had 


been  opposed  to  the  policy  of  equal  justice. 
The  Nasty  Papers  are  exceedingly  amusing ; 
they  are  also  evidently  the  work  of  a  man  of 
clear  intelligence,  and  to  the  future  histori 
an  they  will  doubtless  be  considered  as  exert 
ing  an  influence  on  the  popular  mind  much 
greater  than  that  exerted  by  the  speeches 
of  many  eminent  legislators.  Though  they 
seem  to  be  extravagant  caricatures,  the  au 
thor  is  understood  to  insist  on  their  substan 
tial  truth  to  fact.  His  latest  satire  is  on 
paper  money ;  its  greatest  hit  is  Mr.  Nasby's 
statement  that  he  did  not  issue  fractional 
currency,  because  it  was  as  easy  to  print  a 
hundred-dollar  bill  as  one  for  fifty  cents. 
H. W.  Shaw  (Josh  Billings)  is  a  humorist  of 
such  bright  glimpses  of  practical  perception 
and  insight  that  one  wonders  why  he  strives 
to  vulgarize  his  sagacity  by  bad  spelling. 
Charles  G.  Leland,  an  accomplished  man  of 
letters,  the  best  translator  of  the  most  dif 
ficult  pieces  of  Heine,  has  won  a  large 
reputation  by  his  Hans  Breitmann  Ballads, 
Hans  being  a  lyrist  who  sings  seemingly 
from  the  accumulated  inspiration  drawn 
from  tuns  of  lager -beer.  B.  P.  Shillaber, 
not  so  prominent  as  others  we  have  named, 
has  given  a  new  life  to  Mrs.  Partington,  and 
has  added  Ike  to  the  family.  While  he  par 
ticipates  in  the  extravagance  of  the  popu 
lar  American  humorists,  he  has  a  demure 
humane  humor  of  his  own  which  is  quite 
charming.  It  would  be  impossible  in  our 
brief  space  to  note  all  the  writers  who  have 
followed,  with  more  or  less  ingenuity  of  in 
tellect,  in  what  seems  to  be  the  most  direct 
road  to  American  renown. 

Among  those  authors  who  combine  hu 
mor  with  a  variety  of  other  gifts,  the  most 
conspicuous  is  F.  Bret  Harte.  His  subtilty 
of  ethical  insight,  his  depth  of  sentiment, 
his  power  of  solid  characterization,  and  his 
pathetic  and  tragic  force  are  as  evident  as 
his  broad  perception  of  the  ludicrous  side 
of  things.  In  his  California  stories,  as  in 
some  of  his  poems,  he  detects  "the  soul  of 
goodness  in  things  evil,"  and  represents 
the  exact  circumstances  in  which  ruffians 
and  profligates  are  compelled  to  feel  that 
they  have  human  hearts  and  spiritual  na 
tures.  He  is  original  not  only  in  the  or 
dinary  sense  of  the  word,  but  in  the  sense 
of  discovering  a  now  domain  of  literature, 
and  of  colonizing  it  by  the  creations  of  his 


HAY,  HOWELLS,  AND  ALDRICH. 


391 


own  brain.  Perhaps  the  immense  popu 
larity  of  some  of  his  humorous  poems,  such 
as  "  The  Heathen  Chinee,"  has  not  been  fa 
vorable  to  a  full  recognition  of  his  graver 
qualities  of  heart  and  imagination. 

John  Hay  is,  like  Bret  Harte,  a  humorist, 
and  his  contributions,  in  Pike  County  Bal 
lads,  to  what  may  be  called  the  poetry  of 
ruffianism,  if  less  subtile  in  sentiment  and 
characterization  than  those  of  his  model, 
have  a  rough  raciness  and  genuine  manli 
ness  peculiarly  his  own.  His  delightful 
volume  called  Castilian  Days,  displaying  all 
the  graces  of  style  of  an  accomplished  man 
of  letters,  shows  that  it  was  by  a  strong  ef 
fort  of  imagination  that  he  became  for  a 
time  a  mental  denizen  of  Pike  County,  and 
made  the  acquaintance  of  Jim  Bludso,  and 
other  worthies  of  that  kind. 

The  writings  of  William  D.  Howells  are 
masterpieces  of  literary  workmanship,  re 
sembling  the  products  of  those  cunning 
artificers  who  add  one  or  two  thousand  per 
cent,  to  the  value  of  their  raw  material  by 
their  incomparable  way  of  working  it  up. 
What  they  are  as  artisans,  he  is  as  artist. 
His  faculties  and  emotions  are  in  exquisite 
harmony  with  each  other,  and  unite  to  pro 
duce  one  effect  of  beauty  and  grace  in  the 
singular  felicity  of  his  style.  He  has  humor 
in  abundance,  but  it  is  so  thoroughly  blend 
ed  with  his  observation,  fancy,  imagination, 
taste,  and  good  sense,  that  it  seems  to  es 
cape  from  him  in  light,  demure,  evanescent 
flashes  rather  than  in  deliberate  efforts  to 
be  funny.  He  has  revived  in  some  degree 
the  lost  art  of  Addison,  Goldsmith,  and  Ir 
ving.  Nobody  ever  "roared"  with  laugh 
ter  in  reading  any  thing  he  ever  wrote ;  but 
few  of  our  American  humorists  have  ex 
celled  him  in  the  power  to  unseal,  as  by  a 
magic  touch,  those  secret  interior  springs 
of  merriment  which  generally  solace  the 
soul  without  betraying  the  happiness  of  the 
mood  they  create  by  any  exterior  bursts  of 
laughter.  His  Venetian  Life,  Italian  Jour 
neys,  Suburban  Sketches — his  novels,  entitled 
Our  Wedding  Journey,  A  Chance  Acquaintance, 
and  A  Foregone  Conclusion — all  indicate  the 
presence  of  this  delicious  humorous  element, 
penetrating  his  picturesque  descriptions  of 
scenery,  as  well  as  his  refined  perceptions 
of  character  and  pleasing  narratives  of  in 
cidents.  His  prose  style,  with  its  "polished 


want  of  polish,"  and  elaborate,  deliberate 
simplicity,  is  marked  not  only  by  felicities 
of  diction,  but  by  the  continual  oversight 
of  an  exacting  taste.  Indeed,  the  story  goes 
that  when,  as  editor  of  The  Atlantic  Monthly, 
he  incurred  the  ire  of  a  rejected  contributor, 
the  latter  was  consoled  by  the  remark  of 
Howells  that  he  frequently  rejected  his  own 
contributions  when  he  found  that  they  did 
not  satisfy  his  austere  editorial  judgment. 

Charles  Dudley  Warner,  like  Howells,  is 
an  author  whose  humor  is  intermixed  with 
his  sentiment,  understanding,  and  fancy.  In 
My  Summer  in  a  Garden,  Back-log  Studies,  and 
other  volumes  he  exhibits  a  reflective  intel 
lect  under  the  guise  of  a  comically  sedate 
humor.  Trifles  are  exalted  into  importance 
by  the  incessant  play  of  his  meditative  fa- 
cetiovisness. 

Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich  first  won  his  rep 
utation  as  a  poet.  In  the  exquisite  ballad 
of  "  Babie  Bell,"  and  in  other  poems,  he  has, 
as  it  were,  so  dissolved  thought  and  feeling 
in  melody  that  rhyme  and  rhythm  seem  to 
be  necessary  and  not  selected  forms  of  ex 
pression.  As  a  prose  writer  he  combines 
pungency  with  elegance  of  style,  and  in  his 
stories  has  exhibited  a  sly  original  vein  of 
humor,  which,  while  it  steals  out  in  separate 
sentences,  is  most  effectively  manifested  in 
the  ludicrous  shock  of  surprise  which  the 
reader  experiences  when  he  comes  to  the  ca 
tastrophe  of  the  plot.  In  this  respect  Mar- 
jorie  Daw  is  one  of  the  best  prose  tales  in 
our  literature.  Aldrich  has  written  many 
others  constructed  on  a  similar  plan,  and 
almost  equally  attractive.  His  Story  of  a 
Bad  Boy  belongs  to  the  class  of  juvenile 
works,  and  it  is  a  charming  satire  on  the 
"  do-me-good"  narratives  which  are  so  copi 
ously  supplied  for  the  improvement  and  de 
lectation  of  American  lads. 

Among  the  American  novelists  who  have 
risen  into  prominence  during  the  past  thir 
ty  years,  the  greatest,  though  not  the  most 
popular,  is  Nathaniel  Hawthorne.  His  first 
romance,  The  Scarlet  Letter,  did  not  appear 
until  the  year  1850,  but  previously  he  had 
published  collections  of  short  stories  under 
the  titles  of  Twice-told  Tales  and  Mosses  from 
an  Old  Manse.  These  were  recognized  by  ju 
dicious  readers  all  over  the  country  as  mas 
terpieces  of  literary  art,  but  their  circula 
tion  was  ludicrously  disproportioned  to  their 


392 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


merit.  For  years  one  of  the  greatest  mod 
ern  masters  of  English  prose  was  valued  at 
his  true  worth  only  by  those  who  had  found 
by  experience  in  composition  how  hard  it  is 
to  be  clear  and  simple  in  style,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  be  profound  in  sentiment,  ex 
act  in  thought,  and  fertile  in  imagination. 
Most  of  these  short  stories  contain  the  germs 
of  romances,  and  a  literary  economist  of  his 
materials,  like  Scott  or  Dickens,  would  have 
expanded  Hawthorne's  hints  of  passion  and 
character  into  thrilling  novels.  The  Scarlet 
Letter,  the  romance  by  which  Hawthorne 
first  forced  himself  on  the  popular  mind  as 
a  genius  of  the  first  class,  was  but  the  ex 
pansion  of  an  idea  expressed  in  three  sen 
tences,  written  twenty  years  before  its  ap 
pearance,  in  the  little  sketch  of"Eudicott 
and  the  Cross,"  which  is  included  in  the  col 
lection  of  Twice-told  Talcs.  But  The  Scarlet 
Letter  exhibited  in  startling  distinctness  all 
the  resources  of  his  peculiar  mind,  and  even 
more  than  Scott's  Bride  of  Lammermoor  it 
touches  the  lowest  depths  of  tragic  woe  and 
passion — so  deep,  indeed,  that  the  represen 
tation  becomes  at  times  almost  ghastly.  If 
Jonathan  Edwards,  turned  romancer,  had 
dramatized  his  sermon  on  "Sinners  in  the 
Hand  of  an  Angry  God,"  he  could  not  have 
\vritten  a  more  terrific  story  of  guilt  and 
retribution  than  The  Scarlet  Letter.  The  pit 
iless  intellectual  analysis  of  the  emotions  of 
guilty  souls  is  pushed  so  far  that  the  read 
er,  after  being  compelled  to  sympathize  with 
the  Puritanic  notion  of  Law,  sighs  for  some 
appearance  of  the  consoling  Puritanic  doc 
trine  of  Grace.  Hawthorne,  in  fact,  was  a 
patient  observer  of  the  operation  of  spirit 
ual  laws,  and  relentless  in  recording  the  re 
sults  of  his  observations.  Most  readers  of 
romances  are  ravenous  for  external  events ; 
they  demand  that  the  heroes  and  heroines 
shall  be  swift  in  thought,  confident  in  de 
cision,  rapid  in  act.  In  Hawthorne's  novels 
the  events  occur  in  the  hearts  and  minds  of 
his  characters,  and  our  attention  is  fastened 
on  the  ecstasies  or  agonies  of  individual 
souls  rather  than  on  outward  acts  and  inci 
dents  ;  at  least,  the  latter  appear  trivial  in 
comparison  with  the  inward  mental  states 
they  imperfectly  express.  Carlyle  says  that 
real  genius  in  characterization  consists  in 
developing  character  from  "  within  out 
ward."  Hawthorne's  mental  sight  in  dis 


cerning  souls  is  marvelously  penetrating 
and  accurate,  but  he  finds  it  so  difficult  to 
give  them  an  adequate  physical  embodi 
ment  that  their  very  flesh  is  spiritualized, 
and  appears  to  be  brought  into  the  repre 
sentation  only  to  give  a  kind  of  phantasmal 
form  to  purely  mental  conceptions.  These 
souls,  while  intensely  realized  as  individu 
als,  are,  however,  mere  puppets  in  the  play 
of  the  spiritual  forces  and  laws  behind 
them,  and  while  seemingly  gifted  with  will, 
even  to  the  extent  of  indulging  in  all  the  ca 
prices  of  willfulness,  they  drift  to  their  doom 
with  the  certainty  of  fate.  In  this  twofold 
power  of  insight  into  souls,  and  of  the  spir 
itual  laws  which  regulate  both  the  natu 
ral  action  and  morbid  aberrations  of  souls, 
Hawthorne  is  so  incomparably  great  that 
in  comparison  with  him  all  other  romancers 
of  the  century,  whether  German,  French, 
English,  or  American,  seem  to  be  superficial. 
The  defect  of  his  method  was  that  he  pene 
trated  to  such  a  depth  into  the  human  heart, 
and  recorded  so  mercilessly  its  realities  and 
possibilities  of  sin  and  selfishness  as  they 
appeared  to  his  piercing,  passionless  vision 
of  the  movements  of  passion,  that  he  rather 
frightened  than  pleased  the  ordinary  novel- 
reader.  The  old  woman  who  sagely  con 
cluded  that  she  must  be  sick,  because  in 
reading  the  daily  newspaper  she  did  not,  as 
was  her  wont,  "  enjoy  her  murders,"  uncon 
sciously  hit  on  the  distinction  which  sepa 
rates  artistic  representations  of  human  life 
which  include  crime  and  misery  from  those 
representations  in  which  the  prominence 
of  crime  and  misery  is  so  marked  as  to  be 
come  unpalatable.  Hawthorne  did  not  suc 
ceed  in  making  his  psychological  pictures 
of  sin  and  woe  "  enjoyable."  The  intensity 
of  impassioned  imagination  which  flames 
through  every  page  of  The  Scarlet  Letter  was 
unrelieved  by  those  milder  accompaniments 
which  should  have  been  brought  in  to  soft 
en  the  effect  of  a  tragedy  so  awful  in  itself. 
Little  Pearl,  one  of  the  most  exquisite  cre 
ations  of  imaginative  genius,  is  introduced 
not  to  console  her  parents,  but,  in  her  wild, 
innocent  willfulness,  to  symbolize  their  sin, 
and  add  new  torments  to  the  slow-consum 
ing  agonies  of  remorse.  The  Scarlet  Letter  is 
incidentally  the  strongest  of  all  arguments 
against  the  heresy  of  "  free  love."  In  The 
House  of  the  Seven  Gables,  The  Blithedale  Ro- 


HAREIET  BEECHER  STOWE. 


393 


mance,  and  The  Marble  Faun,  Hawthorne  deep 
ened  the  impression  made  by  his  previous 
writings  that  he  did  not  possess  his  genius, 
but  was  possessed  by  it.  The  most  powerful 
of  his  creations  of  character  were  inspired 
not  by  his  sympathies,  but  his  antipathies. 
Personally  he  was  the  most  gentle  and 
genial  and  humane  of  men.  He  detested 
many  of  the  characters  in  whose  delinea 
tion  he  exerted  the  full  force  of  his  intel 
lect  and  imagination ;  but  he  was  so  men 
tally  conscientious  that  he  never  exercised 
the  right  of  the  novelist  to  kill  the  person 
ages  who  displeased  him  at  his  own  will 
and  pleasure.  So  intensely  did  he  realize 
his  characters  that  to  run  his  pen  through 
them,  and  thus  blot  them  out  of  existeuce, 
would  have  seemed  to  him  like  the  commis 
sion  of  willful  murder.  He  watched  and 
noted  the  operation  of  spiritual  laws  on  the 
malignant  or  feeble  souls  he  portrayed,  but 
never  interfered  personally  .to  divert  their 
fatal  course.  In  thus  emphasizing  the  trag 
ic  element  in  Hawthorne's  genius,  we  may 
hav«  too  much  overlooked  his  deep  and  del 
icate  humor,  his  ingenuity  of  playful  fancy, 
Ms  felicity  in  making  a  landscape  visible 
to  the  soul  as  well  as  the  eye  by  his  charm 
ing  power  of  description,  and  the  throng  of 
thoughts  which  accompany  every  step  in 
the  progress  of  his  narrative.  Not  the  least 
remarkable  characteristic  of  this  remarka 
ble  man  was  the  prevailing  simplicity,  clear 
ness,  sweetness,  purity,  and  vi  gor  of  his  style, 
even  when  his  subjects  might  have  justified 
him  in  deviating  into  some  form  of  Carlylese. 
The  most  widely  circulated  novel  ever 
published  in  this  country,  or  perhaps  in  any 
other,  is  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin,  by  Mrs.  Harriet 
Beecher  Stowe.  The  book  has  in  the  Unit 
ed  States  attained  a  sale  of  over  350,000  cop 
ies,  and  after  the  lapse  of  twenty-four  years 
the  demand  for  it  still  continues.  It  has 
been  translated  into  almost  every  known 
language.  Inspired  by  the  insurrection  of 
the  public  conscience  against  the  Fugitive 
Slave  Law,  its  popularity  has  survived  the 
extinction  of  slavery  itself.  Its  original 
publication,  in  1852,  was  an  important  po 
litical  event.  It  practically  overturned  the 
arguments  of  statesmen  and  decisions  of  ju 
rists  by  an  irresistible  appeal  to  the  heart 
and  imagination  of  the  American  people.  It 
was  one  of  the  most  powerful  agencies  in 


building  up  the  Republican  party,  in  elect 
ing  Abraham  Lincoln  to  the  Presidency,  and 
in  raising  earnest  volunteers  for  the  great 
crusade  against  slavery.  This  effect  was 
produced  not  by  explosions  of  moral  wrath 
against  the  iniquity  it  assailed,  not  by 
righteous  vituperation  of  the  liberticides 
who  meanly  lent  themselves  to  the  sup 
port  of  the  slave  power,  but  by  a  vivid 
dramatic  presentation  of  the  facts  of  the 
case,  in  which  complete  justice  was  done 
equally  to  the  slave-holder  and  the  slave. 
And  the  humor,  the  pathos,  the  keen  obser 
vation,  the  power  of  characterization,  dis 
played  in  the  novel  were  all  penetrated  by 
an  imagination  quickened  into  activity  by 
a  deep  and  humane  religious  sentiment. 
Next  to  Uncle  Tom,  The  Minister's  Wooing  is 
the  best  of  Mrs.  Stowe's  novels.  Her  Old- 
town  Folks  and  Sam  Lawson's  Stones  are  full 
of  delightful  Yankee  humor. 

It  is  impossible  for  us  to  spare  the  space 
for  even  an  inadequate  notice  of  all  the  nov 
elists  of  the  United  States.  At  the  time 
(1827)  Miss  Catharine  M.  Sedgwick  publish 
ed  Hope  Leslie  she  easily  took  a  prominent 
position  in  our  literature,  in  virtue  not  only 
of  her  own  merits,  but  of  the  comparative 
absence  of  competitors.  Since  then  there 
has  appeared  a  throng  of  writers  of  roman 
tic  narratives,  and  the  number  is  constantly 
increasing.  We  are  compelled  to  confine 
our  remarks  to  a  few  of  the  representative 
novelists.  William  Ware  gained  a  just  rep 
utation  by  his  Letters  from  Palmyra  (1836). 
The  style  is  elegant,  the  story  attractive, 
and  the  pictures  of  the  court  of  Zenobia  are 
represented  through  a  visionary  medium 
which  gives  to  the  representation  a  certain 
charming  poetic  remoteness.  Charles  Fen- 
no  Hoffman,  a  poet  as  well  as  prose  writer, 
whose  song  of  "  Sparkling  and  Bright"  has 
probably  rung  over  the  emptying  of  a  mill 
ion  of  Champagne  bottles,  was  a  man  who 
delighted  in  "wild  scenes  in  forest  and  prai 
rie,"  and  whose  Greyslaer  shows  the  energy 
of  his  nature,  as  well  as  the  brilliancy  of  his 
intellect.  R.  B.  Kimball  is  noted  for  his 
business  novels,  and  his  heart-breaks  come 
not  from  failures  in  love,  but  from  failures 
in  traffic.  Donald  G.  Mitchell,  in  his  Rev 
eries  of  a  Bachelor,  originated  a  new  style, 
in  which  a  certain  delightful  daintiness  of 
sentiment  was  combined  with  a  fertile  fancy 


394 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


and  touches  of  humorous  good  sense.  Syl 
vester  Judd,  a  Unitarian  clergyman,  went 
into  the  great  lumber  region  of  Maine,  and 
came  out  of  it  to  record  his  observations, 
experiences,  and  insights  in  the  novel  of 
Margaret,  which  Lowell  once  affirmed  to  be 
the  most  intensely  American  book  ever  writ 
ten.  Thomas  W.  Higginson,  distinguished 
in  many  departments  of  literature  for  the 
thoroughness  of  his  culture  and  the  classic 
simplicity  and  elegance  of  his  style,  is  the 
author  of  a  novel  called  Malbone,  quite  uot- 
able  for  beauty  of  description,  ingenuity  of 
plot,  and  subtilty  of  characterization.  Her 
man  Melville,  after  astonishing  the  public 
with  a  rapid  succession  of  original  novels, 
the  scene  of  which  was  placed  in  the  islands 
of  the  Pacific,  suddenly  dropped  his  pen,  as 
if  in  disgust  of  his  vocation.  Mrs.  Harri 
et  Prescott  Spoiford  is  the  author  of  many 
thrilling  stories,  written  in  a  style  of  per 
haps  exaggerated  splendor,  but  in  which 
prose  is  flushed  with  all  the  hues  of  poetry. 
Maria  S.  Cummins  published  in  1854  a  nov 
el  called  The  Lamplighter,  which  attained  an 
extraordinary  popularity,  owing  to  the  sim 
plicity,  tenderness,  pathos,  and  naturalness 
of  the  first  hundred  pages.  Seventy  thou 
sand  copies  were  sold  in  a  year.  Miss  E.  S. 
Phelps,  in  her  Gates  Ajar,  Hedged  In,  and  in 
a  variety  of  minor  tales,  has  exhibited  a 
power  of  intense  pathos  which  almost  pains 
the  reader  it  melts.  Henry  James,  Jun. — 
long  may  it  be  before  the  "Jun."  is  detached 
from  his  name! — has  a  deep  and  delicate 
perception  of  the  internal  states  of  excep 
tional  individuals,  and  a  quiet  mastery  of 
the  resources  of  style,  which  make  his  sto 
ries  studies  in  psychology  as  well  as  models 
of  narrative  art.  J.  W.  De  Forest,  the  au 
thor  of  Kate  Beaumont  and  other  novels,  is  a 
thorough  realist,  whose  characterization,  an 
imated  narrative,  well-contrived  plots,  and 
pitiless  satire  only  want  the  relief  of  ideal 
sentiment  to  make  them  as  pleasing  as  they 
are  powerful.  Edward  Everett  Hale,  the 
author  of  The  Man  without  a  Country,  My  Dou 
ble,  and  How  he  Undid  Me,  and  Sybaris  and 
Other  Homes,  is  fantastically  ingenious  in  the 
plan  and  form  of  his  narratives,  but  he  uses 
his  ingenuity  in  the  service  of  good  sense 
and  sound  feeling,  while  he  inspires  it  with 
the  impulses  of  a  hopeful,  vigorous,  and  elas 
tic  spirit.  Miss  Louisa  M.  Alcott,  in  her  Lit 


tle  rFomen  and  Little  Men,  has  almost  revolu 
tionized  juvenile  literature  by  the  audacity 
of  her  innovations.  She  thoroughly  under 
stands  that  peculiar  element  in  practical 
youthful  character  which  makes  romps  of 
so  many  girls  and  "roughs"  of  so  many  boys. 
Real  little  women  and  real  little  men  look 
into  her  stories  as  into  mirrors  in  order  to  get 
an  accurate  reflection  of  their  inward  selves. 
She  has  also  a  tart,  quaint,  racy,  witty  good 
sense,  which  acts  on  the  mind  like  a  tonic. 
Her  success  has  been  as  great  as  her  rejec 
tion  of  conventionality  in  depicting  lads 
and  lasses  deserved.  Mrs.  A.  D.  T.  Whitney 
has  more  sentiment  and  a  softer  manner  of 
representation  than  Miss  Alcott ;  but  she  has 
originality,  though  of  a  different  kind ;  and 
her  books,  like  those  of  Miss  Alcott,  have 
penetrated  into  households  in  every  part 
of  the  country,  and  their  characters  have 
been  domesticated  at  thousands  of  firesides. 
Faith  Gartney  especially  is  a  real  friend  and 
acquaintance  to  many  a  girl  who  has  no 
other.  William  G.  Simms,  the  most  prolific 
of  American  historical  novelists,  and  in  tire 
less  intellectual  energy  worthy  of  all  re 
spect,  failed  to  keep  his  hold  on  the  popular 
mind  by  the  absence  in  his  vividly  described 
scenes  of  adventure  of  that  peculiar  some 
thing  which  gives  to  such  scenes  a  perma 
nent  charm.  Theodore  Winthrop,  the  au 
thor  of  Cecil  Dreeme,  John  Brent,  and  other 
striking  and  admirable  tales,  rose  suddenly 
into  popularity,  and  as  suddenly  declined — 
a  conspicuous  instance  of  the  instability  of 
the  romancer's  reputation.  J.  G.  Holland 
has  succeeded  in  every  thing  he  has  under 
taken,  whether  as  a  sort  of  lay  preacher  to 
the  young,  as  an  essayist,  as  a  novelist,  or 
as  a  poet.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  take  up 
any  late  edition  of  any  one  of  his  numerous 
volumes  without  finding  "  fortieth  thousand" 
or  "  sixtieth  thousand"  smiling  complacent 
ly  and  benignly  upon  you  from  the  title- 
page.  Both  in  verse  and  prose  he  lias  ad 
dressed  the  bourgeoisie  of  readers,  disdain 
ing  to  court  the  proletariat,  and  disregard 
ing  the  fleers  of  the  patricians.  Mrs.  Mary 
J.  Holmes,  the  author  of  Lena  Rivers,  Mrs. 
Terhune  (Marian  Harlaud),  the  author  of 
Hidden  Path,  Mrs.  Augusta  Evans  Wilson, 
the  author  of  St.  Elmo,  are  novelists  very 
different  from  Dr.  Holland,  yet  whose  works 
have  obtained  a  circulation  corresponding 


INDIVIDUAL  POEMS. 


395 


in  extent.  We  pause  here  in  reading  the 
list,  not  for  want  of  subjects,  but  for  want 
of  space,  and  also,  it  must  be  confessed,  for 
want  of  epithets. 

It  is  a  great  misfortune  that  the  temp 
tation  which  besets  clever  people  to  write 
mediocre  verses,  and  afterward  to  collect 
them  in  a  volume,  is  irresistible.  Time,  and 
short  time  at  that,  proves  the  truth  of  Mr. 
Jonathan  Oldbuck's  remark,  that  "  your  fu 
gitive  poetry  is  apt  to  become  stationary 
with  the  publisher."  Even  when  a  little 
momentary  reputation  is  acquired,  the  writ 
ers  are  soon  compelled  to  repeat  mournful 
ly  the  refrain  of  Pierpont's  beatitiful  and 
pathetic  poem,  "  Passing  away  !  passing 
away !"  It  is  not  one  of  the  least  mysteries 
of  this  mismanagement  of  talent  that  the 
want  of  public  recognition  does  not  ap 
pease  the  desire  to  attain  it.  As  a  gener 
al  rule,  books  of  verses,  even  good  verses, 
are  the  most  unsalable  of  human  products. 
There  are  numerous  cases  where  genuine 
poetic  faculty  and  inspiration  fail  to  make 
the  slightest  impression  on  the  public  im 
agination.  The  most  remarkable  instance 
of  this  kind  in  our  literature  is  found  in  the 
case  of  Mrs.  Maria  Brooks  (Maria  del  Occi- 
deute),  who  printed,  some  forty  years  ago,  a 
poem  called  "  Zophiel,  or  the  Bride  of  Sev 
en,"  which  Southey  warmly  praised,  which 
was  honored  with  a  notice  in  the  London 
Quarterly  Review,  which  deserved  most  of 
the  eulogy  it  received,  which  fell  dead  from 
the  press,  and  which  not  ten  living  Amer 
icans  have  ever  read.  Again,  some  of  the 
most  popular  and  most  quoted  poems  in  our 
literature  are  purely  accidental  hits,  and 
their  authors  are  rather  nettled  than  pleased 
that  their  other  productions  should  be  neg 
lected  while  such  prominence  is  given  to 
one.  Thus  it  might  be  somewhat  danger 
ous  now  to  compliment  T.  W.  Parsons  for 
his  "  Lines  on  a  Bust  of  Dante,"  because  he 
has  become  sick  of  praise  confined  to  that 
piece,  while  the  delicate  beauty  of  scores 
of  his  other  poems,  and  his  noble  rhymed 
translation  of  "Dante's  Inferno,"  find  few 
readers.  Miss  Lucy  Larcom,  when  she  pic 
tured  "Hannah  Binding  Shoes,"  did  not 
dream  that  Hannah  was  to  draw  away  at 
tention  from  her  other  heroines,  and  concen 
trate  it  upon  herself.  Freneau's  "  Indian 
Burying -Ground"  is  the  only  piece  of  that 


poet  which  survives.  "The  Gray  Forest  Ea 
gle"  of  A.  B.  Street  has  screamed  away  atten 
tion  from  his  "  rippling  of  waters  and  wav 
ing  of  trees" — from  his  hundreds  of  pages 
of  descriptive  verse  which  are  almost  pho 
tographs  of  natural  scenery.  People  quote 
the  "  Summer  in  the  Heart"  and  "  A  Life  on 
the  Ocean  Wave"  of  Epes  Sargent,  and  over 
look  many  better  specimens  of  his  melody 
and  his  imagination.  There  are  some  poems 
which  almost  every  body  has  read,  which 
are  commonly  considered  the  only  poems  of 
the  writers.  Such  are  "  The  Star-spangled 
Banner,"  by  F.  S.  Key ;  "  Woodman,  Spare 
that  Tree"  (very  insipid,  by -the -way),  by 
George  P.  Morris ;  "  A  Hymn,"  by  Joseph  H. 
Clinch ;  "  The  Baron's  Last  Banquet"  and 
"  Old  Grimes  is  Dead,"  by  A.  G.  Greene ; 
"  My  Life  is  like  the  Summer  Rose,"  by  R. 
H.  Wilde ;  "  Sweet  Home,"  by  John  Howard 
Payne ;  "  The  Christmas  Hymn,"  by  E.  H. 
Sears ;  "  The  Old  Oaken  Bucket,"  by  Samuel 
Woodworth;  "Milton's  Prayer  of  Patience," 
by  Elizabeth  Lloyd  Howell;  "The  Relief 
of  Lucknow,"  by  Robert  Lowell ;  "  The  Old 
Sergeant,"  by  Forceythe  Wilson ;  "  The  Vag 
abonds,"  by  J.T.Trowbridge ;  and  "  Gnosis," 
by  C.  P.  Crauch.  There  are  other  pieces, 
like  the  "  Count  Paul,"  and  especially  the 
"  Theodora,"  of  Mrs.  Drinker  (Edith  May), 
which  seem  to  be  more  deserving  of  success 
than  some  of  those  which  have  attained  it. 
But  little  justice  has  been  done  to  the  po 
etic  and  dramatic  talent  of  George  H.Boker. 
"The  King's  Bell,"  exquisite  for  the  limpid 
flow  of  its  verse  and  the  sweetly  melan 
choly  tone  of  its  thought,  together  with 
other  poems  by  Richard  Henry  Stoddard, 
have  not  received  their  duo  meed  of  praise. 
T.  Buchanan  Read  wrote  volumes  of  rich 
descriptive  poetry,  but  the  popularity  of 
"  Sheridan's  Ride"  is  not  sufficient  to  at 
tract  attention  to  them. 

In  thus  commenting  on  the  instability 
and  uncertainty  of  the  public  taste  in  re 
spect  to  poets,  we  have  unconsciously  indi 
cated  quite  an  excellent  body  of  American 
poetry,  and  we  may  proceed  with  the  enu 
meration. 

W.  W.  Story,  famous  as  a  sculptor,  is  also 
a  poet,  who  throws  into  verse  the  same  en 
ergy  of  inspiration  which  is  so  obvious  in 
his  statues.  Mrs.  Frances  S.  Osgood  had  a 
singularly  musical  nature,  and  her  poems 


396 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


sing  of  themselves.  She  did  not  appear  to 
feel  the  fetters  of  rhyme ;  she  danced  in 
them.  Her  poems,  however,  have  the  thin 
ness  of  substance  which  often  accompanies 
quickness  of  sensibility  and  activity  of 
fancy.  As  it  is,  the  reader  rises  from  the 
perusal  of  her  poems  with  a  delicious  mel 
ody  in  his  ears,  a  charming  feeling  in  his 
heart,  and  with  but  few  thoughts  in  his 
head.  Mrs.  M.  J.  Preston  has  a  more  robust 
intellect,  greater  intensity  of  feeling,  and 
more  force  of  imagination  than  Mrs.Osgood, 
though  lacking  her  lovely  grace  and  be 
witching  melodiousness ;  but  Mrs.  Osgood 
could  not  have  Avritten  a  poem  so  deeply 
pathetic  as  "Keeping  his  Word."  Henry 
Tirnrod  and  Paul  H.  Hayne  are,  with  Mrs. 
Preston,  the  most  distinguished  poets  of 
the  South.  Timrod's  ode  sung  on  the  oc 
casion  of  decorating  the  graves  of  the  Con 
federate  dead  is,  in  its  simple  grandeur,  the 
noblest  poem  ever  written  by  a  Southern 
poet.  Hayne  exhibits  in  all  his  pieces  a 
rich  sensuousuess  of  nature,  a  seemingly  ex- 
haustless  fertility  of  fancy,  an  uncommon 
felicity  of  poetic  description,  and  an  easy 
command  of  the  harmonies  of  verse.  John 
G.  Saxe  owes  his  wide  acceptance  with  the 
public  not  merely  to  the  elasticity  of  his 
verse,  the  sparkle  of  his  wit,  and  the  famil 
iarity  of  his  topics,  but  to  his  power  of  dif 
fusing  the  spirit  of  his  own  good  humor. 
The  unctuous  satisfaction  he  feels  in  put 
ting  his  mood  of  merriment  into  rhyme  is 
communicated  to  his  reader,  so  that,  as  it 
were,  they  laugh  joyously  together.  Ed 
mund  Clarence  Stedman,  in  addition  to  his 
merits  as  a  critic  of  poetry,  has  written  po 
ems  which  stir  the  blood  as  well  as  quicken 
the  imagination.  Such,  among  others,  are 
"John  Brown  of  Osawatomie"  and  " Kearney 
at  Seven  Pines."  Perhaps  the  finest  recent 
examples  of  exquisitely  subtile  imagination 
working  under  the  impulse  of  profound  sen 
timent  are  to  be  found  in  the  little  vol 
ume  entitled  "  Poems  by  H.  H."  (Mrs.  Helen 
Hunt). 

We  have  space  only  to  mention  the  names 
of  Jones  Very,  Celia  Thaxter,  Mrs.  Lippin- 
cott  (Grace  Greenwood),  H.  H.  Brownell,  Will 
Carleton  (author  of  Farm  Ballads),  Alice  and 
Phoebe  Gary,  and  Mrs.  L.  C.  Moulton,  though 
each  would  justify  a  detailed  criticism. 

The  limits  of  this  essay  do  not  admit  the 


mention  of  every  author  who  is  worthy  of 
notice.  The  reader  must  be  referred  for  de 
tails  to  the  various  volumes  of  Dr.  R.  W. 
Griswold,  to  the  Cyclopedia  of  American  Lit 
erature,  by  E.  A.  and  G.  L.  Duyckinck,  to 
the  useful  Manual  of  American  Literature,  by 
Dr.  John  S.  Hart,  and  the  excellent  Hand- 
Book  of  American  Literature,  by  F.  H.  Un 
derwood.  Still,  before  concluding,  it  may 
be  well  to  mention  some  names  without 
which  even  so  limited  a  view  of  American 
literature  as  the  present  would  be  incom 
plete.  And,  first,  honor  is  due  to  Henry  T. 
Tuckermau,  who  for  nearly  forty  years  was 
the  associate  of  American  authors,  and  who 
labored,  year  after  year,  to  diffuse  a  taste 
for  literature  by  his  articles  in  reviews  and 
magazines.  He  belonged  to  the  class  of 
appreciative  critics,  and  was  never  more 
pleased  than  when  he  exercised  the  resources 
of  a  cultivated  mind  to  analyze,  explain,  and 
celebrate  the  merits  of  others.  Richard 
Grant  White,  a  critic  of  an  austerer  order, 
has  for  some  time  been  engaged  literally  in 
a  war  of  words.  In  the  minutiae  of  English 
philology  he  has  rarely  met  an  antagonist 
he  has  not  overthrown.  In  these  encounters 
he  has  displayed  wit,  learning,  logic,  a  per 
fect  command  of  his  subject,  an  imperfect 
command  of  his  temper.  The  positiveness 
of  his  statements,  however,  seems  always  to 
come  from  the  certainty  of  his  knowledge. 
In  his  admirable  edition  of  Shakspeare,  and 
in  his  Life  and  Genius  of  Shakspeare,  he  has 
exhibited  his  rare  critical  faculty  at  its  best. 
Henry  N.  Hudson,  also  an  editor,  biographer, 
and  critic  of  Shakspeare,  has  specially  shown 
his  masterly  power  of  analysis  in  comment 
ing  on  the  characters  of  the  dramatist. 
Henry  Giles,  in  two  or  three  volumes  of  bi 
ography  and  criticism,  has  proved  that  clear 
perceptions,  nice  distinctions,  and  sound 
sense  can  be  united  with  a  rush  of  eloquence 
which  seems  too  rapid  for  the  pausing  doubt 
of  discriminating  judgment.  S.  A.  Alliboue's 
Dictionary  of  Authors,  with  its  46,000  names, 
is  one  of  those  prodigies  of  labor  which  ex 
cite  not  only  admiration,  but  astonishment. 
George  P.  Marsh,  one  of  the  most  widely  ac 
complished  of  American  scholars,  is  princi 
pally  known  as  the  author  of  Lectures  on  the 
English  Language  and  of  The  English  Language 
and  Early  English  Literature,  both  critical 
works  of  a  high  class.  The  greatest  com- 


THEOLOGICAL  LITERATURE. 


397 


parative  philologist  the  country  has  pro 
duced,  William  D.  Whitney,  has,  like  Max 
Miiller,  in  England,  popularized  some  of  the 
results  of  his  investigations  in  an  admirable 
volume  on  Language,  and  the  Study  of  Lan 
guage. 

The  theological  literature  of  the  United 
States  covers  so  wide  a  field  that  it  would 
be  wild  to  attempt  to  characterize  here  even 
its  eminent  representatives.  We  can  give 
only  a  few  names.  Henry  Ward  Beecher, 
the  most  widely  renowned  pulpit  and  plat 
form  orator  of  the  country,  is  more  remark 
able  for  the  general  largeness  and  opulence 
of  his  nature  than  for  the  possession  of  any 
exceptional  power  of  mind  or  extent  of  ac 
quisition.  As  a  theological  scholar,  or,  in 
deed,  as  a  trained  and  accurate  writer,  no 
body  would  think  of  comparing  him  with 
Francis  Wayland,  or  Leonard  Bacon,  or  Ed 
wards  A.  Park,  or  Frederick  H.  Hedge.  In 
depth  of  spiritual  insight,  though  not  in 
depth  of  spiritual  emotion,  he  is  inferior  to 
Horace  Bushnell,  Cyrus  A.  Bartol,  and  many 
other  American  divines.  He  feels  spiritual 
facts  intensely ;  he  beholds  them  with  wa 
vering  vision.  But  his  distinction  is  that 
he  is  a  formidable,  almost  irresistible,  moral 
force.  His  influence  comes  from  the  con 
joint  and  harmonious  action  of  his  whole 
blood  and  brain  and  will  and  soul,  and  his 
magnetism  being  thus  both  physical  and 
mental,  he  communicates  his  individuality 
in  the  act  of  radiating  his  thoughts,  and 
thus  Beecherizes  his  readers  as  he  Beecherizes 
his  audiences.  He  overpowers  where  he 
fails  to  convince.  The  reader,  but  especial 
ly  the  listener,  is  brought  into  direct  con 
tact  or  collision  not  only  with  a  thinker 
and  a  stirrer  up  of  the  emotions,  but  with 
a  strong,  resolute,  intrepid  man.  As  Emer 
son  would  say,  he  could  mob  a  mob,  and 
compel  it  to  submit.  This  continual  sense 
of  conscious  power  impels  him  into  many 
imprudences  and  indiscretions,  and  stamps 
on  what  he  says,  and  what  he  writes,  and 
what  he  does,  a  character  of  haste  and  ex- 
temporaneousness.  No  man  could  throw  off 
such  an  amount  of  intellectual  work  as  he 
performs,  who  thought  comprehensively  or 
who  thought  deeply ;  for  the  comprehensive 
thinker  hesitates,  the  deep  thinker  doubts ; 
but  hesitation  and  doubt  are  foreign  to  Mr. 
Beecher's  intellectual  constitution,  and  only 


intrude  into  his  consciousness  in  those  occa 
sional  reactions  caused  by  the  moral  fatigue 
resulting  now  and  then  from  his  hurried, 
headlong  intellectual  movement.  Observa 
tion,  sense,  wit,  humor,  fancy,  sentiment, 
moral  perception,  moral  might,  are  all  in 
cluded  and  fused  in  the  large  individuali 
ty  whose  mode  of  action  we  have  ventured 
to  sketch. 

There  are  some  books  which  it  is  dim- 
cult  to  class.  Thus,  Richard  H.  Dana,  Jun., 
published  some  thirty  years  ago  a  volume 
called  Two  Tears  Before  the  Mast,  which  be 
came  instantly  popular,  is  popular  now, 
and  promises  to  be  popular  for  many  years 
to  come.  In  reading  it  any  body  can  see 
that  it  is  more  than  an  ordinary  record  of  a 
voyage,  for  there  runs  through  the  simple 
and  lucid  narrative  an  element  of  beauty 
and  power  which  gives  it  the  artistic  charm 
of  romance.  Again,  Six  Months  in  Italy,  by 
George  S.  Hillard,  and  Notes  of  Travel  and 
Study  in  Italy,  by  Charles  E.  Norton,  would 
be  superficially  classed  among  books  of 
travel,  but  they  are  essentially  works  of  lit 
erature,  and  their  chief  worth  consists  in 
descriptions  of  natural  scenery,  in  pointed 
reflection,  in  delicate  criticism  of  works  of 
art.  The  volume  entitled  White  Hills,  by 
Thomas  Starr  King,  apparently  intended 
merely  to  describe  the  mountain  region  of 
New  Hampshire,  is  all  aglow  with  a  glad 
inspiration  drawn  from  the  ardent  soul  and 
teeming  mind  of  the  writer.  Charles  T. 
Brooks  would  generally  be  classed  as  a  trans 
lator,  but  being  a  poet,  ho  has  so  translated 
the  novels  of  Richter  that  he  has  domesti 
cated  them  in  our  language.  Such  trans 
lations  are  greater  efforts  of  intelligence 
and  imagination  than  many  original  works. 
Horace  Mann's  reports  as  secretary  of  the 
Massachusetts  Board  of  Education  rank  with 
legislative  documents,  yet  they  are  really 
eloquent  treatises,  full  of  matter,  but  of  mat 
ter  burning  with  passion  and  blazing  with 
imagery.  Substance  and  Shadoiv,  by  Henry 
James,  might  be  classed  either  with  theo 
logical  or  metaphysical  works,  were  it  not 
that  the  writer,  while  treating  on  the  deep 
est  questions  which  engage  the  attention 
of  theologians  and  metaphysicians,  stretch 
es  both  theologians  and  metaphysicians  on 
the  rack  of  his  pitiless  analysis,  and  showers 
upon  them  all  the  boundless  stores  of  his 


398 


A  CENTURY  OF  AMERICAN  LITERATURE. 


ridicule.  Miss  Mary  A.  Dodge  (Gail  Hamil- 
tcm)  might  be  styled  an  essayist,  but  that 
would  be  but  a-  vague  term  to  denote  a  writ 
er  who  takes  up  all  classes  of  subjects,  is 
tart,  tender,  shrewish,  pathetic,  monitory, 
objurgatory,  tolerant,  prejudiced,  didactic, 
and  dramatic  by  turns,  but  always  writing 
with  so  much  point,  vigor,  and  freshness 
that  we  can  only  classify  her  among  "reada 
ble"  authors.  Margaret  Fuller  Ossoli,  schol 
ar,  critic,  teacher,  translator,  metaphysician, 
philanthropist,  revolutionist,  a  pythoness  in 
a  transcendental  coterie,  a  nurse  in  a  sol 
diers'  hospital,  a  martyr  heroine  on  board  a 
wrecked  ship — we  can  only  say  of  her  that 
she  was  a  woman.  There  is  a  delightful 
book  entitled  Yesterdays  tvith  Authors,  by 
James  T.  Fields — a  combination  of  gossip, 
biography,  and  criticism,  but  refusing  to  be 
ranked  with  either,  and  depending  for  its 
interest  on  the  life-like  pictures  it  presents 
of  such  men  as  Hawthorne,  Dickens,  and 
Thackeray  in  their  hours  of  familiar  talk 
and  correspondence.  There  is  also  one  work 
of  such  pretension  that  it  should  not  be 
omitted  here,  namely,  Outlines  of  Cosmic  Phi 
losophy,  based  on  the  Doctrine  of  Evolution,  by 
John  Fiske.  It  is  mainly  a  lucid  exposition 
of  the  philosophy  of  Herbert  Spencer,  with 
the  addition  of  original  and  critical  matter. 
The  breadth  and  strength  of  understanding, 
the  fullness  of  information,  the  command 
of  expression,  in  this  book  are  worthy  of  all 
commendation.  The  curious  thing  in  it  is 
that  the  author  thinks  that  a  new  religion 
is  to  be  established  on  the  co-ordination  of 
the  sciences,  and  of  this  religion,  whose  God 
is  the  "Unknowable,"  he  is  a  pious  believer. 
In  conclusion,  we  can  only  allude  to  the 


intellectual  force,  the  various  talents  and 
accomplishments,  employed  in  the  leading 
newspapers  of  the  country.  During  the  past 
thirty  years  these  journals  have  swarmed 
with  all  kinds  of  anonymous  ability.  Though 
the  articles  appeared  to  die  with  the  day  or 
week  on  which  they  were  printed,  they  re 
ally  passed,  for  good  or  evil,  into  the  gener 
al  mind  as  vital  influences,  shaping  public 
opinion  and  forming  public  taste.  It  would 
be  difficult,  for  example,  to  estimate  the  be 
neficent  action  on  our  literature  of  such  a 
critic  and  scholar  as  George  Ripley,  who  for 
many  years  directed  the  literary  department 
of  a  widely  circulated  newspaper.  The 
range  of  his  learning  was  equal  to  every  de 
mand  upon  its  resources ;  the  candor  of  his 
judgment  answered  to  the  comprehensive 
ness  of  his  taste ;  the  catholicity  of  his  liter 
ary  sympathies  led  him  to  encourage  every 
kind  of  literary  talent  on  its  first  appear 
ance;  and  he  was  pure  from  the  stain  of 
that  meanest  form  of  egotism  which  grudges 
the  recognition  of  merit  in  others,  as  if  such 
a  recognition  was  a  diminution  of  its  own 
importance.  The  great  development,  dur 
ing  a  comparatively  recent  period,  of  the 
magazine  literature  of  the  country  has  had 
an  important  effect  in  stimulating  and  bring 
ing  forward  new  writers,  some  of  whom 
promise  to  more  than  fill  the  places  which 
their  elders  will  soon  leave  vacant.  It 
would  be  presumptuous  to  anticipate  the 
verdict  of  the  next  generation  as  to  which 
of  these  will  fulfill  the  expectations  raised 
by  their  early  efforts.  That  pleasant  duty 
must  be  left  to  the  fortunate  person  who 
shall  note  the  Centennial  Progress  of  Ameri 
can  Literature  in  1976. 


XIII. 

PROGRESS  OF  THE  FINE  ARTS. 


PAUL   KEVEBE.— [1735-1818.] 

THE  growth  of  the  arts  of  design  in  this 
country  has  been  of  necessity  much 
slower  than  the  national  development  in 
other  directions.  The  early  colonists  had 
neither  time  nor  inclination  for  the  culture 
of  art.  They  distrusted  and  restrained  the 
imaginative  faculty,  which  is  the  soul  of 
art,  and  applied  all  their  energies  to  the 
great  practical  tasks  which  confronted  them 
on  their  arrival  on  the  shores  of  the  New 
World.  They  had  the  vast  wilderness  to 
subdue,  houses  to  build  for  themselves  and 
their  children,  to  found  commonwealths  on 
the  broad  basis  of  liberty  and  justice,  and 
for  many  generations  were  compelled  to 
maintain  fierce  warfare  with  crafty  and  cru 
el  foes  allied  with  the  civilized  enemies  of 
the  religious  freedom  which  they  had  fled 
hither  to  establish.  If  the  early  New  En 
gland  colonists  gave  any  thought  to  art 
they  probably  regarded  it  as  one  of  the 
forms  of  luxurious  vanity  and  license  be 
longing  to  a  state  of  society  which  they 


held  in  abhorrence,  and  from  which  they 
were  resolved  to  keep  their  land  of  refuge 
free.  Allowance  must  also  be  made  for  the 
force  of  circumstances.  The  struggle  for 
mere  subsistence  was  too  severe  for  the  in 
dulgence  of  the  imagination.  The  only 
graces  known  to  the  early  colonists  were 
the  austere  virtues  of  their  rigid  theology. 
To  adorn  the  home  or  the  person  was  in 
their  eyes  a  sinful  waste  of  time,  which 
could  be  well  employed  only  in  the  practi 
cal  duties  of  the  present  life  and  in  pre 
paring  for  the  next.  The  influence  of  this 
stern  training  was  of  long  duration  ;  it  still 
exists,  indeed,  in  the  prejudice  to  be  found 
in  many  communities  against  the  presence 
of  pictures  or  sculpture  in  houses  of  wor 
ship,  although  this  may  be  partially  as 
cribed  to  the  old  Puritan  revolt  against 
Eomish  practices. 

With  the  physical  development  of  the 
country,  and  the  consequent  freedom  from 
the  harassing  cares  which  had  kept  the 
thoughts  of  the  early  colonists  on  the  arts 
of  necessity,  one  form  of  luxury  after  an 
other  crept  in  upon  the  homely  life  of  our 
ancestors.  Pictures  began  to  find  their  way 
here  from  the  Old  World,  and  artists  began 
to  visit  the  colonies.  It  is  probable  that 
they  met  with  many  discouragements  and 
but  scanty  patronage,  for  few  authentic 
traces  have  been  preserved  of  those  early 
pioneers  of  art.  Cotton  Mather,  in  his  Mag 
nolia,  refers  to  a  "limner,"  but  he  gives  us 
no  name.  One  of  the  first  of  whom  we  have 
other  than  vague  traditions  was  a  native  of 
Scotland,  John  Watson  by  name,  who  came 
to  the  colonies  in  1715,  and  established  him 
self  as  a  portrait  painter  at  Perth  Amboy, 
then  a  flourishing  commercial  rival  of  New 
York.  In  a  building  adjoining  his  dwell 
ing-house  he  established  the  first  picture- 
gallery  in  America.  The  collection  was 
probably  of  little  value.  Watson,  who  com 
bined  the  art  of  portrait  painting  with  the 
business  of  a  money-lender,  amassed  a  con 
siderable  fortune.  He  never  married,  and 
dying  in  1768,  at  the  age  of  eighty-three, 


400 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  FINE  ARTS. 


JOHN    SINGLETON   COPLEY. — [1737-1815.] 

loft  Ins  wealth  and  his  pictures  to  a  neph 
ew.  Taking  sides  with  the  loyalists  in  1776, 
the  nephew  was  compelled  to  flee  the  coun 
try.  The  deserted  picture-gallery,  left  to 
the  mercies  of  the  undisciplined  militia, 
was  broken  up,  and  the  collection  of  paint 
ings  was  so  effectually  scattered  that  all 
trace  of  them  was  lost.  None  of  the  por 
traits  executed  by  Watson  are  known  to 
be  in  existence,  and  he  is  remembered  only 
as  an  obscure  pioneer  in  the  culture  and 
development  of  a  taste  for  the  fine  arts  in 
this  country. 

To  John  Smybert,  also  a  Scotchman,  Amer 
ican  art  is  more  largely  indebted.  He  came 
to  this  country  in  1728  with  Dean  Berkeley, 
afterward  Bishop  of  Cloyne,  whose  fellow- 
traveler  he  had  been  in  Italy.  The  failure 
of  the  dean's  grand  scheme  for  the  estab 
lishment  of  a  "  universal  college  of  science 
and  arts  for  the  instruction  of  heathen  chil 
dren  in  Christian  duties  and  civil  knowl 
edge"  left  Smybert  to  the  free  exercise  of 
his  profession.  In  early  youth  he  had  served 
his  time,  says  Horace  Walpole, "  with  a  com 
mon  house  painter;  but  eager  to  handle  a 
pencil  in  a  more  elevated  style,  he  came  to 
London,  where,  however,  for  a  subsistence 
ho  was  compelled  to  content  himself  at  first 
with  working  for  coach  painters.  It  was  a 
little  rise  to  be  employed  in  copying  for 


dealers,  and  from  thence  he  obtained  ad 
mittance  into  the  Academy.  His  efforts  and 
ardor  at  last  carried  him  to  Italy,  where  he 
spent  three  years  in  copying  Raphael,  Titian, 
Vandyck,  and  Rubens,  and  improved  enough 
to  meet  with  much  business  at  his  return." 
Thus  accomplished,  Smybert  was  well  fitted 
for  a  career  in  the  New  World,  which  pre 
sented  no  rival  in  culture  and  experience. 
His  talents  appear  to  have  been  in  great  de 
mand,  and  they  were  certainly  used  to  good 
purpose.  To  his  pencil  we  owe  many  excel 
lent  portraits  of  eminent  divines  and  magis 
trates  of  his  time,  and  the  only  authentic 
portrait  of  Jonathan  Edwards.  His  picture 
of  the  Berkeley  household,  now  in  the  Yale 
College  Gallery,  is  said  to  have  been  the  first 
containing  more  than  one  figure  ever  paint 
ed  in  this  country.  He  may  be  said  to  have 
been  the  first  teacher  of  art  in  America,  as 
it  was  from  his  copy  of  a  painting  by  Van 
dyck  that  Allston,  Copley,  and  Trumbull  re 
ceived  their  earliest  inspiration  and  their 
first  impressions  of  color  and  drawing. 

It  was  long  before  art  received  popular 
encouragement  and  support  in  this  coun 
try.  True,  Benjamin  Franklin,  in  a  letter 
to  Charles  Wilson  Peale,  dated  London, 
July  4,  1771,  prophesied  the  future  prosper 
ity  of  art  among  his  countrymen.  "The 
arts,"  he  says,  "  have  always  traveled  west 
ward  ;  and  there  is  no  doubt  of  their  flour 
ishing  hereafter  on  our  side  of  the  Atlantic, 
as  the  number  of  wealthy  inhabitants  shall 
increase  who  may  be  able  and  willing  suit 
ably  to  reward  them,  since,  from  several  in 
stances,  it  appears  that  our  people  are  not 
deficient  in  genius."  But  Trumbull,  who 
spoke  from  experience,  bluntly  told  a  young 
aspirant  for  fame  that  he  "had  better  learn 
to  make  shoes  or  dig  potatoes  than  become 
a  painter  in  this  country."  Year  by  year, 
however,  partly  through  the  influence  of  art 
associations,  and  partly  through  the  influx 
of  the  works  of  foreign  artists,  the  love  of 
art  became  diffused  among  our  people,  and 
it  is  many  years  since  American  painters 
and  sculptors  could  justly  complain  of  the 
want  of  popular  appreciation. 

One  cause  of  the  slow  growth  of  art  sen 
timent  and  art  knowledge  among  Americans 
was  the  absence,  even  in  the  larger  cities,  of 
public  and  private  galleries  of  paintings  like 
those  to  which  the  people  of  every  European 


PUBLIC  ART  GALLERIES. 


401 


BENJAMIN   WEST.— [1738-1820.] 

city  have  constant  access,  and  where  they 
may  become  familiar  with  the  works  of  the 
great  masters  of  almost  every  age  and  coun 
try.  Of  late  years  these  opportunities  have 
notably  increased  among  us.  Wealthy  cit 
izens  of  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Boston, 
Washington,  Cincinnati,  and  other  cities 
have  accumulated  extensive  and  valuable 
private  galleries  of  the  best  works  of  native 
and  foreign  artists,  and  have  evinced  com 
mendable  liberality  in  opening  their  doors 
to  the  public.  There  are  also  fine  galleries 
of  paintings  and  statuary  belonging  to  so 
cieties,  like  the  Boston  Athenaeum  and  our 
own  Historical  Society ;  but  to  most  of 
these  the  general  public  can  not  claim  ad 
mission,  and  their  usefulness  as  a  means  of 
art  culture  is,  therefore,  comparatively  re 
stricted.  There  should  be  in  every  large 
city  a  public  gallery  of  art,  as  in  Paris,  Ber 
lin,  Munich,  London,  Dresden,  Florence,  and 
other  European  cities,  to  which,  on  certain 
days  of  the  week,  access  should  be  free  to 
all.  The  influence  of  such  institutions  would 
be  immense.  There  is  many  a  working-man 
in  Paris  who  knows  more  about  pictures  and 
statues  than  the  majority  of  cultivated  peo 
ple  in  this  country.  He  visits  freely  the 
magnificent  galleries  of  the  Louvre,  hears 
artists  and  connoisseurs  converse,  and  if  he 
is  a  man  of  ordinary  intelligence  and  per 
ception,  he  acquires  a  knowledge  of  pictures 
and  artists  which  can  not  be  attained  in  a 
26 


country  where  such  opportunities  are  rare, 
or  only  to  be  enjoyed  either  by  paying  for 
them  or  by  the  favor  of  some  private  col 
lector.  True,  the  want  of  public  art  gal 
leries  has  been  in  a  measure  supplied,  in 
most  of  our  large  cities,  by  the  collections 
of  art  dealers  like  Schaus  and  Goupil,  who 
of  late  years  have  imported  many  of  the 
finest  specimens  of  the  works  of  foreign 
artists,  and  who  admit  the  public  to  their 
exhibition  rooms  without  fee.  But  this 
privilege  is,  for  the  most  part,  confined  to 
the  educated  and  the  wealthy.  Rarely  is 
a  working-man  or  working-woman  seen  in 
these  rooms,  although  no  respectable  and 
well-behaved  person  would  be  denied  ad 
mission.  Enter  the  galleries  of  Paris,  of 
Munich,  or  Dresden,  on  a  holiday,  and  you 
will  find  hundreds  of  people  belonging  to 
the  working  classes,  men,  women,  and  chil 
dren,  feasting  their  eyes  on  the  treasures  of 
art,  and  filling  their  minds  with  love  for  the 
beautiful.  The  refining  influence  of  such  an 
education  can  not  be  overvalued.  It  may 
not  be  quite  as  useful  as  the  practical  in 
struction  of  our  common  schools  ;  but  while 
we  can  not  subscribe  to  Ruskin's  opinion 
that  it  is  more  important  that  a  child 
should  learn  to  draw  than  that  he  should 
learn  to  write,  there  can  be  110  question  as 
to  the  ennobling  and  refining  influence  of 
art  upon  personal  character  and  upon  the 
community.  The  lack  of  this  culture  among 


GILBERT   STUART. — [1754-1828.] 


402 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  FINE  ARTS. 


our  people  only  a  few  years  ago  was  man 
ifested  by  the  commotion  which  Powers's 
"Greek  Slave"  made  on  its  arrival  in  this 
country.  Many  persons  questioned  the  pro 
priety  of  exhibiting  a  nude  statue.  A  dele 
gation  of  distinguished  clergymen  was  sent 
to  view  it,  when  it  was  at  Cincinnati,  for 
the  purpose  of  deciding  whether  it  should 
be  "  countenanced  by  religious  people." 
Not  many  years  ago  a  well-educated  coun 
try  lady,  visiting  Boston  for  the  first  time 
in  her  life,  was  shocked  to  find  a  pretty  and 
modest-looking  young  woman  seated  at  the 
ticket  table  in  the  statue  gallery  of  the  Athe 
naeum.  The  young  woman  was  engaged  in 
sewing-work.  "  She  ought  to  employ  her 
time  in  making  aprons  for  these  horrid, 
shameful  statues,"  remarked  the  indignant 
visitor,  as  she  left  the  room.  Prejudices 
like  these,  the  fruit  of  ignorance,  are  hap 
pily  dying  out,  and  few  traces  of  them  will 
be  found  in  the  next  generation. 

The  American  Art  Union,  founded  in  1839, 
in  imitation  of  the  French  Societe  des  Amis 
desArts,  exerted  an  important  influence  upon 
American  art  culture.  For  upward  of  ten 
years  it  distributed  annually  from  five  hun 
dred  to  more  than  a  thousand  works  of  art. 
Its  yearly  subscriptions  reached  the  sum  of 
one  hundred  thousand  dollars.  It  issued  a 
series  of  fine  engravings  from  the  works  of 
American  artists,  and  for  several  years  pub 
lished  a  bulletin  embracing  a  complete  rec 
ord  of  the  progress  of  art  in  this  country,  to 
gether  with  much  valuable  and  interesting 
information  regarding  the  arts  and  artists 
of  Europe.  Through  the  agency  of  its  com 
missions  several  American  artists,  who  have 
since  attained  high  rank  in  their  profession, 
were  first  brought  to  public  notice.  The 
institution  was  broken  up  about  ten  years 
after  its  organization  on  account  of  the  vio 
lation,  by  its  method  of  distributing  prizes, 
of  the  State  laws  against  lotteries.  But 
during  the  period  of  its  existence  it  accom 
plished  much  toward  awakening  a  love  of 
art  throughout  the  country,  and  it  deserves 
to  be  gratefully  remembered  for  its  services 
in  this  direction. 

In  one  respect,  however,  the  Art  Union 
was  the  indirect  means  of  temporary  harm. 
Through  its  activity  America  was  revealed 
to  the  proprietors  of  the  great  picture  manu 
factories  of  Italy  and  Belgium  as  a  new  and 


promising  field  for  the  sale  of  their  wretch 
ed  copies  and  imitations.  Thousands  of 
these  vile  productions  were  palmed  off  upon 
innocent  persons  in  this  country  as  genuine 
works  by  old  or  modern  masters  of  note. 
The  writer  was  once  present  at  an  auction 
sale  of  such  a  collection  in  a  flourishing  city 
in  the  western  part  of  this  State.  There  was 
great  excitement  over  it.  Here  were  "  old 
masters"  by  the  dozen,  their  genuineness  at 
tested  by  printed  labels  ou  the  back  of  the 
frames  giving  names  and  dates,  while  the 
catalogue,  filled  with  glowing  praises  of  the 
artists  and  their  works,  made  no  mention 
of  copies.  The  pictures  Avere  marvelously 
cheap.  A  Madonna  by  Raphael  sold  for 
thirty  dollars,  frame  and  all;  a  large  pic 
ture  by  Rubens  for  about  the  same  price ; 
and  landscapes  by  Claude,  Ruysdael,  and 
others  brought  from  ten  to  twenty  dollars 
each,  according  to  the  expensiveness  of  the 
frames.  This  was  about  twenty-five  years 
ago.  Thanks  to  the  general  advance  of 
culture  and  knowledge,  there  is  now  prob 
ably  hardly  a  village,  and  certainly  not  a 
city,  in  the  country  where  such  an  imposi 
tion  could  be  attempted  without  detection. 
Most  of  the  "  old  masters"  purchased  at  these 
sales  have  long  since  found  their  appropri 
ate  resting-place  in  the  lumber-room. 

The  National  Academy  of  Design,  in  this 
city,  has  unquestionably  exerted  a  most  im 
portant  influence  on  the  culture  of  art  in 
America,  and  in  the  diffusion  of  the  knowl 
edge  and  love  of  art  among  the  people.  The 
present  organization  was  preceded  by  an 
association  of  artists  formed  in  1801  under 
the  name  of  the  New  York  Academy  of  Fine 
Arts.  Seven  years  later  it  received  the  act 
of  incorporation,  under  the  name  of  the 
American  Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  and  Chan 
cellor  Livingston  was  chosen  president ; 
Colonel  John  Trumbull,  vice-president ;  De 
Witt  Clinton,  David  Hosack,  John  R.  Mur 
ray,  William  Cutting,  and  Charles  Wilkes, 
directors.  Through  the  instrumentality  of 
the  American  minister  at  Paris,  the  Emper 
or  Napoleon  presented  to  the  institution 
many  valuable  busts,  antique  statues,  and 
rare  prints.  There  was  still,  however,  so 
little  general  support  afforded  by  the  com 
munity,  and  picture  buyers  were  so  few,  that 
the  enterprise  languished  from  the  first,  and 
it  was  saved  from  total  dissolution  only  by 


THE  NATIONAL  ACADEMY  OF  DESIGN. 


403 


the  temporary  accession  of  Vanderlyn's  cel 
ebrated  "  Ariadne,"  afterward  so  admirably 
engraved  by  Durand,  and  certain  pictures 
of  West,  in  1816.  These  important  addi 
tions  to  its  collection  enabled  the  institu 
tion  for  a  time  to  tide  over  the  danger  which 
threatened  its  existence.  A  school  of  in 
struction,  with  models  and  art  lectures,  was 
also  organized,  in  the  hope  of  reviving  pop 
ular  interest  in  the  Academy,  but  want  of 
means  to  carry  out  the  plan  on  a  broad  and 
liberal  foundation  interfered  with  the  work 
ing  of  the  project ;  and  a  fire,  which  destroy 
ed  a  great  part  of  its  models  and  drawings, 
in  1828,  gave  the  coup  de  grace  to  an  insti 
tution  which  had  been  dying  by  slow  de 
grees. 

The  American  Academy  of  Fine  Arts  hav 
ing  given  up  the  ghost,  another  institution 
was  formed  to  take  its  place  and  carry  on 
the  work  it  had  begun — the  National  Acad 
emy  of  Design,  of  which  the  first  president 
was  Professor  Morse,  whose  invention  of  the 
electric  telegraph,  some  years  later,  cast  his 
artistic  career  wholly  in  the  shade.  Found 
ed  on  a  broader  basis  than  its  predecessor, 
and  meeting  more  fully  the  wishes  and  aims 
of  the  artists,  the  new  institution  speedily 
acquired  strength  and  popularity,  and  it  is 
to-day  the  most  important  and  most  influen 
tial  art  society  in  the  United  States.  The 
most  eminent  painters  and  sculptors  of 
America  are  enrolled  among  its  members. 
Its  management  has  frequently  subjected 
the  Academy  to  sharp  animadversion,  some 
times  not  undeserved,  from  those  who  deem 
ed  it  too  conservative,  not  to  say  illiberal, 
for  the  progressive  tendency  of  the  age ; 
but  none  can  be  so  unjust  as  to  deny  that 
its  general  course  has  tended  to  the  ele 
vation  of  American  art  and  the  popular  dif 
fusion  of  art  culture.  Nor  should  fault  be 
too  rashly  found  with  its  acknowledged 
conservatism.  The  best  and  most  enduring 
reforms  are  those  which  come  slowly,  in 
obedience  to  the  demands  of  long  expe 
rience  and  mature  consideration,  while 
nothing  can  be  worse,  in  a  society  as  well 
as  in  the  state,  than  capricious  and  hasty 
changes,  which  frequently  introduce  abuses 
more  objectionable  than  the  old. 

For  more  than  a  third  of  a  century  the 
National  Academy,  to  use  the  words  of  Bry 
ant's  address  on  laying  the  corner-stone  of 


the  Academy  building,  "had  a  nomadic  ex 
istence,  pitching  its  tent  now  here,  now 
there,  as  convenience  might  dictate,  but 
never  possessing  a  permanent  seat."  At 
length  the  munificence  of  art-loving  citizens 
of  New  York  enabled  the  society  to  erect  a 
building  well  suited  to  its  purposes  and 
worthy  of  the  great  city  in  which  it  stands. 
The  corner-stone  was  laid  October  19,  1863, 
and  the  first  exhibition  was  held  in  the  com 
pleted  building  in  the  spring  of  1865.  The 
Academy  building,  on  the  corner  of  Twenty- 
third  Street  and  Fourth  Avenue,  is  a  hand 
some  structure  in  the  style  of  the  celebrated 
Doge's  palace  at  Venice.  It  is  built  of  mar 
ble,  banded  with  graywacke,  with  simple 


COLONEL   JOHN   TBUMliULL.— [1756-1843.] 

and  appropriate  decorations.  The  cost  of 
the  ground  and  building  was  about  two 
hundred  thousand  dollars,  a  large  part  of 
which  was  contributed  by  citizens  of  New 
York.  There  are  six  exhibition  galleries,  in 
cluding  the  corridor,  which  for  the  present 
afford  all  the  space  required  for  the  Acad 
emy  and  water-color  exhibitions ;  but  an 
enlargement  will  be  necessary  in  the  near 
future  to  meet  the  increasing  demands  for 
room. 

Philadelphia  was  not  far  behind  New 
York  in  establishing  an  Academy  of  Art. 
In  December,  1805,  a  meeting  of  seventy 
gentlemen  of  that  city,  most  of  them  mem 
bers  of  the  bar,  was  held  in  Independence 
Hall  for  the  purpose  of  considering  the  proj 
ect.  Their  deliberations  resulted  in  the 


404 


PKOGKESS  OF  THE  FINE  ARTS. 


ALEXANUEE  ANDERSON. — [1775-1870.] 

signing  of  articles  of  agreement,  the  origi 
nal  of  which  is  still  preserved,  providing  for 
the  creation  of  an  Art  Academy,  which  was 
pledged  "  to  promote  the  cultivation  of  the 
Fine  Arts  in  the  United  States  of  America, 
by  introducing  correct  and  elegant  copies 
from  works  of  the  first  masters  in  Sculpture 
and  Painting."  George  Clymer,  a  signer  of 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  was  elect 
ed  first  president  of  the  association ;  of  the 
twelve  directors  only  two  were  professional 
artists — William  Rush  and  Charles  Wilson 
Peale.  Benjamin  West,  as  the  most  distin 
guished  son  of  Pennsylvania  in  the  ranks 
of  art,  was  elected  an  honorary  member  of 
the  Academy.  He  was  then  under  a  cloud 
in  his  adopted  country.  His  royal  patron 
had  become  insane,  and  the  Prince  Regent 
had  withdrawn  the  commission  for  the  dec 
oration  of  Windsor  Chapel  with  a  series  of 
large  pictures  on  the  progress  of  Revealed 
Religion.  He  was  sixty-seven  years  old, 
and  this  recognition  from  his  native  State, 
coming  at  a  time  when  he  was  smarting  un 
der  a  sharp  disappointment,  deeply  touched 
the  venerable  painter's  heart.  "  Be  assured, 
gentlemen,"  he  wrote  in  reply,  "that  that 
election  I  shall  ever  retain  as  an  honor  from 
a  relative."  Robert  Fulton,  artist  and  in 
ventor,  and  Bushrod  Washington  were  the 
next  honorary  members  after  West. 

Unlike  its  New  York  rival,  the  Philadel 
phia  Academy  made  haste  to  provide  for 
itself  a  permanent  home.  The  society's 


charter,  procured  in  the  spring  of  1806, 
makes  mention  of  a  building  then  near 
completion.  It  was  of  simple  design  and 
well  proportioned.  Its  main  feature  was 
the  "  Rotunda" — a  handsome  circular  room 
with  a  domed  ceiling.  The  first  exhibition 
was  held  in  March,  1806.  The  collection  of 
works  of  art  contained  over  fifty  casts  of 
antique  statues  from  the  Louvre,  two  Shaks- 
peareau  paintings  by  West,  and  a  few  oth 
er  pictures  by  European  artists.  The  ladies 
of  Philadelphia  appear  to  have  been  pecul 
iarly  sensitive  on  the  subject  of  nude  stat 
uary,  and  one  day  in  the  week  the  Academy 
was  thrown  open  for  their  exclusive  benefit. 
Gradually  the  Academy  acquired  a  large 
and  valuable  collection  of  paintings  and 
casts,  many  of  them  bequests  from  wealthy 
citizens.  In  1811,  in  conjunction  with  the 
Society  of  Artists,  it  gave  its  first  annual 
exhibition.  The  second,  in  1812,  was  marked 
by  the  presence  of  several  important  works 
by  American  artists,  evincing  the  progress 
made  by  native  talent.  In  1816  the  Acad 
emy  collection  was  enriched  with  a  noble 
painting  by  Allston,  "The  dead  Man  revived 
by  touching  the  Relics  of  Elisha,"  and  also 
by  Leslie's  "  Clifford" — a  fine  composition, 
taken  from  the  scene  in  Henry  VI.  where 
Clifford  murders  the  young  Plantageuet, 
Rutland. 

The  collection  gradually  increased  in  val 
ue  by  gifts  and  judicious  purchases,  and  at 
the  time  of  the  destruction  of  the  building 
by  fire,  in  1845,  it  was  without  a  rival  in 
America.  A  valuable  Murillo,  a  represen 
tation  of  the  "  Carita  Romana,"  or  Roman 
Daughter,  bought  in  Spain  from  the  collec 
tion  of  Joseph  Bonaparte,  perished  in  the 
flames,  with  many  other  paintings,  casts, 
and  statues  in  marble.  The  Academy  soon 
recovered  from  this  disaster.  It  now  pos 
sesses  a  valuable  gallery  of  statuary,  com 
prising  modern  works  in  marble  and  casts 
from  the  antique,  a  permanent  gallery  of 
paintings,  consisting  of  about  a  hundred 
and  fifty  works  by  native  and  foreign  art 
ists,  and  an  excellent  library.  Its  new 
building,  the  opening  of  which  will  be  one 
of  the  most  interesting  features  of  the  Cen 
tennial  celebration,  is  a  noble  structure,  ad 
mirably  suited  to  the  purposes  for  which  it 
is  designed. 

It  is  only  within  a  recent  period  that  the 


THE  WATER-COLOR  SOCIETY. 


405 


beautiful  art  of  painting  in  water -color, 
long  since  carried  to  perfection  in  England, 
became  popular  in  this  country.  It  bad 
many  stubborn  prejudices  to  contend  with. 
Works  in  water-color  looked  slight  and  un 
substantial  compared  with  those  in  oil,  and 
a  taste  for  them  had  to  be  created  and  fos 
tered.  In  the  Academy  exhibitions  a  cor 
ner  was  usually  set  apart  for  them,  but  they 
were  generally  few  in  number  and  of  trifling 
value.  The  first  organized  movement  in  the 
direction  of  a  water -color  society  in  this 
country  was  made  in  1850,  when  a  class  was 
started  in  New  York  for  study  from  life,  the 
sketches  being  made  in  water-color.  The 
members  were  for  the  most  part  well-known 
designers  or  engravers.  They  held  their 
meetings  every  fortnight.  In  December, 
1850,  this  "class"  adopted  a  constitution, 
and  thus  formed  the  first  Society  of  Paint 
ers  in  Water-Colors  in  the  United  States. 
There  are  records  of  meetings  held  from 
time  to  time  until  the  opening  of  the  Crys 
tal  Palace  in  this  city  in  1853.  Then  each 
member  of  the  society  contributed  a  speci 
men  of  his  work.  The  collection  was  hung 
by  itself  on  a  screen,  and  was  specified  in 
the  catalogue  of  the  exhibition  as  "  Water- 
color  Paintings  by  Members  of  the  New 
York  WTater- color  Society."  This  was  a 
dying  effort.  Nothing  was  ever  heard  of 
the  society  again. 


,v-    ,';.\'; 

BEMBKANDT   1'EALK.— [1778-1860.] 


WASHINGTON   ALL8TON.— [1779-1843.] 

With  the  exception  of  one  or  two  foreign 
collections,  nothing  more  was  seen  of  water- 
color  paintings  in  this  country  until  the 
autumn  of  1866,  when  the  Artists'  Fund  So 
ciety,  in  its  annual  exhibition  held  in  the 
National  Academy  of  Design,  made  a  feat 
ure  of  this  branch  of  art.  Mainly  through 
the  efforts  of  Mr.  John  M.  Falconer,  an  en 
thusiast  in  water -colors,  the  society  was 
able  to  fill  the  East  Gallery  and  part  of  the 
corridor  with  a  fine  collection  of  works  by 
native  and  foreign  artists.  Encouraged  by 
the  pleasure  manifested  by  the  art-loving 
public,  which  then  for  the  first  time  had  the 
opportunity  to  judge  of  the  real  capabilities 
of  water-color  painting,  a  number  of  artists 
at  once  started  a  project  for  the  organiza 
tion  of  a  water-color  society  which  might 
popularize  this  beautiful  art  on  this  side  of 
the  Atlantic.  A  call  signed  by  Samuel  Col- 
man,  William  Hart,  Gilbert  Burling,  and 
William  Craig  was  sent  out  to  all  the  pro 
fessional  and  amateur  artists  who  were 
known  to  be  interested  in  the  movement. 
The  result  was  the  organization,  in  Decem 
ber,  1866,  of  the  present  flourishing  institu 
tion  of  "  The  American  Society  of  Painters 
in  Water-Colors." 

The  first  exhibition  of  the  new  society 
was  held  in  the  galleries  of  the  National 
Academy  of  Design,  under  Academy  manage 
ment,  in  connection  with  the  fall  and  win 
ter  exhibition  of  oil-paintings.  It  was  in 
many  respects  a  successful  experiment.  The 
collection  contained  nearly  three  hundred 


406 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  FINE  ARTS. 


works,  among  which  were  many  crude  and 
insipid  compositions  side  by  side  with  works 
of  great  value  and  still  greater  promise. 
The  public  was  pleased  with  the  novelty; 
the  water-color  galleries  were  crowded  day 
and  evening  with  admiring  spectators.  But 
the  sales  were  few.  The  public  admired, 
but  did  not  buy.  But  the  water-colorists 
were  not  discouraged.  They  clung  to  their 
work,  firm  in  the  faith  that  as  knowledge 
ripened,  their  reward  would  come.  Each 
year  witnessed  a  marked  improvement  in 
their  exhibition,  both  in  the  number  and 
quality  of  the  works  exposed  to  view.  The 
exhibition  of  1874  filled  all  the  Academy 
galleries  except  one,  which  is  considered  un 
favorable  to  the  proper  display  of  water- 
colors,  and  the  hanging  committee  was 
obliged,  for  want  of  room  and  other  reasons, 
to  return  almost  as  many  pictures  as  were 
exhibited  in  1867.  The  popular  prejudice 
against  water-colors  gave  way  to  a  just  ap 
preciation.  During  the  first  four  exhibi 
tions  the  number  of  sales  could  almost  be 
counted  upon  one's  fingers ;  but  during  the 
six  weeks  of  the  exhibition  of  1874  the  sales 
of  water-colors  oil  the  walls  amounted  to 
$20,000,  a  success  unprecedented  in  this  coun 
try.  Now  that  it  pays  to  paint  in  water- 
colors,  the  permanent  success  of  the  society 
depends  only  upon  the  members  and  the  ex 
ercise  of  good  judgment  in  the  conduct  of 
its  affairs.  Its  exhibitions,  although  held 
in  the  Academy  building,  are  no  longer  un 
der  the  management  of  the  National  Acad 
emy,  nor  in  connection  with  its  exhibitions. 
The  water-color  society  has  an  active  mem 
bership  of  fifty-four  artists.  Its  financial 
affairs  are  in  a  flourishing  condition,  and 
there  is  every  reason  to  predict  for  it  a  brill 
iant  future.  Plans  have  already  been  per 
fected  which  will  secure  for  the  society  a 
creditable  display  at  the  Centennial  Exhi 
bition  at  Philadelphia,  when  the  country 
will  have  an  opportunity  to  see  what  our 
artists  have  been  able  to  do  toward  rivaling 
those  of  England  in  this  important  branch 
of  painting. 

Turning  from  these  societies,  the  most  im 
portant  art  associations  in  the  United  States, 
to  special  departments  of  art,  we  come  first 
to  the  consideration  of  portraiture,  which 
was  pursued  with  more  success  than  any 
other  branch  before  and  immediately  after 


the  Revolution.  Benjamin  West,  whose  ca 
reer,  like  that  of  John  Singleton  Copley,  be 
longs  mainly  to  England,  began  portrait 
painting  in  1753,  and  had  he  not  forsaken 
it  for  historical  and  religious  painting,  his 
fame  would  probably  have  been  more  endur 
ing.  Of  the  immense  number  of  paintings 
executed  by  him  during  his  long  career,  es 
timated  at  upward  of  three  thousand,  only 
one — "  The  Death  of  Wolfe" — rises  appre 
ciably  above  the  dead  level  of  Academical 
mediocrity.  His  mind,  hopelessly  devoid 
of  imagination,  constantly  aspired  to  the 
treatment  of  themes  which  might  well  ap 
pall  the  most  daring  genius — such,  for  ex 
ample,  as  "Moses  receiving  the  Law  on 
Mount  Sinai,"  "The  Opening  of  the  Seventh 
Seal  in  the  Revelations,"  "  The  Mighty  An 
gel  with  one  Foot  on  the  Sea  and  the  other 
on  the  Earth,"  etc.  A  pretty  story  is  told 
of  his  first  attempts  at  painting.  Inspired 
at  the  age  of  nine  by  the  sight  of  some  en 
gravings  and  the  gift  of  a  paint-box,  he  used 
to  play  truant  from  school,  "  and  as  soon  as 
he  got  out  of  sight  of  his  father  and  mother, 
he  would  steal  up  to  his  garret,  and  there 
pass  the  hours  in  a  world  of  his  own.  At 
last,  after  he  had  been  absent  from  school 
some  days,  the  master  called  at  his  father's 
house  to  inquire  what  had  become  of  him. 
This  led  to  the  discovery  of  his  secret  occu 
pation.  His  mother,  proceeding  to  the  gar 
ret,  found  the  truant ;  but  so  much  was  she 
astonished  and  delighted  by  the  creations 
of  his  pencil,  which  also  met  her  view  when 
she  entered  the  apartment,  that,  instead  of 
rebuking  him,  she  could  only  take  him  in 
her  arms  and  kiss  him  with  transports  of 
affection."  Doubtless  many  other  soft 
hearted  mothers  have  thus  greeted  what 
they  fondly  imagined  to  be  the  dawning  of 
genius  in  their  offspring,  but  with  conse 
quences  less  appalling.  The  young  artist 
went  early  to  Rome,  where  his  appearance, 
coming  from  the  far  Western  world,  excited 
curious  interest  and  attention.  Crowds  fol 
lowed  him  to  observe  the  impressions  cre 
ated  by  the  marvels  he  encountered.  On 
the  completion  of  his  studies,  which  he  pur 
sued  with  assiduity,  he  went  to  England, 
there  soon  afterward  married,  and  there  re 
mained  until  his  death,  at  the  age  of  seven 
ty-nine.  But  a  very  small  number  of  his 
works  are  owned  in  this  country.  His 


WEST  AND  COPLEY. 


407 


"  Christ  healing  the  Sick,"  presented  by  the 
artist  to  the  Pennsylvania  Hospital,  is  still 
in  the  possession  of  that  institution.  It  was 
once  greatly  admired.  The  Philadelphia 
Academy  of  Fine  Arts  owns  his  "Death  on 
the  Pale  Horse  ;"  his  "Christ  Kejected"  and 
his  "Cupid"  are  also  owned  in  that  city. 
His  "Lear"  may  be  seen  in  the  gallery  of 
the  Boston  Athenajum.  Two  of  his  pic 
tures,  illustrating  scenes  from  the  Iliad,  be 
long  to  the  collection  of  the  New  York  His 
torical  Society.  It  must  be  remembered  to 
his  honor  that  he  was  the  first  historical 
painter  to  break  through  the  absurd  Aca 
demical  traditions  which  required  modern 
subjects  to  be  painted  in  the  so-called  clas 
sic  style.  When  his  "  Death  of  Wolfe"  was 
exhibited  at  the  Royal  Academy  of  London, 
the  adherents  of  the  old  style  "  complained 
of  the  barbarism  of  boots,  buttons,  and  blun 
derbusses,  and  cried  out  for  naked  warriors 
with  bows,  bucklers,  and  battering-rams." 
Reynolds  and  the  Archbishop  of  York  re 
monstrated  with  West  against  his  daring 
innovation.  The  artist  calmly  replied  that 
"  the  event  to  be  commemorated  happened 
in  the  year  1758,  in  a  region  of  the  world 
unknown  to  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  and  at 
a  period  when  no  warrior  who  wore  classic 
costume  existed.  The  same  rule  which  gave 
law  to  the  historian  should  govern  the  paint 
er."  Reynolds  was  at  length  compelled  to 
acknowledge  the  justice  of  the  popular  ver 
dict  in  favor  of  the  new  style,  and  to  declare 
that  "West  has  conquered.  I  foresee  that 
this  picture  will  not  only  become  one  of 
the  most  popular,  but  will  occasion  a  revo 
lution  in  art."  West  was  a  sensible,  kind 
ly  man,  of  pure  life  and  lofty  aims.  His 
ambition,  unhappily,  was  far  beyond  his  ca 
pacity  as  an  artist,  and  his  fame  has  stead 
ily  declined  since  his  death.  His  highest 
distinction  as  an  artist  was  his  elevation  to 
the  presidency  of  the  Royal  Academy. 

Copley's  American  career  closed  with  the 
beginning  of  the  Revolution.  He  was  born 
in  Boston  on  the  3d  of  July,  1737,  and  died 
in  London  on  the  25th  of  September,  1815. 
He  waa  the  only  native  painter  of  real 
genius  and  culture  of  whom  the  New  World 
could  boast  prior  to  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence  ;  and  the  skill  and  assiduity 
with  which  he  pursued  his  profession  are 
attested  by  the  number  of  portraits  from 


TUOMA8  BULLY.— [1783-1872.] 

his  pencil  which  still  exist  in  the  possession 
of  old  families  in  New  England,  and  occa 
sionally  in  the  Southern  States.  It  has 
been  said  that  the  possession  of  one  of  these 
ancestral  portraits  is  an  American's  best 
title  of  nobility.  Chiefly  celebrated  for  his 
portraits,  Copley  also  attempted  historical 
compositions,  a  department  of  art  in  which 
he  received  but  little  encouragement,  al 
though  the  "  Death  of  Chatham,"  and  "  The 
Death  of  Major  Pierson,"  the  latter  being 
regarded  as  his  greatest  work,  evinced  con 
siderable  power  of  composition  and  color. 

Dunlap,  in  his  scrappy  but  entertaining 
history  of  the  arts  of  design  in  America, 
gives  the  names  of  a  large  number  of  por 
trait  painters,  native  and  foreign,  who  flour 
ished  during  colonial  and  Revolutionary 
times  in  this  country.  Most  of  them  have 
been  long  forgotten,  and  but  few  merit  at 
tention  at  the  present  day.  There  was  Wol- 
laston,  who  painted  several  portraits  in  Phil 
adelphia  in  1758,  and  afterward  in  Maryland. 
His  portrait  of  Mrs.  Washington  was  en 
graved  for  Sparks's  biography  of  our  first 
President.  Judge  Hopkinson  paid  him  a 
tribute  in  commonplace  verse  in  the  Ameri 
can  Magazine  for  September,  1758.  In  many 
of  the  older  dwellings  in  Maryland  may  be 
found  portraits  from  the  pencil  of  Hesselius, 
an  English  painter  of  respectable  capacity, 
settled  in  Annapolis  in  1763.  Cosmo  Alex 
ander,  who  came  to  this  country  in  1770  and 


408 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  FINE  ARTS. 


remained  a  year,  was  Stuart's  first  instructor 
in  art.  His  best-known  work  is  a  portrait 
of  the  Hon.  John  Ross,  a  prominent  member 
of  the  Philadelphia  bar.  Blackburn,  an  En 
glishman,  a  contemporary  of  Smybert,  paint 
ed  several  excellent  portraits  during  a  brief 
visit  to  this  country,  which  are  still  held  in 
high  esteem.  The  name  of  Robert  E.  Pine 
is  chiefly  remembered  for  his  portrait  of 
Washington.  This  artist  brought  to  Amer 
ica  the  earliest  cast  of  the  Venus  de'  Medici, 
"  which  was  privately  exhibited  to  the  se 
lect  few — the  manners  and  morals  of  the 
Quaker  City  forbidding  its  exposure  to  the 


PROFESSOR   MOB8E. — [1791-1872.] 

common  eye."  Pine  sympathized  with  the 
American  cause,  and  projected  a  grand  se 
ries  of  historical  paintings  to  illustrate  the 
events  of  the  Revolutionary  war.  His  plan 
also  comprehended  the  portraits  of  leading 
generals  and  statesmen.  Invited  to  Mount 
Vernon  in  1785,  he  passed  three  weeks  at 
that  place,  and  produced  a  portrait  of  Wash 
ington  which  is  believed  by  many  to  be  a 
more  correct  and  characteristic  likeness  of 
the  man  than  the  later  and  better-known 
portrait  by  Stuart. 

Passing  over  several  names  on  which  it 
would  be  pleasant  to  dwell  if  space  permit 


ted,  we  come  to  Charles  Wilson  Peale,  the 
first  painter  of  Washington.  He  was  born 
in  Chestertown,  Maryland,  in  1741.  Deter 
mining  at  an  early  age  on  the  profession  of 
portrait  painting,  he  first  sought  instruction 
in  Philadelphia,  and  afterward  in  Boston, 
where  he  studied  Copley's  pictures.  In  1770 
he  went  to  England,  and  there  studied  with 
West,  who,  with  his  usual  kindness,  opened 
his  heart  and  purse  to  the  poor  and  strug 
gling  artist.  Peale  returned  home  after  a 
residence  of  about  four  years  abroad,  and 
became  an  officer  in  the  Revolutionary  army. 
"  He  did  not,"  says  Tuckerman,  "  forget  the 
artist  in  the  soldier,  but  sedulously  improved 
his  leisure  in  camp  by  sketching  from  nature, 

and by  transferring  to  his  portfolio  many 

heads  which  afterward  he  elaborated  for  his 
gallery  of  national  portraits."  His  portrait 
of  Washington  as  a  Virginia  colonel,  well 
known  through  the  art  of  engraving,  pos 
sesses  a  historical  value  as  great  as  its  ar 
tistic  merit.  It  was  painted  in  1772,  and  is 
the  earliest  authentic  likeness  of  Washing 
ton  in  existence.  A  subsequent  portrait  was 
executed  by  Peale  in  compliance  with  a  res 
olution  of  Congress,  passed  before  the  oc 
cupation  of  Philadelphia.  "Its  progress," 
writes  Titian  R.  Peale  to  a  friend,  "marks 
the  vicissitudes  of  the  Revolutionary  strug 
gle.  Commenced  in  the  gloomy  winter  and 
half-famished  encampment  at  Valley  Forge 
in  1778,  the  battles  of  Trenton,  Princeton, 
and  Monmouth  intervened  before  its  com 
pletion.  At  the  last  place  Washington  sug 
gested  that  the  view  from  the  window  of 
the  farm-house  opposite  to  which  he  was 
sitting  would  form  a  desirable  background. 
Peale  adopted  the  idea,  and  represented  Mon 
mouth  Court-house,  and  a  party  of  Hessians 
under  guard  marching  out  of  it."  Congress 
adjourned  without  making  an  appropriation 
for  the  payment  of  the  artist,  and  the  por 
trait  remained  on  his  hands.  The  testimony 
of  contemporaries  stamps  this  picture  as  a 
most  faithful  likeness  of  Washington  in  the 
prime  of  life.  Peale  painted  fourteen  por 
traits  of  Washington,  of  which  the  two  wo 
have  mentioned  are  the  most  important. 
His  career  was  long  and  honorable.  Hia 
talent  as  a  portrait  painter  in  oil  and  min 
iature  was  in  constant  demand  far  and  wide, 
not  only  in  this  country,  but  by  sitters  from 
Canada  and  the  West  Indies.  He  died,  re- 


GILBERT  STUART. 


409 


vered  and  regretted,  at  the  age  of  eighty- 
four,  in  1826.  His  son,  Rembrandt  Peale,  at 
the  age  of  eighteen,  made  a  pencil  sketch  of 
Washington,  and  long  afterward  painted  a 
portrait  of  him  from  memory,  assisted  by 
Houdin's  bust. 

We  must  pass  with  only  brief  mention 
the  names  of  William  Duulap,  chiefly  known 
for  his  history  of  the  arts  of  design ;  Robert 
Fulton,  more  celebrated  as  an  inventor  than 
as  an  artist ;  John  Wesley  Jarvis,  genial, 
gifted,  and  erratic ;  Malbone,  like  Jarvis,  cel 
ebrated  for  his  success  in  miniature  paint 
ing  ;  Chester  Harding,  once  the  rival  of  Stu 
art  in  portraiture;  Gilbert  Stuart  Newton, 
whose  memory  is  affectionately  honored  in 
Leslie's  autobiography ;  C.  C.  Ingham,  one 
of  the  last  of  the  old  generation  of  por 
trait  painters ;  and  Morse,  who  early  forsook 
painting,  and  whose  name  is  connected  with 
the  most  important  invention  of  this  centu 
ry,  the  electric  telegraph.  Contemporary 
with  these  artists  were  many  who  achieved 
high  reputation  in  their  day,  but  whose 
names  are  now  known  only  through  the 
annals  of  art  societies. 

One  of  the  greatest  portrait  painters  of 
America,  Gilbert  Charles  Stuart,  was  also 
one  of  the  earliest.  He  was  born  in  Narra- 
ganset,  Rhode  Island,  in  1754,  according  to 
an  anecdote  of  his  own,  quoted  by  Dunlap, 
in  a  snuff  mill,  the  first  in  New  England, 
erected  by  his  father.  In  after -years  he 
dropped  his  middle  name,  which  had  been 


HKNBY    INMAN.— [1801-1846.] 


THOMAS   OOLE.— [1801-1848.] 

given  to  him  at  his  baptism  to  signify  his 
father's  fidelity  to  the  royal  house  of  Stuart. 
He  commenced  portrait  painting  at  Newport, 
Rhode  Island ;  was  taken  to  Edinburgh  at 
the  age  of  eighteen ;  resided  several  years 
in  London,  where  his  success  was  marked, 
and  passed  some  time  in  Dublin  and  Paris. 
In  1793  Stuart  returned  to  this  country,  and 
from  that  time  till  his  death,  at  Boston,  in 
1828,  pursued  a  career  of  remarkable  indus 
try  and  ability.  Many  of  the  most  famous 
statesmen  of  America  sat  to  him,  and  his 
portraits  of  Washington,  John  Adams,  Jef 
ferson,  Monroe,  and  other  distinguished  men 
are  well  known  through  engravings.  Our 
ideas  of  Washington's  personal  appearance 
are  derived  from  Stuart  rather  than  from 
Pine  or  Peale.  He  also  painted  an  immense 
number  of  society  portraits.  His  works  are 
widely  scattered  on  both  sides  of  the  Atlan 
tic.  In  power  of  drawing  and  expression, 
and  in  truth  and  purity  of  color,  his  por 
traits  stand  almost  without  rival  in  Ameri 
can  or  European  art.  He  was  great  in  the 
portrayal  of  individual  character.  Allston 
declared  that  he  "seemed  to  dive  into  the 
thoughts  of  men,  for  they  were  made  to  live 
and  speak  on  the  surface."  The  same  ad 
mirable  artist  has  also  well  said  that  Stuart 
"  was,  in  its  widest  sense,  a  philosopher  in 
his  art.  He  thoroughly  understood  its  prin 
ciples,  as  his  works  bear  witness,  whether  as 
to  harmony  of  colors  or  of  lines,  or  of  light 
and  shadow,  showing  that  exquisite  sense 


410 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  FINE  ARTS. 


I1OBATIO   GRKKNOUGU.— [1805-1852.] 

of  a  whole  which  only  a  man  of  genius  can 
realize  and  embody.  Of  this  not  the  least 
admirable  instance  is  his  portrait  of  John 
Adams,  whose  bodily  tenement  at  the  time 
seemed  rather  to  present  the  image  of  a  di 
lapidated  castle  than  the  habitation  of  the 
unbroken  mind.  But  not  such  is  the  pic 
ture.  Called  forth  from  its  crumbling  re 
cesses,  the  living  tenant  is  there,  still  enno 
bling  the  ruin,  and  upholding  it,  as  it  were, 
by  the  strength  of  his  inner  life."  Stuart 
painted  but  three  portraits  of  Washington 
from  life,  but  made  twenty-six  copies  of 
these  originals.  There  is  a  certain  weak 
ness  about  the  mouth,  Washington  having 
lost  his  teeth  when  the  originals  were  paint 
ed,  but  the  general  bearing  is  noble  and  dig 
nified  ;  and  we  may  congratulate  ourselves, 
with  Leslie,  "  that  a  painter  existed  in  the 
time  of  Washington  who  could  hand  him 
down  looking  like  a  gentleman." 

To  sketch  even  in  outline  the  career  of 
every  American  artist  who  has  achieved  ce 
lebrity  in  portraiture  or  any  other  branch 
of  art  would  extend  this  article  into  a  good- 
sized  volume.  Among  those  artists  who  be 
longed  partly  to  the  last  and  partly  to  the 
present  century,  and  whose  genius  has  left 
a  deep  impression  upon  American  art,  may 
be  mentioned  John  Vanderlyn,  whose  "Ari 
adne"  and  "Marius"  are  justly  celebrated, 
and  who  has  given  us  the  best  portraits  ex 
tant  of  Madison,  Monroe,  Randolph,  Clin 
ton,  Calhoun,  and  other  eminent  Americans ; 
and  Thomas  Sully,  a  native  of  England,  but 


whose  career  belongs  to  America,  and  whose 
portraits  are  distinguished  by  exquisite  grace 
and  refinement.  To  the  present  century  be 
long  many  eminent  names,  such  as  Henry 
Innian,  happiest  in  portraiture,  but  also 
charming  in  landscape,  and  the  first  Amer 
ican  artist  who  attempted  genre  painting 
with  success ;  William  Page,  who  emulates 
Titian  and  Veronese  as  a  colorist,  whose 
portraits  rank  among  the  noblest  of  mod 
ern  times,  and  whose  Venetian  reproduc 
tions  have  excited  the  highest  admiration 
as  well  as  the  severest  criticism;  Charles 
Loring  Elliot,  whose  portraits  are  distin 
guished  by  richness  of  color,  a  manly  sim 
plicity  and  force  of  execution,  combined 
with  a  subtile  grasp  of  individuality  which 
no  other  American  portrait  painter  has 
evinced  in  an  equal  degree ;  Daniel  Huii- 
tiugton,  whose  versatile  pencil,  not  confined 
to  any  single  branch  of  art,  is  equally  happy 
in  portraiture,  landscape,  genre,  and  historic 
al  painting;  Oliver  Stone, recently  deceased, 
whose  portraits  of  women  and  children,  in 
which  lie  chiefly  excelled,  are  characterized 
by  a  peculiar  grace  and  refinement ;  Thomas 
Le  Clear;  Richard  M.  Staigg,  who,  besides 
the  exquisite  ivory  miniatures  by  which  he 
is  chiefly  known,  has  shown  a  happy  talent 
in  genre  painting;  George  A.  Baker,  whose 
portraits  of  women  and  children  are  of  rare 
beauty  and  refinement.  Other  names  might 
be  mentioned  did  not  want  of  space  forbid. 
Historical  painting  has  not  found  in  Amer 
ica  the  encouragement  accorded  to  other 
branches  of  art,  partly,  perhaps,  because  we 
have  never  had  a  really  great  historical 
painter,  and  partly  because  the  genius  of 
the  age  does  not  favor  it.  Colonel  John 
Truinbull  attempted  to  depict  the  events  of 
the  Revolution  in  a  series  of  large  historical 
tableaux,  which  are  now  chiefly  valued  for 
the  faithful  portraits  they  contain  of  the 
soldiers  and  statesmen  of  that  time.  His 
sketches  and  studies  for  these  works  show 
a  vigor  and  grasp  which  are  wanting  in  the 
larger  canvases.  His  "Death  of  Montgom 
ery,"  the  "  Signing  of  the  Declaration  of  In 
dependence,"  and  the  "Battle  of  Bunker 
Hill,"  and  others  of  his  important  works, 
exhibit  considerable  skill  in  grouping  and 
composition,  but  it  would  have  been  better 
for  his  fame  had  nothing  remained  but  the 
original  sketches  and  portraits.  His  talent 


WASHINGTON  ALLSTON. 


411 


is  displayed  to  greater  advantage  in  the 
"  Trumbull  Gallery"  at  New  Haven  than  in 
the  national  Capitol.  As  aid-de-camp  to 
General  Washington  in  the  early  part  of 
the  Revolution,  Colonel  Trumbull  enjoyed 
peculiar  facilities  for  studying  his  character 
and  features  under  the  most  varied  circum 
stances,  and  his  portrait  of  him  now  in  the 
gallery  at  New  Haven  is  full  of  soldierly 
spirit.  By  contemporaries,  to  whom  it  re 
called  the  leader  of  the  American  armies,  it 
was  preferred  to  Stuart's. 

Pre-eminent  among  American  historical 
painters  stands  the  honored  name  of  Wash 
ington  Allston ;  yet  even  of  him  it  must  be 
said  that  performance  lagged  far  behind  de 
sign,  and  that  his  fame  is  in  great  part  the 
legacy  of  contemporary  admiration.  The 
quality  of  his  genius  was  akin  to  that  of 
the  old  masters  of  religious  art.  It  might 
be  said  of  him  that  he  painted  for  antiquity. 
His  mind,  even  in  youth  inclined  to  serious 
contemplation,  was  moulded  by  early  study 
of  the  old  masters,  and  the  results  of  this 
training  may  be  traced  in  all  his  works.  It 
was  to  him  that  Fuseli  bluntly  said,  "You 
have  come  a  great  way  to  starve,"  when  the 
young  American,  on  his  first  visit  to  Lon 
don,  announced  his  purpose  to  devote  him 
self  to  historical  painting.  Nothing  daunt 
ed,  Allston  pursued  his  studies  in  England, 
France,  and  Italy  with  unflagging  diligence, 
and  with  the  grand  goal  of  his  ambition  con 
stantly  in  view.  His  earliest  large  picture, 
"  The  Dead  Man  Revived,"  obtained  the  prize 
of  two  hundred  guineas  from  the  British  In 
stitution,  and  was  soon  after  purchased  by 
the  Philadelphia  Academy  of  Fine  Arts. 
This  was  followed  by  a  long  list  of  impor 
tant  works,  many  of  which  are  owned  in 
England,  where  Allstou  enjoys  even  greater 
repute  than  in  his  own  country.  He  suf 
fered  much  from  feeble  health  and  from  pe 
cuniary  embarrassment,  and  one  of  his  most 
important  works,  "  Belshazzar's  Feast,"  re 
mained,  in  consequence,  unfinished  at  his 
death.  His  first  studies  for  this  painting 
were  made  in  London  in  1817.  At  intervals 
he  worked  upon  it  for  nearly  thirty  years,  and 
was  engaged  upon  it  on  the  last  day  of  his 
life.  Eveu  in  its  unfinished  state  it  attests 
the  grandeur  of  the  artist's  conception,  but 
it  also  reveals  in  a  striking  degree  the  lim 
itations  of  his  genius,  chiefly  the  vacillation 


of  thought,  the  wavering  choice,  displayed 
in  changes  of  plan  and  apparent  dissatisfac 
tion  with  parts  of  the  work  as  it  proceeded. 
Allstou  himself  regarded  this  picture  as  his 
greatest  composition ;  to  finish  it  worthily 
was  the  desire  of  his  heart ;  but  his  genius 
found  its  best  expression  in  some  of  his  less 
ambitious  paintings,  in  which  his  refined 
seuse  of  the  beautiful,  his  love  of  the  grace 
ful,  and  his  intimate  knowledge  of  form  are 
allowed  free  play,  untrammeled  by  the  strug 
gle  to  paint  in  the  "  grand  style." 

Historical  painting  in  America  has  been 
mainly,  thus  far  at  least,  the  reflex  of  Euro 
pean  schools  of  art.  Trumbull's  style  was 
formed  in  London  under  the  tuition  of  Ben- 


HIRAM   POWERS.— [1805-1873.] 

jamin  West,  Allston's  by  long  and  conscien 
tious  study  of  the  great  masters  of  the  Vene 
tian  schools,  and  Emauuel  Leutze,  our  most 
vigorous  and  prolific  historical  painter  in 
recent  times,  the  engraving  from  whose  pic 
ture  of  "Washington  crossing  the  Delaware" 
has  carried  his  name  into  every  American 
household,  was  the  disciple  of  Lessing,  with 
whom  he  studied  at  Dlisscldorf.  The  con 
ditions  of  American  society  are  not,  indeed, 
favorable  to  the  development  of  this  branch 
of  art,  which  can  not  flourish  without  a  pat 
ronage  which  does  not  exist  in  this  country. 
Our  government  patronage  has  been  a  posi 
tive  detriment  to  art.  With  few  exceptions, 
the  national  commissions  have  been  award- 


412 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  FINE  ARTS. 


ed  to  artists  of  inferior  merit,  whose  success 
was  ofteu  duo  to  lobby  influence.  The  con 
sequence  is  that  the  national  paintings  at 
Washington  are,  with  a  few  worthy  excep 
tions,  a  national  disgrace.  A  blank  white 
Avail  would  be  less  displeasing  to  the  culti 
vated  eye.  It  is,  perhaps,  vain  to  hope  for 
a  remedy.  In  the  scramble  for  government 
art  patronage,  charlatans  alone  enter  the 
course ;  men  of  genius,  whose  productions 
would  do  the  nation  honor,  will  never  de 
scend  to  an  unseemly  scrub  race  with  "art 
ists"  who  could  hardly  paint  a  respectable 
sign  for  a  village  tavern.  Hence  it  is  that 
while  we  occasionally  see  an  American  his 
torical  painting  of  high  merit,  the  branches 
of  art  which  most  flourish  in  this  country, 
and  which  have  reached  a  degree  of  excel 
lence  unsurpassed  in  Europe,  are  portrait 
ure,  landscape,  and  genre  painting.  For  cor 
rect  drawing,  truth  of  color,  and  a  fideli 
ty  to  expression  as  nearly  absolute  as  the 
art  can  be  carried,  American  portrait  paint 
ers,  as  a  class,  stand  in  advance  of  their  Eu 
ropean  brethren.  There  are  no  portraits  in 
the  world,  if  we  except  those  of  the  old  Ve 
netian  masters,  superior  in  the  highest  qual 
ities  of  art  to  those  of  Stuart,  Elliot,  Page, 
Huntington,  Le  Clear,  Stone,  Baker,  and  oth 
ers  who  have  devoted  their  genius  to  this 
branch  of  art.  American  portraiture  may 
not  display  so  much  Academical  "  effect"  as 
the  French,  but  effect  is  not  in  itself  an  es 
sential  quality  of  high  art.  It  is  often  an 
artistic  trick  to  catch  the  uncultivated  eye 
and  hide  defects  of  drawing. 

In  landscape  painting,  as  in  portraiture, 
America  very  early  declared  her  independ 
ence  of  European  schools.  Our  artists  have 
gone  directly  to  nature  for  inspiration,  and 
each,  following  the  tendency  of  his  own 
genius,  has  found  in  her  varied  aspects  of 
loveliness  and  grandeur  what  no  Academical 
training  could  have  taught.  Fidelity  to  na 
ture  is  a  characteristic  trait  of  American 
landscape  art ;  a  fidelity  not  servile,  but 
conscientious  and  loving,  with  none  of  the 
conventional  trickery  and  Academical  effects 
characteristic  of  every  European  school  of 
landscape  except  the  English ;  a  fidelity  not 
inconsistent  with  the  widest  display  of  im 
agination  and  fancy,  nor  with  freedom  of  in 
dividual  expression.  If  characteristic  speci 
mens  of  the  art  of  each  of  our  landscape 


painters,  from  the  venerable  Durand,  whose 
hand  has  not  yet  forgot  its  cunning,  to  the 
youngest  aspirant  for  a  place  on  the  walls 
of  the  Academy,  could  be  gathered  into  one 
gallery,  they  would  form  an  exhibition  un 
rivaled  in  the  world  in  all  the  higher  quali 
ties  of  art,  in  individuality,  and  in  truth  to 
nature.  Such  a  collection— a  nucleus  al 
ready  exists  in  our  Metropolitan  Museum 
of  Art — ought  to  find  a  place  in  New  York. 
How  interesting  to  the  student  would  it  be 
to  trace  the  development  of  landscape  art 
in  the  pictures  of  Durand,  Cole,  Huntiugtou, 
Inness,  Church,  Bierstadt,  Gifford,  Keusett, 
Whittredge,  M'Eutee,  Colman,Hubbard,  and 
a  host  of  others  who  have  won  deserved  hon 
ors  by  their  faithful  delineations  of  nature! 
The  limits  of  this  sketch  preclude  extended 
personal  characterizations  where  so  many 
deserve  special  notice ;  and  equally  out  of 
the  question  is  even  the  briefest  account  of 
what  the  most  eminent  have  accomplished 
toward  bringing  American  landscape  art  to 
its  present  high  position. 

In  more  senses  than  one  such  an  exhi 
bition  would  be  essentially  American ;  for 
although  many  of  our  foremost  landscape 
painters  have  gone  abroad  for  study  or  in 
search  of  special  aspects  of  nature,  they 
have  found  in  the  grandeur  and  in  the  beau 
ty  of  our  own  country  the  highest  inspira 
tion.  Gifford  brings  nothing  from  Venice  or 
the  East  superior  to  his  magnificent  tran 
scripts  of  the  scenery  of  the  Hudson  and  the 
sea-coast,  although  that  element  of  the  pic 
turesque  afforded  by  the  architecture  of  the 
Old  World  is  wanting  in  the  New ;  nor  did 
Church  find  in  the  Andes  inspiration  for  a 
nobler  picture  than  his  "Niagara."  Bier- 
stadt's  splendid  delineations  of  the  sublime 
scenery  of  California  and  the  Rocky  Mount 
ains  far  surpass  his  "  Vesuvius."  Thomas 
Cole  found  in  the  Catskills  the  material  for 
his  most  beautiful  pictures  ;  and  where  but 
in  America  could  M'Entee  have  become  the 
interpreter  of  those  autumnal  effects  which 
he  renders  with  such  beauty  and  fidelity  ? 
The  happiest  efforts  of  Kensett  were  in 
spired  by  years  of  patient  study  among  the 
mountains  of  New  England  and  New  York, 
the  lakes  and  rivers  of  the  Middle  States, 
and  along  the  Eastern  sea -coast.  Whit- 
tredge's  magnificent  pictures  of  Western 
scenery  cast  into  the  shade  his  earlier 


GENRE  PAINTERS. 


413 


though  beautiful  views  on  the  Rhine.  But 
the  list  is  almost  inexhaustible ;  it  would 
include  nearly  every  eminent  landscape 
painter  in  America. 

Several  of  our  most  eminent  landscapists 
are  known  also  as  successful  marine  paint 
ers.  Colman  began  his  artistic  career  by 
painting  shipping  and  sea  views.  Many  of 
the  finest  pictures  of  Kensett  and  Gifford 
represent  various  aspects  of  the  sea  in  con 
nection  with  views  of  the  coast.  One  of 
Church's  most  important  compositions  is  his 
picture  of  a  gigantic  iceberg  floating  majes 
tically  in  a  tranquil  expanse  of  ocean.  Will 
iam  Bradford  has  devoted  himself  almost 
exclusively  to  the  delineation  of  the  arctic 
seas,  with  their  rugged  glacier-riven  coasts, 
their  icebergs,  and  their  terrible  ice-plains, 
the  scene  of  adventure  and  disaster.  Among 
our  most  noteworthy  marine  painters  may 
be  mentioned  F.  H.  De  Haas,  a  native  of 
Rotterdam,  but  for  many  years  a  resident 
of  this  country.  His  pictures  of  sea  storms 
are  strong  and  effective;  and  he  has  also 
painted  many  beautiful  coast  scenes.  Charles 
Temple  Dix,  had  his  life  been  spared,  would 
have  achieved  great  success  in  this  branch 
of  painting. 

In  figure  and  genre  painting  we  have  the 
names  of  many  gifted  and  accomplished 
artists,  such  as  Eastman  Johnson,  Edwin 
White,  E.  W.  Perry,  Matteson,  S.  Mount,  J. 
Wood,  J.  G.  Brown,  John  W.  Ehuinger,  Eli- 
hu  Vedder,  George  H.  Boughton,  W.  J.  Heu- 
nessy,  R.  C.  Woodville,  and  others.  Mr. 
White  is  also  a  careful  and  admired  portrait 
painter,  and  has  essayed  historical  composi 
tion  with  marked  success.  Mr.  Johnson 
stands  at  the  head  of  American  genre  paint 
ers.  He  was  among  the  first  to  recognize 
in  American  life  the  picturesque  and  char 
acteristic  traits  which  our  artists  were  once 
fain  to  seek  abroad.  Thanks  to  his  intui 
tion  and  to  the  example  of  his  admirable 
achievements,  American  genre  painting  now 
rivals  that  of  any  European  nation  hi  vari 
ety  and  excellence,  and  gives  promise  of 
greater  triumphs  in  the  future. 

The  best  animal  painter  in  America  is  W. 
H.  Beard,  whose  half-humorous,  half-serious 
compositions  have  not  been  excelled  by  any 
other  artist  at  home  or  abroad.  He  has  a 
special  penchant  for  bears,  .and  has  made 
them  the  medium  of  caustic  satire  on  hu- 


TUOMA8   CRAWFORD. — [1813-185T.] 

inanity,  as  in  his  "Bears  on  a  Bender" — a 
picture  which  established  his  name,  and  the 
great  success  of  which  influenced  his  career. 
His  brother,  James  H.  Beard,  also  an  animal 
painter  of  merit,  employs  his  pencil  almost 
exclusively  in  the  delineation  of  domestic 
animals.  The  late  William  Hays  painted 
many  admirable  animal  pictures,  of  which 
the  most  important  are  "  The  Stampede"  and 
"  The  Herd  on  the  Move."  The  names  of 
Tait  and  Bispham  must  also  be  included  in 
the  list  of  painters  who  have  made  special 
study  of  animal  life,  and  have  been  success 
ful  in  the  delineation  of  it. 

The  list  of  American  sculptors  embraces  a 
number  of  eminent  names,  beginning  with 
that  of  Horatio  Greenough,  from  whose  hand 
came  the  first  marble  group  executed  by  an 
American.  Sculpture,  as  is  well  known,  was 
not  popular  in  this  country  for  some  years 
after  the  Revolution.  Nude  statuary  was 
especially  an  abomination  not  to  be  toler 
ated  ;  and  Greenough,  Crawford,  and  Pow 
ers  waited  many  years  and  endured  keen 
disappointments  before  they  received  pop 
ular  recognition.  Their  residence  abroad, 
rendered  necessary  by  the  absence  of  the 
proper  facilities  for  the  prosecution  of  their 
art  at  home,  removed  them  in  a  great  measure 
from  popular  sympathy,  and  their  achieve 
ments,  except  by  report,  were  known  to  a 
comparatively  small  number  of  people.  But 
travel,  culture,  familiarity  with  foreign  gal 
leries,  and  the  more  general  distribution  of 
casts  and  statuary  throughout  the  country 
have  produced  a  marked  change  in  popular 
ideas.  Statuary  forms  a  more  or  less  im- 


414 


PROGRESS  OF  THE  FINE  ARTS. 


portant  part  of  every  Academy  exhibition, 
and  it  is  no  longer  necessary  to  set  apart  a 
day  exclusively  for  the  admission  of  ladies. 
Nor  is  it  longer  essential  that  an  American 
sculptor  should  reside  in  Italy,  or  go  abroad 
at  all,  except  for  the  purpose  of  study  among 
the  masterpieces  of  antique  art.  Several  of 
our  most  eminent  sculptors  pursue  their  art 
at  home,  and  retain  an  individuality  which 
might  be  endangered,  in  some  degree  at 
least,  by  a  foreign  residence.  Our  foremost 
living  sculptor,  J.  Q.  A.  Ward,  achieved  sev 
eral  signal  triumphs  in  his  art,  without  the 
advantages  supposed  to  be  only  attainable 
abroad.  His  "  Indian  Hunter,"  his  "  Freed- 
man,"  his  statue  of  Shakspeare,  now  in  Cen- 


JOHN   F.  KBNSETT.— [1818-1872.] 

tral  Park,  and  his  numerous  portrait  busts, 
all  attest  the  vigor  and  originality  of  his 
genius.  Ward  is  the  most  thoroughly  Amer 
ican  of  all  our  sculptors.  Greenough,  Craw 
ford,  Powers,  Story,  went  early  to  the  studios 
of  Florence  or  Rome,  and  in  the  contempla 
tion  of  ancient  art  they  lost  the  inspiration 
of  the  New  World,  and  became  European 
artists,  not  to  be  distinguished,  by  any  char 
acteristic  of  their  work,  from  the  English, 
French,  German,  and  Italian  sculptors  sur 
rounding  them.  Palmer,  like  Ward,  never 
studied  abroad,  and  yet,  despite  certain  pe 
culiar  theories  in  regard  to  his  art,  he  has 
produced  some  admirable  work.  Besides 


the  artists  already  named,  among  those  who 
have  acquired  distinction  as  American  sculp 
tors  may  be  named  Thomas  Ball,  Henry 
Kirke  Brown,  Randolph  Rogers ;  Joel  T. 
Hart,  of  Kentucky;  and  Launt  Thompson, 
who,  though  born  in  Ireland,  has  become 
thoroughly  Americanized.  He  acquired  his 
art  with  Palmer,  in  whose  studio  he  remain 
ed  about  nine  years.  Thompson  has  exe 
cuted  some  very  characteristic  portrait 
busts  and  several  statues  of  great  merit,  the 
most  important  being  that  of  General  Sedg- 
wick.  The  varied  genre  groups  of  John 
Rogers,  chiefly  representing  scenes  and  epi 
sodes  of  the  late  war,  entitle  this  artist  to  a 
permanent,  if  not  very  lofty,  place  among 
American  sculptors.  Several  American  wom 
en,  among  them  Miss  Harriet  Hosmer,  Miss 
Margaret  Foley,  and  Miss  Emma  Stebbins, 
have  also  attained  high  repute  as  sculptors. 

The  art  of  engraving  has  reached  a  high 
degree  of  excellence  in  America  during  the 
hundred  years  which  have  elapsed  since 
Paul  Revere,  the  hero  of  the  memorable  ride 
celebrated  in  Longfellow's  verse,  engraved 
caricatures  and  historical  subjects  in  Bos 
ton.  Revere  worked  on  copper,  an  art 
which,  like  lithography,  has  been  almost 
driven  out  of  existence  by  wood-engraving. 
The  first  wood-engraver  in  America  was  Dr. 
Anderson,  who  died  a  few  years  since  at  the 
age  of  ninety-five,  having,  in  the  course  of 
his  long  career,  seen  the  art  advance  from 
a  rude  state  to  the  finish  and  refinement  it 
has  attained  in  the  hands  of  such  men  as 
Linton  and  Anthony,  and  of  men  who  are 
second  to  these  masters  only.  Wood-en 
graving  has  been  a  powerful  agent  in  the 
dissemination  of  a  knowledge  and  love  of 
art  throughout  the  country,  not  only  by  the 
reproduction  of  the  works  of  eminent  mas 
ters  of  Europe  and  America,  but  by  spread 
ing  broadcast  through  illustrated  books, 
magazines,  and  journals  the  artistic  crea 
tions  of  Barley,  Hoppin,  Fredricks,  Nast,  Mo- 
ran,  Sol  Eytinge,  and  a  hundred  others  who 
have  devoted  their  talents  to  illustration. 

The  history  of  caricature  in  the  United 
States  has  been  so  recently  .and  so  amply 
given  by  Mr.  Parton  in  the  pages  of  Harper's 
Magazine  that  it  is  only  necessary  here  to 
note  some  of  the  leading  names  in  this  de 
partment  of  art.  Among  political  carica 
turists  Thomas  Nast  stands  without  a  rival 


GROWTH  OF  ART  CULTURE. 


415 


in  the  vigor  and  sharpness  of  bis  satire  and 
in  versatility  of  invention.  In  social  cari 
cature  we  have  Sol  Eytinge,  whose  inimita 
ble  delineations  of  the  humorous  side  of 
negro  character  excite  genial  amusement, 
but  never  derisive  laughter;  Bellew,  Woolf, 
Reinhart,  Frost,  Wust,  Thomas  Worth,  Hop 
kins,  and  many  others,  whose  names  would 
fill  a  large  catalogue. 

Looking  back  through  the  hundred  years 
of  our  existence  as  an  independent  nation, 
we  see  a  steady  and  healthful  growth  of  art 
in  all  sections  of  the  country.  Year  by 
year  the  number  of  American  artists  has  in 
creased  with  the  diffusion  of  culture  among 
the  people ;  art  societies  are  springing  up 
in  all  parts  of  the  country ;  exhibitions 
worthy  of  the  Old  World  are  held  in  cities 
where  fifty  years  ago  there  was  scarcely  a 
break  in  the  primeval  forest.  Europe  sends 
us  yearly  an  accession  of  artists,  who  be 


come  American,  as  West,  Copley,  and  Les 
lie  became  English  painters.  Schools  of  art 
spread  culture  and  knowledge  all  over  the 
land.  Massachusetts  has  made  drawing  a 
part  of  her  system  of  common-school  educa 
tion  with  admirable  results.  The  art  school 
connected  with  the  Cooper  Union  in  this  city 
has  also  done  great  service  in  the  way  of 
elementary  training  in  drawing,  painting, 
wood-engraving,  etc.  The  work  begun  by 
the  American  Institute  of  Architects  awak 
ens  the  hope  that  another  generation  will 
see  a  vast  improvement  in  the  architecture 
of  our  public  and  private  buildings.  As 
wealth  and  culture  increase,  the  fine  arts 
will  find  increasing  support,  and  the  com 
ing  century  will  witness  a  development  in 
the  sculpture,  painting,  and  architecture 
of  this  country  as  marvelous  as  its  progress 
has  been  in  the  mechanical  and  industrial 
arts. 


XIV. 

MEDICAL  AND   SANITARY  PROGRESS. 


WHAT  has  been  done  in  these  United 
States  of  America  since  the  declara 
tion  of  their  independence  in  the  way  of 
medical  and  sanitary  progress?  To  answer 
this  question  fully  it  would  he  necessary  to 
write  the  history  of  American  medicine,  for 
which  at  least  a  volume  would  be  required. 
In  undertaking  to  review  the  past  centen 
nial  period,  with  reference  to  this  question, 
within  the  limits  of  a  few  pages,  I  must  be 
content  with  a  large  outline  and  certain 
representative  facts. 

Evidence  of  progress  is  to  be  sought  for 
in  educational  institutions.  At  the  close 
of  the  colonial  government  there  were  two 
American  medical  colleges,  one  in  Philadel 
phia,  the  other  in  New  York ;  the  former  es 
tablished  in  1765,  and  the  latter  in  1768.  The 
operations  of  both  were  suspended  during 
the  Revolutionary  war.  Up  to  that  time 
they  had  conferred  medical  degrees  upon 
less  than  fifty  candidates.  The  great  ma 
jority  of  the  physicians  and  surgeons  in  the 
colonies  had  obtained  what  education  they 
possessed  in  commencing  practice  by  having 
served  for  a  period  of  from  three  to  seven 
years  as  apprentices  to  medical  practition 
ers,  the  duties  of  apprenticeship  embracing 
certain  menial  offices  as  well  as  study  and  the 
compounding  of  medicines.  A  favored  few 
were  able  to  resort  to  the  celebrated  schools 
of  London,  Edinburgh,  and  Leyden.  At  the 
close  of  the  war  the  two  American  colleges 
resumed  operations,  and  three  others  came 
into  existence  before  the  end  of  the  eight 
eenth  century,  namely,  the  medical  depart 
ment  of  Harvard  University,  of  Dartmouth 
College,  and  of  Rutgers  College,  of  New  Jer 
sey.  The  number  of  graduates  from  all  these 
institutions  at  the  beginning  of  the  nine 
teenth  century  had  not  much  exceeded  two 
hundred.  During  the  first  half  of  the  pres 
ent  century  medical  colleges  were  multi 
plied  nearly  at  the  rate  of  a  new  college 
annually,  distributed  among  the  different 
States,  and  many  of  them  established  in 
small  villages.  This  multiplication  and  dis 
tribution  met  the  requirements  of  medical 


education  at  that  time,  in  view  of  the  rapid 
settlement  of  distant  parts  of  our  vast  coun 
try,  stage  -  coaches  being  the  only  public 
mode  of  traveling  by  land,  and  the  great  ma 
jority  of  students  and  practitioners  in  med 
icine  having  limited  pecuniary  resources. 
After  the  extension  of  railway  communica 
tions  and  the  development  of  the  material 
resources  of  newly  settled  States  and  Terri 
tories,  the  increase  in  the  number  of  col 
leges  was  less,  and  for  the  most  part  it  has 
been  confined  to  metropolitan  or  large 
towns,  many  of  those  in  villages  having 
been  discontinued.  At  the  present  time 
about  seven  thousand  medical  students  at 
tend  annually  the  various  colleges,  and  the 
annual  number  of  graduates  exceeds  two 
thousand.1  During  the  last  quarter  of  a 
century  there  has  been  progressive  improve 
ment  in  collegiate  and  extra-collegiate  in 
struction  by  means  of  extension  of  the  terms 
of  lectures,  subdivisions  of  the  different  de 
partments,  the  institution  of  special  courses, 
combining  more  and  more  illustrations  with 
didactic  teaching,  the  systematic  regulation 
of  study  with  recitations,  and  private  lect 
ures  or  demonstrations  in  various  branches. 
Without  presumption,  it  may  be  claimed 
in  behalf  of  the  leading  American  medical 
schools  that  especially,  although  not  exclu 
sively,  as  regards  practical  instruction,  they 
compare  favorably  with  the  long -distin 
guished  schools  in  Great  Britain,  France, 
and  Germany. 

In  connection  with  this  sketch  of  educa 
tional  institutions  it  is  but  just  to  the  med 
ical  profession  of  this  country  to  present 
certain  facts.  To  this  profession  belongs 
chiefly  whatever  credit  may  pertain  to  the 
rise  and  progress  of  these  institutions  now 
and  in  the  past.  Our  State  Legislatures  in 
corporate  medical  colleges,  and  generally 
charters  are  obtained  without  difficulty. 
Legislative  aid  in  the  way  of  money  is  the 

1  Vide  Toner's  Annals  of  Medical  Progress  for  these 
and  other  statistics.  For  the  dates  of  the  establish 
ment  of  different  schools  and  other  details,  vide  History 
of  Medical  Education,  etc.,  by  N.  8.  Davis,  M.D. 


MEDICAL  SOCIETIES. 


417 


exception,  not  the  rule,  albeit  it  is  very  evi 
dent  that  well-educated  physicians  and  sur 
geons  are  literally  of  vital  importance  to  the 
public  weal.  As  a  rule,  with  some  notable 
exceptions,  the  pecuniary  means  for  the  es 
tablishment  of  a  medical  school  are  not 
largely  furnished  either  by  municipal  ap 
propriations  or  private  contributions  from 
other  than  members  of  the  medical  profes 
sion.  After  having  been  established,  the 
revenue  of  the  colleges  is  derived  commonly 
from  the  fees  of  students :  few  colleges  have 
any  endowment.  A  certain  measure  of  suc 
cess  in  a  medical  school,  as  regards  the  size 
of  its  classes,  is  therefore  essential  to  its 
continuance,  and  its  prosperity  depends  on 
the  number  of  students  attracted  to  it.  The 
primary  organization  and  the  management 
in  all  respects,  including  the  appointment 
of  professors,  are  usually,  either  directly  or 
indirectly,  under  the  control  of  the  faculties 
of  the  schools.  These  facts  involve  some 
objections  which  are  plausible,  and  in  a 
measure  veritable,  namely,  a  medical  col 
lege  can  not,  without  risk  of  its  prosperity, 
require  a  higher  grade  of  preliminary  edu 
cation  or  of  the  qualifications  for  a  degree 
than  those  institutions  with  which  it  is  ill 
immediate  competition,  and  professional  po 
sitions  are  exposed  to  insecurity  from  the 
action  of  colleagues.  On  the  other  hand, 
there  are  advantages  which  more  than  out 
weigh  these  objections.  An  active,  honor 
able  competition  enforces  the  best  exertions, 
the  selection  of  the  ablest  teachers,  and  the 
largest  available  facilities  for  instruction. 

Another  fact,  in  justice  to  the  profession, 
should  be  presented,  namely,  there  are  prac 
tically  no  legal  restrictions  on  the  practice 
of  medicine  in  most  of  the  States  of  the  Un 
ion.  Not  only  are  licenses  to  practice  easily 
obtained,  but  rarely,  if  ever,  are  legal  pen 
alties,  if  they  exist,  enforced  for  practicing 
without  a  diploma  or  a  license.  The  desire 
for  instruction  is  therefore  the  leading  mo 
tive  impelling  medical  students  to  resort  to 
medical  schools.  Moreover,  the  classes,  es 
pecially  in  metropolitan  medical  schools, 
consist  in  part  of  licentiates  or  graduates 
who  have  been  for  a  greater  or  less  period 
engaged  in  practice.  Again,  in  the  schools 
which  are  considered  as  offering  the  largest 
advantages  the  classes  preponderate  greatly 
hi  numbers  over  those  in  other  schools.  At 
27 


the  present  time  more  than  a  thousand  stu 
dents  and  practitioners  are  in  attendance  at 
the  schools  in  the  city  of  New  York  during 
the  winter,  and  the  winter  classes  in  Phila 
delphia  are  not  much  smaller.  A  consider 
able  proportion  of  the  members  of  the  class 
es  in  these  two  cities  is  from  distant  parts 
of  our  country,  the  fees  are  considerably 
higher  than  in  provincial  schools,  and  the 
expenses  incident  to  city  life  and  long  jour 
neys  are  not  small.  Herein  is  exemplified 
the  strength  of  the  impelling  motive,  name 
ly,  the  desire  for  instruction  ;  and  these  facts 
certainly  denote  a  spirit  of  progress  among 
those  who  are  already,  and  those  who  are 
about  to  become,  members  of  the  medical 
profession. 

We  are  to  look  for  evidence  of  progress 
in  the  number  and  character  of  associa 
tions  for  the  promotion  and  diffusion  of 
medical  knowledge.  Prior  to  the  Eevolu- 
tionary  war  there  was  but  one  State  med 
ical  society.  This  was  formed  in  New  Jer 
sey  in  1766,  but  not  regularly  incorporated 
until  1790.  Shortly  before  the  war  closed, 
the  Massachusetts  Medical  Society  was  in 
corporated.  After  the  national  independ 
ence  was  achieved,  associations  were  speed 
ily  organized  in  several  of  the  States.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  present  century  they 
existed  in  Pennsylvania,  Delaware,  New 
Hampshire,  South  Carolina,  Connecticut, 
and  Maryland.  Following  these  were  local 
associations  in  different  counties  and  large 
towns.  At  the  present  time  probably  ev 
ery  State  in  the  Union  has  its  society,  and 
there  are  few  situations  so  remote  or  iso 
lated  as  not  to  be  embraced  within  the 
area  of  some  local  association.  In  1846  a 
convention  of  representatives  of  medical  so 
cieties,  hospitals,  and  colleges  throughout 
the  United  States  was  held  in  the  city  of 
New  York,  and  the  result  was  the  estab 
lishment,  in  1847,  of  the  American  Medical 
Association,  which,  excepting  during  the 
late  war  of  the  rebellion,  has  ever  since 
held  annual  meetings  in  different  parts  of 
the  Union.  Quite  recently  (1872)  an  asso 
ciation  has  been  formed  for  the  promotion 
and  diffusion  of  knowledge  relating  to  the 
prevention  of  disease.  This,  entitled  the 
Public  Health  Association,  gives  promise  of 
much  usefulness.  National  societies  within 
late  years  have  been  formed  for  the  promo- 


418 


MEDICAL  AND  SANITARY  PROGRESS. 


tion  and  diffusion  of  knowledge  relating  to 
special  departments  of  medicine — for  exam 
ple,  insanity,  and  diseases  of  the  eye  and 
ear — and  local  societies  of  this  character 
exist  in  most  of  the  larger  cities.  All  of  the 
numerous  associations  originated  with  med 
ical  men,  and  have  been  kept  up  by  their  ef 
forts.  Many  publish  Transactions  at  stated 
intervals.  The  American  Medical  Associa 
tion  has  published  twenty-five  large  vol 
umes,  and  the  New  York  State  Medical  So 
ciety  nearly  or  quite  as  many.  Collective 
ly,  the  Transactions  of  the  societies  in  vari 
ous  States  constitute  not  an  inconsiderable 
portion  of  our  periodical  medical  literature. 
The  associations  are  all  voluntary ;  mem 
bership  is  not  rendered  obligatory  by  legal 
requirement,  but  in  many,  if  not  in  most, 
parts  of  the  country  it  is  considered  essen 
tial  to  an  unequivocal  professional  status  to 
become  a  member  of  some  regularly  organ 
ized  association.  This  arises  from  the  fact 
that  in  certain  associations  are  vested,  by 
general  agreement,  the  right  to  take  cog 
nizance  of  violations  of  medical  ethics  by 
any  of  their  members,  and  to  reprimand, 
suspend,  or  expel  for  unprofessional  con 
duct.  Passing  by  further  details,  it  may 
be  said  of  our  medical  associations  that  in 
number  and  character  they  denote  a  gener 
al  and  active  co-operation  of  the  practi 
tioners  of  medicine  for  the  promotion  and 
diffusion  of  knowledge,  to  which  may  be 
added  the  maintenance  and  elevation  of  the 
honor  and  usefulness  of  the  profession.  The 
associations  thus  furnish  evidence,  while 
they  are  also  important  means,  of  medical 
sanitary  progress. 

The  literature  of  a  particular  province  of 
science  and  art,  for  a  given  period,  offers  a 
good  criterion  of  the  progress  made  during 
that  period.  This  statement  is  as  applica 
ble  to  medicine  as  to  any  department  of 
knowledge.  Comparing  the  present  with 
the  past,  in  this  aspect,  as  in  other  points  of 
contrast,  due  consideration  is  to  be  given  to 
the  difference  in  population,  which  at  the 
time  independence  was  declared  was  not 
much  over  3,000,000,  while  at  the  present 
time  it  is  estimated  to  be  about  40,000,000.' 

During  the  colonial  government  there 
was  not  entire  absence  of  an  American  med- 

'.«.•'.     l  Toner,  op.  cit. 


ical  literature.  Davis  gives  a  list  of  twen 
ty-eight  publications,  most  of  which  were 
works  of  small  or  moderate  size,  but  several 
of  them  possessing  much  merit  on  the  score 
of  originality  and  ability.  There  was  no 
American  medical  periodical  during  this  pe 
riod,  the  first  being  the  Medical  Repository,  the 
publication  of  which  was  commenced  in  the 
city  of  New  York  in  1797.  This  was  a  quar 
terly  of  about  150  pages,  ably  conducted,  and 
its  publication  ceased  with  the  twenty-third 
volume.  In  1804  the  publication  of  two 
medical  journals  was  commenced  in  Phila 
delphia.  The  subsequent  multiplication  of 
medical  periodicals  and  their  publication  in 
different  parts  of  the  Union  constitute  strik 
ing  evidence  of  progress.  At  the  present 
time  there  are  between  thirty  and  forty  med 
ical  journals  published  in  the  United  States, 
not  including  the  Transactions  of  societies, 
hospital  reports,  and  other  publications  prop 
erly  belonging  to  periodical  literature.  The 
history  of  medical  journalism  in  this  country 
during  the  last  half  century  would  show 
many  changes,  but  it  is  noteworthy  that  a 
quarterly  journal,  The  American  Journal  of 
Medical  Sciences,  established  in  1827,  succeed 
ing  the  Philadelphia  Journal  of  the  Medical 
and  Physical  Sciences,  established  in  1820,  still 
lives,  the  arrangement  of  contents  never 
having  been  changed,  the  present  publisher 
the  successor  of  the  house  which  from  the 
first  issued  this,  as  also  the  preceding  work, 
and  conducted  now  by  the  same  able  editor 
as  over  forty  years  ago.  The  Boston  Medic 
al  and  Surgical  Journal,  with  divers  changes, 
has  been  in  existence  for  about  the  same 
length  of  time. 

The  bibliography  of  the  first  quarter  of 
the  present  century  embraces  not  a  few  able 
works,  among  which  the  voluminous  writ 
ings  of  Rush  are  prominent.  The  standard 
works  and  text-books,  however,  were  chiefly 
of  foreign  authorship.  During  the  second 
quarter  the  number  of  works  by  American 
authors  had  largely  increased,  the  list  em 
bracing  acceptable  text-books  in  anatomy, 
physiology,  surgery,  midwifery,  the  practice 
of  medicine,  and  the  materia  medica.  Then, 
as  now,  the  absence  of  any  international 
copyright  restrictions  favored  the  republi- 
cation  of  works  by  British  in  preference  to 
those  by  native  authors,  the  former  having 
the  advantage  of  a  success  already  acquired, 


MEDICAL  LITERATUKE. 


419 


and  the  reprint  requiring  no  royalty.  Here 
is  an  obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  develop 
ment  and  progress  of  a  national  literature 
•which,  in  j  ustice  to  American  authors,  should 
be  borne  iu  mind.  Notwithstanding  this 
obstacle,  and  a  prevailing  sentiment  that 
exotics  transplanted  from  the  older  coun 
tries,  as  a  matter  of  course,  are  superior  to 
native  productions,  the  increase  of  original 
books  has  been  progressive  during  the  last 
twenty-five  years.  At  this  moment  the  ma 
jority  of  the  works  recognized  by  medical 
schools  and  the  profession  as  text-books  in 
the  different  departments  of  medical  educa 
tion  are  by  American  authors,  and  there  are 
few  topics  within  the  range  of  the  science 
and  art  of  medicine  which  are  not  credita 
bly  represented  in  our  own  literature.  At 
the  same  time,  foreign  books  and  periodical 
publications  now,  as  heretofore,  have  a  large 
circulation  in  this  country.  Our  native 
productions  do  not  displace  exotics,  but  both 
flourish  together,  competing  with  a  fair  ri 
valry. 

Medical  progress,  as  evidertced  in  the  lit 
erature  of  medicine,  is  more  especially  mark 
ed  in  works  of  a  practical  character.  This 
is  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  vast  majority 
of  those  who  pursue  medical  studies  in  this 
country  have  chiefly  in  view  the  duties  and 
responsibilities  of  the  practitioner.  The 
prosecution  of  researches  of  a  purely  scien 
tific  character,  having  no  immediate  prac 
tical  bearing,  is  comparatively  rare.  It  is 
easy  to  explain  the  lack  of  progress  in  this 
direction,  as  shown  by  comparison  with  oth 
er  countries.  The  rapid  increase  of  our  pop 
ulation  and  its  extension  over  new  territory 
have  involved  a  large  demand  for  practi 
tioners,  a  large  proportion  of  whom  are,  to 
a  greater  or  less  extent,  isolated  as  regards 
much  intercourse  with  each  other,  and 
therefore  obliged  to  depend  greatly  on 
their  own  resources  in  medical  and  surgical 
practice.  Henee  a  predominant  desire  for 
knowledge  which  is  plainly  and  directly 
practical.  Another  and  more  potential  rea 
son  is  the  absence  of  inducements  or  even 
encouragement  for  purely  scientific  research 
es  beyond  their  intrinsic  attractions.  Our 
collegiate  institutions,  from  want  of  endow 
ment,  are  unable  to  make  adequate  provis 
ions  for  investigations  which  have  no  ap 
preciable  relations  to  practical  teaching ; 


the  policy  of  our  State  governments,  al 
ready  referred  to,  is  to  leave  the  cultivation 
of  all  the  departments  of  medicine  iu  the 
hands  of  the  medical  profession,  without 
offering  incitements  or  rewards,  and  the 
spirit  of  emulation  is  not  what  it  would 
be  were  there  a  larger  number  in  the  field 
of  original  scientific  investigations.  These 
are  the  reasons  for  the  fact  that  the  med 
ical  literature  of  this  country  up  to  the 
present  time,  as  compared  with  that  of  oth 
er  countries,  is  deficient  in  what  may  be 
distinguished  as  scientific  in  contrast  with 
practical  medicine.  A  list  of  American  pub 
lications  relating  to  medicine  and  sanitary 
science  during  the  last  hundred  years  would 
show  a  steadily  increasing  progress  in  this 
direction,  and  such  a  list  would  include  not 
an  inconsiderable  number  of  works  of  a 
purely  scientific  character.  The  reader  who 
may  desire  information  concerning  the  med 
ical  bibliography  of  our  country  is  referred 
to  a  late  publication,  entitled  History  of 
American  Medical  Literature  from  1776  to  the 
Present  Time,  by  Professor  S.  D.  Gross,  of 
Philadelphia. 

Within  the  past  few  years  subjects  relat 
ing  to  sanitary  knowledge  have  entered  into 
our  literature  more  largely  than  heretofore. 
The  publications  by  Health  Boards  have 
been  of  much  interest  and  value.  These 
subjects  have  also  occupied  a  considerable 
share  of  medical  journals  and  the  Transac 
tions  of  medical  associations,  and  at  the 
present  time  there  is  at  least  one  journal 
devoted  specially  to  this  department  of 
knowledge.  It  is  fair  to  acknowledge  that 
the  recent  activity  in  this  direction  is  in  a 
great  measure  due  to  the  labors  prosecuted 
under  governmental  co-operation  and  sup 
port  in  Great  Britain  and  other  countries. 
The  attention  now  given  to  what  has  been 
called  "preventive  medicine"  may  be  espe 
cially  referred  to  as  evidence  of  progress. 
To  promote  public  health  by  removing  or 
lessening  the  causes  of  disease,  to  forestall 
epidemics  and  endemics  or  arrest  their 
course,  are  objects  of  medical  science  high 
er  in  importance  than  therapeutics.  The 
truth  of  this  statement  is  recognized  by  tbe 
philosophic  and  philanthropic  physician ; 
and  there  is  ground  for  the  belief  that  al 
ready  the  study  of  sanitary  science  has  led 
to  the  saving  of  much  life.  Were  it  con- 


420 


MEDICAL  AND  SANITARY  PROGEESS. 


sistent  with  the  limits  of  this  article,  I 
might  cite  the  facts  in  the  history  of  epi 
demic  cholera  in  the  city  of  New  York  in 
1866  and  1867  as  proof  that  by  prompt  and 
efficient  preventive  measures  this  disease 
may  be  effectually  "  stamped  out."  *  Sani 
tary  science  and  medical  science  are  to  a 
great  extent  convertible  terms,  as  implied 
in  the  name,  preventive  medicine.  The 
prevention  of  diseases  is  the  practical  re 
sult  of  our  knowledge  of  their  character 
and  causes.  Our  knowledge  of  the  causes 
of  diseases,  more  especially  of  the  special 
causes  which  give  rise  to  epidemics  and  en 
demics,  is  confessedly  defective ;  thus  far  in 
the  history  of  medical  and  sanitary  prog 
ress  we  have  been  obliged  to  content  our 
selves  with  the  investigation  of  their  laws 
without  being  able  to  determine  with  pos- 
itiveness  their  essential  nature  and  mode 
of  production.  Conceding  this,  it  is,  per 
haps,  not  an  extravagant  assertion  to  say 
that,  with  our  present  knowledge  and  ex 
perience,  by  means  of  the  skillful  employ 
ment  of  disinfecting  agents,  together  with 
other  sanitary  measures,  the  prevalence  of 
certain  diseases — epidemic  cholera  and  yel 
low  fever — is  within  the  power  of  scien 
tific  control.  In  this  direction  of  progress 
there  is  reason  to  hope  that  much  will  be 
accomplished  by  continued  investigations. 
For  carrying  on  these  investigations  and 
enforcing  sanitary  measures  the  co-opera 
tion  of  the  public  and  legal  powers  is  es 
sential  ;  hence  the  importance  of  awakening 
public  interest  on  the  subject,  and  diffusing 
as  far  as  practicable  popular  information. 

In  this  connection  may  be  mentioned  im 
provement  in  quarantine  regulations.  The 
problem  in  the  department  of  sanitary  sci 
ence  relating  to  quarantine  is  to  provide  to 
the  utmost  extent  for  the  public  health, 
with  the  least  interference  with  personal 
freedom  and  the  interests  of  commerce.  A 
review  of  the  history  of  quarantine  laws 
would  show  how  great  has  been  the  progress 
toward  the  solution  of  tliis  problem,  as  a 
result  of  the  increase  of  knowledge  of  the 
causes  of  disease  and  of  preventive  meas 
ures.  From  the  necessity  of  resisting  a 
temptation  to  enter  into  details,  I  must  be 


1  Vide  reports  of  the  Metropolitan  Board  of  Health, 
New  York,  for  these  years. 


content  with  the  general  statement  that 
the  quarantine  regulations  of  our  large 
commercial  cities  at  the  present  time  ex 
emplify  the  progress  made  within  late  years 
in  this  most  important  matter.1 

Medical  and  sanitary  progress,  as  evi 
denced  by  important  discoveries  or  improve 
ments,  next  claims  attention.  Of  course 
those  originating  in  this  country  are  more 
especially  characteristic  of  American  prog 
ress,  yet  the  ready  adoption  of  discoveries 
and  improvements  which  have  originated  in 
other  countries  is  significant  of  a  progress 
ive  spirit. 

The  greatest  event  in  the  medical  history 
of  the  last  centennial  period,  the  whole 
world  included,  was  the  announcement  of 
the  discovery  of  vaccination.  Jenner  an 
nounced  his  discovery  in  a  paper  "  printed 
for  the  author"  in  1798.  He  had  desired 
that  the  paper  should  appear  under  the  au 
spices  of  the  Royal  Society  of  London,  but 
it  was  declined  by  that  learned  body  on  the 
ground  that  its  publication  would  damage 
the  reputation  which  the  author  had  al 
ready  acquired  by  some  observations  on  the 
cuckoo !  If  we  recognize  as  a  criterion  of 
the  importance  of  a  discovery  the  saving  of 
human  life,  that  of  Jenuer  far  transcends 
any  other  in  the  history  of  the  world.  A 
medical  writer  in  1849  represents  the  num 
ber  of  lives  saved  as  follows :  "  In  England 
alone  the  absolute  mortality  from  small-pox 
is  less  by  20,000  a  year  than  it  was  half  a 
century  ago.  If  a  similar  rate  of  reduction 
in  the  number  of  deaths  from  small-pox 
holds  good,  as  we  have  every  reason  to  be 
lieve  is  the  case,  in  the  other  kingdoms  of 
Europe,  then,  out  of  the  220,000,000  of  peo 
ple  that  inhabit  this  quarter  of  the  globe, 
400,000  or  500,000  fewer  now  die  of  small 
pox  than,  with  a  similar  population,  would 
have  died  from  this  malady  fifty  years  ago. 
During  the  long  European  wars  con 
nected  with  and  following  the  French  Rev 
olution  it  has  been  calculated  that  five  or 
six  millions  of  human  lives  were  lost.  In 
Europe  vaccination  has  already  preserved 
from  death  a  greater  number  of  human  be- 


1  The  reader  interested  in  this  matter  is  referred  to 
a  paper  entitled  Quarantine:  General  Principles  af 
fecting  its  Organization,  by  8.  Oakley  Vandorpoel, 
M.D.,  Health  Officer  of  the  port  of  New  York,  etc., 
1875. 


INTRODUCTION  OF  VACCINATION. 


421 


ings  than  were  sacrificed  during  the  course 
of  these  wars.  The  lancet  of  Jenner  has 
saved  far  more  human  lives  than  the  sword 
of  Napoleon  destroyed." ' 

The  introduction  of  vaccination  met  with 
virulent  opposition  in  England.  It  was 
scouted  by  many  as  entailing  on  man  dis 
eases  of  inferior  animals,  as  likely  to  cause 
a  physical  and  mental  deterioration  of  the 
human  race,  and  as  an  impious  attempt  at 
interference  with  the  ordinances  of  Provi 
dence,  so  that  many  years  elapsed  before 
the  importance  of  the  discovery  was  prac 
tically  recognized  in  the  country  so  much 
honored  by  the  nativity  of  the  discoverer. 
We  have  a  right  to  take  credit  for  the 
promptness  with  which  vaccination  was 
adopted  in  this  country,  and  for  its  being 
popularized  with  comparatively  small  oppo 
sition.  In  1799  Professor  Benjamin  Water- 
house,  in  Boston,  having  obtained  the  virus 
from  Jenner,  vaccinated  four  of  his  own 
children.  In  1801  Dr.  Valentine  Seaman 
procured  virus  from  the  arm  of  a  patient 
who  had  been  vaccinated  by  Dr.  Water- 
house,  and  performed  the  first  vaccination 
in  the  city  of  New  York ;  and  in  1802  an  in 
stitution  was  established  in  New  York  for 
the  purpose  of  vaccinating  the  poor  gratui 
tously  and  keeping  up  a  supply  of  the  virus. 
Not  going  into  further  details,  may  not  the 
introduction  of  vaccination  in  this  country 
be  cited  as  indicating  at  that  day  a  spirit 
of  medical  and  sanitary  progress  ? 

Numerous  examples  of  the  ready  adoption 
in  this  country  of  discoveries  and  improve 
ments  of  lesser  magnitude  than  the  discov 
ery  of  vaccination  might  be  cited  in  illus 
tration  of  a  spirit  of  progress.  I  will 
mention  but  two  of  these,  namely,  the  dis 
covery  of  auscultation,  and  the  employment 
of  the  thermometer  in  the  study  of  diseases. 
Laennec's  discovery  of  auscultation  was  an 
event  of  great  importance  in  the  history  of 
medicine.  By  means  of  the  physical  signs 
determined  by  listening  to  sounds  within 
the  chest,  the  different  affections  of  the 
lungs  and  heart  are  now  readily  distin 
guished  from  each  other,  and  our  knowl 
edge  of  the  symptoms  and  laws  of  these 
affections  has  been  brought  to  great  per 
fection.  The  great  work  by  Laennec  on  aus- 


1  Sir  James  Simpson  on  anaesthesia,  etc.,  1849. 


cultation  was  published  in  Paris  in  1819. 
It  was  translated  into  English  by  Dr. 
Forbes,  of  London,  in  1821.  The  impor 
tance  of  this  new  method  of  examination 
was  not  at  once  appreciated  either  in  France 
or  other  countries  in  Europe.  It  met  with 
indifference,  skepticism,  and  ridicule.  At 
that  time  crossing  the  Atlantic  for  medical 
improvement  was  a  great  undertaking. 
Nevertheless,  not  a  few  of  the  young  med 
ical  men  of  this  country  resorted  to  Paris, 
London,  and  Edinburgh  with  that  purpose. 
The  stethoscope  of  Laennec,  through  their 
agency,  was  speedily  in  use  on  this  side  of 
the  Atlantic.  The  writer  can  testify  that, 
as  far  back  as  1832,  the  facts  of  ausculta 
tion  entered  largely  into  medical  teaching. 
At  this  time  an  important  physical  sign  had 
been  discovered  by  a  most  promising  Amer 
ican  physician,  who  died  as  he  was  just  en 
tering  upon  an  active  professional  life.1 
In  1836  a  prize  was  offered  for  competitive 
dissertations  on  this  together  with  other 
methods  of  exploration,  the  successful  com 
petitor  being  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  whose 
early  labors  in  medicine  were  of  a  character 
to  occasion  in  the  minds  of  those  devoted  to 
this  department  of  knowledge  a  feeling  of 
regret  that  his  talents  have  been  diverted 
to  the  pursuits  of  literature,  in  which  he 
has  achieved  such  great  distinction. 

The  employment  of  the  thermometer  in 
practical  medicine  is  of  recent  date.  Al 
though  advocated  and  to  some  extent  ex 
emplified  by  previous  medical  observers,  it 
is  chiefly  owing  to  the  labors  of  Wun- 
derlich,  in  Germany,  that  this  instrument 
is  now  in  common  use  in  the  practice  of 
medicine.  Simple  as  seems  the  proposi 
tion  to  determine  the  heat  of  the  body  in 
diseases  by  exact  measurement,  in  place  of 
the  fallacious  evidence  afforded  by  the  sen 
sations  of  the  patient  or  the  physician's 
touch,  its  importance  has  only  been  appre 
ciated  within  the  last  ten  or  fifteen  years. 
Wuuderlich's  labors  have  established  cer 
tain  thermometric  laws  in  disease  which 
are  now  considered  as  of  great  value  in  es 
timating  danger  and  in  discriminating  dis 
eases  from  each  other.  The  promptness  with 
which  medical  thermometry  was  adopted  in 
this  country,  and  the  very  general  use  of 

i  James  Jackson,  Jun.,  of  Boston. 


4-22 


MEDICAL  AND  SANITARY  PROGRESS. 


the  thermometer,  may  be  mentioned  as  evi 
dence  of  a  spirit  of  progress.1 

Passing  now  to  discoveries  and  improve 
ments  originated  in  this  country,  I  must  re 
strict  myself  to  certain  of  those  which  are 
prominent,  overlooking  much  that  it  would 
be  culpable  to  omit  in  a  history  of  American 
medicine.  Adopting  a  chronological  ar 
rangement,  the  formidable  surgical  opera 
tion  known  as  ovariotomy  is  the  first  in  the 
series. 

This  operation  was  performed  for  the  first 
time  by  Ephraim  M'Dowell,  of  Danville, 
Kentucky,  in  1809.  After  having  performed 
it  in  two  other  instances,  he  reported  very 
briefly  the  three  cases  in  the  Eclectic  Reper 
tory  and  Analytical  Review,  in  1816.  The  op 
eration  was  successful  in  each  of  the  three 
cases.  He  subsequently  performed  it  ten 
times,  making  the  whole  number  of  cases 
thirteen,  of  which  eight,  at  least,  were  suc 
cessful.  Although  never  before  performed, 
the  possibility  and  propriety  of  the  opera 
tion  had  been  advocated,  especially  by  John 
Bell,  a  distinguished  teacher  of  anatomy 
and  surgery  in  Edinburgh.  M'Dowell  was 
a  private  pupil  of  Bell  in  1793  and  1794,  and 
it  is  probable  that  the  determination  was 
then  formed  to  undertake  the  operation 
whenever  the  opportunity  offered. 

M'Dowell's  report  of  cases  was  received 
with  incredulity,  and  the  operation  was  not 
repeated  by  any  other  surgeon  until  the 
year  1821,  when  it  was  performed  by  Nathan 
Smith,  Professor  of  Surgery  in  Yale  College. 
It  was  performed  by  the  latter  surgeon  with 
out  the  knowledge  of  M'Dowell's  previous 
operations.  For  more  than  twenty  years  it 
was  practically  almost  ignored  in  this  coun 
try,  and  during  the  next  twenty  years  it  en 
countered  much  opposition  from  members 
of  the  medical  profession.  Within  the  last 
fifteen  years  this  opposition  has  in  a  great 
measure  ceased,  and  the  number  of  opera 
tions  has  progressively  increased,  so  that  in 
1871  the  number  of  reported  cases  amounted 
to  739,  an  analysis  of  660  of  the  cases  giving 
a  success  of  sixty-eight  per  cent.3 


1  The  remarks  in  relation  to  the  thermometer  are 
equally  applicable  to  two  still  more  recent  improve 
ments  in  the  means  of  investigating  the  phenomena 
of  disease,  namely,  the  ophthalmoscope  and  the  laryn 
goscope. 

2  Peaslee  on  ovarian  tumors,  1872. 


M'Dowell's  report  of  his  first  three  cases 
was  published  in  Great  Britain  in  1824. 
Here  too  it  was  received  with  incredulity. 
The  editor  of  the  most  influential  of  the 
English  medical  journals  at  that  time,  the 
Medical  and  Chirurgical  Review,  applied  the 
quotation,  Credat  Judceus,  non  ego.  Subse 
quently  he  used  this  language :  "In  despite 
of  all  that  has  been  written  respecting  this 
cruel  operation,  we  entirely  disbelieve  that 
it  has  ever  been  performed  with  success,  nor 
do  we  think  it  ever  will."  Having  quoted 
this  extract,  another  should  be  added,  taken 
from  the  same  journal  of  the  following  year 
(1826):  "A  back  settlement  of  America — 
Kentucky — has  beaten  the  mother  country, 
nay,  Europe  itself,  with  all  the  boasted  sur 
geons  thereof,  in  the  fearful  and  formidable 
operation  of  gastrotomy  Avith  extraction  of 
diseased  ovaries.  In  the  second  volume  of 
this  series  we  adverted  to  the  cases  of  Dr. 
M'Dowell,  of  Kentucky,  published  by  Mr. 
Lizars,  of  Edinburgh,  and  expressed  our 
selves  as  skeptical  respecting  their  authen 
ticity.  Dr.  Coates,  however,  has  now  given 
us  much  more  cause  for  wonder  at  the  suc 
cess  of  Dr.  M'Dowell ;  for  it  appears  that 
out  of  five  cases  operated  on  in  Kentucky 
by  Dr.  M'Dowell,  four  recovered  after  the 
operation,  and  only  one  died.  There  were 
circumstances  in  the  narratives  of  the  first 
three  cases  that  caused  misgivings  in  our 
minds,  for  which  uncharitableuess  we  ask 
pardon  of  God  and  Dr.  M'Dowell  of  Dan 
ville."  The  first  cases  in  Scotland  proving 
unsuccessful,  the  operation  was  not  repeat 
ed  for  twenty  years.  In  England  it  was 
first  successfully  performed  in  1836.  Here, 
as  in  America,  under  considerable  violent 
opposition,  operations  within  the  last  twen 
ty  years  have  multiplied  rapidly,  so  that  in 
1863,  377  cases  had  been  reported,  sixty  per 
cent,  of  which  had  been  successful.  In  1870 
the  number  of  operations  performed  in  En 
gland  had  increased  to  1000  or  1100,  more 
than  300  having  been  performed  by  one  sur 
geon.  In  France  ovariotomy  was  first  per 
formed  in  1844,  and  was  successful.  The 
operation  was  here  denounced  by  distin 
guished  surgeons.  In  1870  there  had  been 
reports  of  190  operations,  all  but  seven  aft 
er  1862,  the  percentage  of  success  being  less 
than  in  England  and  America.  In  Germany 
in  1870  there  had  been  180  operations,  with 


IMPORTANT  SURGICAL  OPERATIONS. 


423 


a  percentage  of  only  forty-one  per  cent,  of 
recoveries.1 

I  have  cited  the  foregoing  historical  facts 
in  order  that  the  non-medical  reader  may  to 
some  extent  appreciate  the  importance  of 
this  operation.  That  it  has  saved  many 
lives  can  not  be  doubted ;  and  if  in  some 
instances  life  might  not  have  been  destroy 
ed  by  the  disease,  the  successful  perform 
ance  of  the  operation  has  relieved  patients 
from  a  distressing  burden  and  deformity. 
Its  origination,  therefore,  is  one  of  the 
prominent  events  illustrative  of  American 
medical  progress.  When  the  large  size  of 
the  ovarian  tumors  is  considered,  together 
with  the  nature  of  the  operation — opening 
the  abdomen  by  a  long  incision,  and  expos 
ing  the  contained  viscera — one  can  not  but 
admire  the  boldness,  self-confidence,  and 
philanthropy  which  led  to  this  great  surgic 
al  achievement. 

Other  important  surgical  operations  were 
performed  in  this  country  for  the  first  time 
not  long  after  the  operations  of  M'Dowell. 
Early  in  the  past  centennial  period  the 
great  John  Hunter  introduced  a  new  oper 
ation  for  the  cure  of  popliteal  aneurism. 
Previously  the  operation  had  been  opening 
the  aneurismal  sac,  removal  of  the  fibrinous 
or  bloody  clots  contained  witljin  it,  and  ty 
ing  the  artery  above  and  below  it — an  op 
eration  attended  with  not  a  little  risk  of 
life  from  loss  of  blood  and  subsequent  dan 
gers,  rendering  it  often  unsuccessful.  The 
Huuterian  operation,  as  it  was  termed,  con 
sisted  in  tying  the  femoral  artery  at  a  dis 
tance  from  the  tumor,  leaving  the  latter  to 
diminish  or  disappear  from  the  gradual  ab 
sorption  of  its  contents.  An  account  of 
this  great  improvement  in  surgery  was  first 
published  in  1787. 

Hunter's  operation  opened  up  a  new  field 
in  practical  surgery,  namely,  the  ligation  of 
arteries  of  a  still  larger  size,  not  only  in  cases 
of  aneurism,  but  to  arrest  hemorrhages,  and 
for  the  relief  or  cure  of  certain  local  affec 
tions.  Successive  operations  in  this  new 
field  are  among  the  most  striking  of  the 
events  denoting  progress  during  the  next 
thirty  years.  American  surgeons  took  a 
prominent  part  in  these  operations.  Aber- 
uethy  tied  the  external  iliac  artery,  in  the 


1  For  further  details  vide  Peaslee,  op.  cit. 


groin,  for  aneurism  in  1802.  Stevens  in  San 
ta  Cruz  and  Atkinson  in  England  had  tied 
the  internal  iliac  artery,  the  former  with 
and  the  latter  without  success,  when  the 
operation  was  successfully  performed  by  S. 
Pomeroy  White,  of  Hudson,  New  York,  in 
1827.  In  the  same  year  Valentine  Mott  suc 
cessfully  tied  the  common  iliac  artery  in  a 
case  of  aneurism.  This  artery  had  been 
tied  but  once  previously,  and  in  that  in 
stance  the  operator  was  an  American  sur 
geon,  Gibson,  then  of  Maryland,  afterward 
of  Philadelphia.  In  the  latter  case  the  op 
eration  was  to  arrest  hemorrhage  after  a 
wound  in  the  abdomen.  The  carotid  artery 
on  one  side  was  first  tied  by  Sir  Astley 
Cooper  in  1808.  At  that  time  probably  no 
surgeon  would  have  ventured  to  tie  the 
common  carotid  artery  on  both  sides.  This 
was  done  in  1829,  by  Mussey,  an  American 
surgeon,  twelve  days  intervening  between 
the  two  operations.  The  disease  was  aneu 
rism  by  anastomosis ;  the  aneurismal  tumor 
was  afterward  removed,  and  the  patient  re 
covered. 

Tying  the  subclavian  artery  above  the 
collar-bone  had  been  attempted  by  Sir  Ast 
ley  Cooper,  and  the  operation  abandoned, 
in  1809.  Subsequently  the  operation  had 
been  performed  in  Great  Britain  four  times, 
but  in  each  case  without  success,  when  it 
was  for  the  first  time  successfully  perform 
ed  by  Wright  Post,  of  New  York,  in  1817. 
In  1818  Valentine  Mott  performed  the  diffi 
cult  and  bold  operation  of  tying  the  in 
nominate  artery.  This  operation,  in  the 
language  of  his  biographer,  Professor  Gross, 
"gave  him  a  world-wide  reputation,  and 
placed  him  in  the  very  foremost  rank  of  the 
illustrious  surgeons  of  his  day."  To  appre 
ciate  the  operation,  some  knowledge  of  an 
atomy  and  physiology  is  requisite.  Suffice 
it  to  say  that  the  innominate  artery,  situ 
ated  in  "  fearful  proximity  to  the  heart,"  is 
the  vessel  which  distributes  the  blood  to  the 
right  side  of  the  head  and  the  right  upper 
extremity.  Cutting  off  suddenly  with  a 
ligature  the  flow  of  blood  through  this  ves 
sel,  the  reliance  for  the  circulation  of  blood 
in  the  parts  just  mentioned  is  upon  the  com 
munications  between  its  branches  and  those 
of  other  arteries.  Appreciating  the  sense 
of  responsibility  which  the  surgeon  must 
have  felt  in  venturing  on  such  an  operation 


424 


MEDICAL  AND  SANITARY  PROGRESS. 


for  the  first  time,  we  can  sympathize  in  the 
intense  anxiety  as  thus  described  by  his  biog 
rapher:  "  Doubtful  whether  so  large  a  quan 
tity  of  blood  could  suddenly  be  intercepted 
so  near  the  heart  without  very  serious  ef 
fects  upon  the  brain,  he  drew  the  cord  very 
gradually,  with  his  eyes  intently  fixed  upon 
the  patient's  countenance,  determined  to 
withdraw  it  instantly  if  any  alarming  symp 
toms  should  arise.  His  feelings  had  been 
wrought  to  the  highest  pitch,  and  we  may 
therefore  easily  imagine  the  relief  he  expe 
rienced  when  he  perceived,  to  use  his  own 
language,  'no  change  of  feature  or  agita 
tion  of  body.'"  The  operation  was  not  suc 
cessful,  the  patient  dying  from  secondary 
hemorrhage  twenty-two  days  after  its  per 
formance  ;  the  fact,  however,  that  so  large  a 
vessel  may  be  tied  with  impunity  was  dem 
onstrated.  The  operation  was  afterward 
repeatedly  performed,  without  success,  ow 
ing  to  the  occurrence  of  hemorrhage.  It 
was  reserved  for  an  American  surgeon  at 
length  to  perform  it  with  complete  success. 
In  1864  this  artery  was  tied  by  A.  W.  Smyth, 
of  New  Orleans.  Repeated  hemorrhages 
having  taken  place,  as  in  the  other  cases, 
Smyth,  fifty-four  days  after  the  operation, 
tied  another  of  the  arteries  carrying  blood 
to  the  brain — the  vertebral  artery — and  by 
this  second  operation  the  loss  of  blood  was 
controlled.  The  patient  recovered. 

I  have  referred  to  the  tying  of  large  ar 
teries  with  some  detail,  because  these  suc 
cessive  operations  represent  important  dis 
coveries  and  improvements.  It  has  been 
seen  that  with  these  operations  the  sur 
geons  of  this  country  were  in  no  small  meas 
ure  identified.  I  do  not  refer  to  other  great 
surgical  operations  performed  by  Mott  and 
others,  showing  knowledge,  skill,  and  bold 
ness  in  the  operations.  It  would  be  an  in 
justice  to  distinguished  members  of  the 
profession  to  omit  doing  this  were  I  writing 
a  history  of  American  medicine ;  but  the  ob 
ject  of  this  sketch,  it  is  to  be  borne  in  mind, 
is  not  to  do  honor  to  the  individuals  by 
whose  attainments  and  labors  the  profession 
has  been  honored,  but  to  cite  representative 
facts  as  illustrative  of  progress. 

The  next  important  event  belonging  in 
this  series  pertains  to  physiology,  namely, 
the  remarkable  observations  of  Beaumont 
in  relation  to  digestion.  A  Canadian  boat 


man,  named  Alexis  San  Martin,  from  an  ac 
cidental  discharge  of  a  musket  loaded  with 
buckshot,  was  wounded  in  the  abdomen,  and 
recovered  with  a  permanent  opening  into  the 
stomach.  He  was  under  the  care  of  Beau 
mont,  a  surgeon  of  the  United  States  army, 
who  at  once  recognized  the  opportunity  of 
making  important  observations  and  experi 
ments,  the  opening  enabling  him  to  with 
draw  the  contents  of  the  stomach  at  will 
without  any  injury  to  the  patient.  Prior 
to  this  time  it  had  been  ascertained  that 
the  processes  of  digestion  in  the  stomach 
were  dependent  011  the  presence  of  a  se 
creted  liquid — the  gastric  juice.  Thisliquid, 
however,  had  never  been  obtained  in  so 
large  quantity  and  in  such  a  state  of  purity 
as  was  now  practicable.  Beaumont,  secur 
ing  the  co-operation  of  the  patient,  and 
keeping  him  daily  under  observation  from 
the  year  1825  to  1832,  studied  with  great 
patience  and  ability  the  character  of  this 
liquid  when  withdrawn  from  the  stomach, 
and  the  successive  changes  taking  place  in 
the  aliment  during  digestion.  The  effects 
of  the  gastric  juice  upon  different  kinds  of 
nutriment  out  of  the  body  were  carefully 
observed ;  the  relative  digestibility  of  the 
various  articles  of  food  within  the  stomach 
was  accurately  determined,  and  the  effects 
of  disturbing  extrinsic  influences  were  noted. 
Beaumont  published  an  account  of  his  ex 
periments  and  observations  in  1834.  This 
event  was  one  of  great  importance  in  the 
progress  of  physiology.  The  facts  contain 
ed  in  his  publication  at  this  day  are  to  be 
found  in  the  physiological  text-books  of  all 
countries.  Within  late  years  experimental 
physiologists  have  been  accustomed  to  pro 
duce,  in  inferior  animals,  especially  in  the 
dog,  an  artificial  communication  with  the 
interior  of  the  stomach  such  as  was  occa 
sioned  by  accident  in  the  case  of  the  Cana 
dian  boatman,  in  order  to  obtain  the  gastric 
juice,  and  to  demonstrate  its  effect  upon 
food  both  within  and  without  the  organ. 
It  is  obvious,  however,  that  the  results  of 
these  experiments  and  observations  could 
not  be  considered  as  representing,  in  all  re 
gards,  facts  pertaining  to  digestion  in  man, 
and  hence,  as  furnishing  a  standard  for  com 
parison,  those  made  by  Beaumont  are  in 
valuable. 

I  come  now  to  the  crowning  event  in  the 


ANAESTHESIA. 


425 


history  of  American  medical  and  sanitary 
progress  during  the  last  centennial  period. 
If  it  be  admitted  that  every  thing  pertain 
ing  to  the  physical  universe  and  to  living 
beings  is  in  conformity  with  an  infinitely 
intelligent  and  wise  government,  diseases 
exist  for  certain  purposes,  and  the  means 
of  preventing,  controlling,  and  ameliorating 
them  acquired  by  human  knowledge  are  not 
left  to  chance.  The  history  of  medical  and 
sanitary  progress  in  the  past  shows  that 
epochs  characterized  by  great  discoveries 
do  not  occur  in  rapid  succession.  Jenuer's 
discovery  at  the  end  of  the  last  century  con 
stituted  a  great  epoch.  The  discovery  of 
the  useful  application  of  anaesthetics  may 
be  considered  as  constituting  the  second 
great  epoch  within  the  last  centennial  pe 
riod.  Had  it  been  announced  a  century 
ago  that  ere  long  surgical  operations  were 
to  be  divested  of  suffering,  that  the  law  of 
distress  in  child-birth  imposed  upon  woman 
in  the  primeval  curse  was  to  be  abrogated, 
and  that  pain  need  no  longer  be  an  element 
in  many  diseases,  would  not  such  an  an 
nouncement  have  seemed  as  marvelous,  to 
say  the  least,  as  that,  by  means  of  steam, 
the  Atlantic  Ocean  might  be  traversed  in 
less  than  ten  days,  the  American  continent 
in  a  still  less  number  of  days,  and  that, 
through  the  agency  of  the  electrical  cur 
rent,  a  communication  could  be  sent  around 
the  globe  in  the  space  of  a  few  minutes  ? 

The  successful  application  of  anaesthesia 
by  the  inhalation  of  ether,  or  etheri/ation 
in  surgery,  was  first  demonstrated  in  Boston, 
in  1846.  The  first  application  in  operative 
midwifery  was  also  made  in  Boston,  in  1847. 
Chloroform,  which  was  speedily  to  a  con 
siderable  extent  substituted  for  sulphuric 
ether  as  the  anaesthetic  agent,  was  intro 
duced  by  Simpson,  of  Edinburgh,  shortly 
after  the  discovery  of  etherization.  It  is 
needless  to  dilate  on  the  inestimable  boon 
which  anaesthesia,  in  its  various  useful  ap 
plications,  has  conferred  on  mankind.  The 
annihilation  of  pain  was  so  obviously  such 
a  great  blessing  that  almost  the  only  ques 
tions  ever  raised  in  opposition  have  relat 
ed  to  the  impossibility  of  absolute  security 
against  the  occasional  loss  of  life  from  the 
amesthetic  agent.  Of  the  two  anaesthetic 
agents,  ether  and  chloroform,  the  latter  has 
been  generally  employed  in  Europe,  and 


also  to  a  considerable  extent  *n  this  coun 
try.  A  combination  of  the  two  agents  is 
sometimes  employed.  The  danger  to  life  is 
undoubtedly  greater  from  chloroform  than 
from  ether,  but  the  administration  of  the 
latter  is  more  difficult,  and  the  inhalation 
is  often  disagreeable :  these  are  the  reasons 
for  the  preference  given  so  largely  to  the 
former.  The  danger  from  ether  is  almost 
nil,  and  that  from  chloroform  is  exceeding 
ly  small.  Thus,  at  Guy's  Hospital,  London, 
chloroform  had  been  used  in  more  than 
12,000  cases  before  any  serious  accident  oc 
curred,  and  in  the  Crimean  war  it  was  ad 
ministered  more  than  25,000  times  without 
a  single  death.1 

It  is  difficult  to  appreciate  blessings  with 
out  taking  as  a  stand-point  a  period  when 
they  were  not  enjoyed.  Events  with  which 
we  become  familiar  cease  after  a  time  to  ex 
cite  wonder  or  admiration ;  and  when  the 
mind  becomes  accustomed  to  extraordinary 
acquisitions,  they  seem  to  have  come  as  a 
matter  of  course.  If  we  go  back  to  the 
time  when  severe,  tedious  surgical  opera 
tions  were  performed  without  anaesthesia, 
recalling  the  prolonged  agony  of  the  suffer 
er,  the  strongest  endurance  tasked  to  the 
utmost,  the  patient  sometimes  requiring  to 
be  forcibly  restrained  by  powerful  assist 
ants,  or  confined  by  straps  to  the  operating 
table,  one  can  form  an  adequate  estimate 
of  the  precious  discovery  of  a  prompt,  effi 
cient,  and  safe  method  of  annihilating  pain. 
Contrast  with  the  picture  just  presented 
the  severest  of  operations  at  the  present 
day,  the  patient  falling  easily  and  quickly 
into  a  quiet  sleep,  and  awakening  to  find, 
to  his  astonishment,  that  all  is  over !  This 
contrast  might  be  extended  to  cases  of  se 
vere,  protracted  confinements,  and  also  to 
certain  diseases  characterized  by  intense 
suffering.  But  the  advantages  of  antesthe- 
sia  are  not  limited  to  the  relief  of  suffering. 
The  annihilation  of  pain  often  contributes 
to  recovery ;  for  the  shock  and  exhaustion 
caused  by  pain  may  do  much  toward  an  un 
favorable  termination  after  surgical  opera 
tions,  or  in  cases  of  confinement  and  disease, 
and  may  even  be  the  immediate  cause  of 
death.  Anaesthesia  thus  has  been  the  means 
of  the  saving  of  human  life.  Moreover,  it 

'  Grose's  System  of  Surgery. 


426 


MEDICAL  AND  SANITARY  PROGRESS. 


has  had  this  effect  in  another  mode.  Pa 
tients  heretofore  sometimes  preferred  death 
to  the  terrible  trial  of  painful  operations 
which  now  have  no  terrors.  There  is  still 
another  application  in  which  anaesthesia  is 
of  incalculable  benefit.  It  enables  the  sur 
geon  or  physician  to  make  careful  and  thor 
ough  examinations  after  injuries,  and  to  ex 
plore  by  appropriate  means  internal  parts, 
the  requisite  manipulations  heretofore  caus 
ing  so  much  suffering  that  they  were  there 
by  impracticable  or  hazardous. 

It  would  be  pleasant  to  connect  the  dis 
covery  of  the  useful  applications  of  anes 
thesia  with  the  name  of  a  discoverer  hold 
ing  a  position  as  a  benefactor  of  mankind 
like  that  of  Jenner.  While  we  claim  for 
our  country  the  honor  of  the  discovery,  the 
circumstances  connected  with  it  are  not  in 
all  respects  agreeable  or  creditable.  The 
merit  of  the  discovery  seems  due  to  the  late 
Horace  Wells,  a  practicing  dentist  in  Hart 
ford,  Connecticut.  He  first  made  the  appli 
cation  to  himself,  inhaling  the  nitrous  oxide 
gas,  and  having  a  tooth  extracted  while  in 
sensible  from  this  anaesthetic.  Afterward 
he  employed  this  agent  for  the  same  pur 
pose  in  several  instances.  He  attempted  to 
bring  the  matter  before  the  profession  by  a 
public  demonstration  at  the  medical  college 
in  Boston,  but  his  experiments  not  proving 
successful  on  that  occasion,  he  met  with  rid 
icule  instead  of  encouragement.  Driven  to 
despondency  and  insanity,  he  subsequently 
committed  suicide.  His  successful  applica 
tions  of  the  nitrous  oxide  gas  were  made  in 
1844.  Morton,  a  dentist  in  Boston,  Avho  had 
been  a  pupil  of  Wells,  subsequently  made 
experiments  upon  himself  and  others,  using 
as  the  anajsthetic  agent  sulphuric  ether.  In 
the  selection  of  this  agent  and  in  the  man 
ner  of  using  it  he  was  guided  by  C.  T.  Jack 
son,  a  distinguished  chemist  in  Boston.  It 
was  by  Morton's  solicitation  that  John  C. 
Warren  was  induced  to  perform,  at  the 
Massachusetts  General  Hospital,  an  opera 
tion  for  the  removal  of  a  tumor  of  the  neck 
on  a  patient  rendered  insensible  by  the  in 
halation  of  ether.  The  anaesthesia  in  this 
instance  was  not  complete,  but  the  suffer 
ing  from  the  operation  was  evidently  dimin 
ished.  On  the  following  day  an  operation 
was  performed  by  George  Hay  ward  on  a  pa 
tient  etherized  by  Morton  and  rendered  en 


tirely  insensible.  This  was  the  first  com 
pletely  successful  application  to  a  surgical 
operation,  exclusive  of  the  previous  experi 
ments  for  the  extraction  of  teeth.  From 
that  date  the  employment  of  anaesthesia 
rapidly  extended.  To  Morton  is  due  the 
credit  of  accomplishing  the  practical  appli 
cation  of  anaesthesia  to  surgical  operations, 
but  he  probably  derived  the  idea  from  his 
preceptor,  Wells.  Jackson  suggested  ether 
in  place  of  the  nitrous  oxide  gas,  and  aided 
Morton  by  his  chemical  knowledge.  Un 
happily  Morton  and  Jackson  were  led  to 
declare  the  anaesthetic  agent  a  compound 
which  they  kept  a  secret,  calling  it  letheon, 
and  obtaining  a  patent  for  it  as  a  joint  dis 
covery.  Such  a  procedure  is  in  violation 
of  medical  ethics,  and  was  in  no  wise  cred 
itable.  Afterward  each  claimed  to  be  the 
discoverer.  These  circumstances,  together 
with  the  conflicting  statements  and  acrimo 
nious  discussions  which  followed,  are  pain 
ful  to  think  of  in  connection  with  a  discov 
ery  which  has  rendered  such  great  service 
to  mankind. 

In  referring  to  the  extraction  of  teeth  in 
connection  with  anaesthesia,  I  have  not  con 
sidered  this  in  the  light  of  a  surgical  oper 
ation,  but  inasmuch  as  most  persons  have 
had  more  or  less  practical  acquaintance  with 
it,  to  describe  the  paiufulness  of  the  process 
were  superfluous.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that 
the  inhalation  of  the  nitrous  oxide  gas,  the 
anaesthetic  agent  with  which  Wells  experi 
mented,  is  now  largely  used  to  render  pain 
less  the  extraction  of  teeth.  The  anaesthe 
sia  induced  thereby  is  not  sufficiently  lasting 
for  most  surgical  operations,  but  it  answers 
for  this  purpose ;  and  thus  far,  having  been 
administered  many  thousand  times,  it  has 
not  been  followed  by  any  serious  conse 
quences.  In  this  regard  the  dentist's  chair 
is  now  deprived  of  all  its  terrors :  after  a 
moment  of  pleasant  dreams,  its  occupants 
awaken  to  find  the  offending  members  gone. 

Passing  from  the  foregoing  brief  account 
of  the  more  notable  of  the  discoveries  and 
improvements  exemplifying  medical  and 
sanitary  progress,  I  must  be  satisfied  with 
a  cursory  notice  of  some  of  those  of  lesser 
importance,  belonging,  for  the  most  part,  to 
the*  history  of  the  last  forty  years.  I  desire 
to  premise  distinctly  that  I  by  no  means  un 
dertake  to  include  in  the  following  list  all, 


IMPROVEMENTS  IN  SURGERY. 


427 


or  even  the  greater  part,  of  the  minor  con 
tributions  which  have  been  made  during  this 
period  to  the  science  and  art  of  medicine — 
using  the  term  medicine  here,  as  hitherto,  in 
its  comprehensive  sense,  which  embraces  ev 
ery  thing  relating  directly  or  indirectly  to 
surgery  and  obstetrics,  as  well  as  to  the 
study  of  the  human  organism  in  health  and 
in  disease.  My  object  is  simply,  as  already 
noted,  to  cite  illustrations  of  the  co-opera 
tion  of  our  country  in  medical  progress,  and 
the  facts  cited  are  those  which  suggest  them 
selves  in  my  own  retrospection. 

The  substitution  of  simple  manual  efforts 
for  pulleys  and  other  mechanical  appliances 
in  the  reduction  of  dislocations  of  the  hip 
joint  is  an  American  improvement.  It  had 
been  taught  by  Nathan  Smitt  and  practiced 
by  Physic,  but  for  its  complete  exposition 
and  popularization  the  profession  is  indebt 
ed  to  the  late  W.  W.  Reid,  of  Rochester,  New 
York.  By  means  of  the  improvement,  quot 
ing  the  words  of  an  eminent  surgeon,  "the 
reduction  of  this  dislocation  is  no  longer,  as 
it  once  was,  the  dread  of  the  surgeon  and 
the  terror  of  the  patient."  Reid  published 
his  experiments  and  observations  in  1851. 

In  1848  Gurdoii  Buck  reported  a  series  of 
cases  in  which  the  rare  and  fatal  affection 
known  as  oedema  of  the  glottis  had  been 
successfully  treated  by  scarifications  of  the 
glottis  and  epiglottis.  This  affection  in  some 
instances  destroys  life  very  suddenly,  and 
the  only  resource  is  in  prompt  surgical  in 
terference.  Buck's  simple  operation  was  a 
substitute  for  opening  the  larynx,  or  laryn- 
gotomy.  The  operation  was  original  with 
him,  although  it  was  afterward  ascertained 
that  it  had  been  performed  by  Lisfranc,  of 
Paris,  but  without  having  attracted  atten 
tion. 

In  1850  H.  I.  Bowditch  resorted  to  punc 
ture  with  a  small-sized  instrument  and  the 
employment  of  suction  for  the  purpose  of 
withdrawing  morbid  liquids  from  the  chest. 
He  subsequently  employed  this  method  in 
cases  of  pleurisy  in  a  very  large  number  of 
cases,  and  also  applied  it  to  the  removal  of 
purulent  liquid  in  other  situations.  The 
method  has  been  since  employed  by  others 
in  this  country  and  in  Europe  with  great 
success.  Latterly,  under  the  name  of  aspi 
ration,  it  has  become  popularized,  and  it  is 
one  of  the  most  important  of  the  improve 


ments  in  practical  medicine  within  the  last 
quarter  of  a  century. 

In  1846  Horace  Green  published  a  work 
on  diseases  of  the  air  passages,  in  which  ho 
asserted  that  it  was  practicable  to  introduce 
an  instrument  through  the  mouth  into  the 
larynx,  and  in  this  way  to  make  topical  ap 
plications  in  the  treatment  of  diseases  here 
seated.  The  assertion  was  at  first  received 
with  much  incredulity  and  distrust,  the  fea 
sibility  of  the  operation  being  by  many  de 
nied.  On  this  point,  however,  at  the  pres 
ent  time  few,  if  any,  are  skeptical. 

In  1848  Jonathan  Knight,  of  New  Haven, 
Connecticut,  reported  the  first  successful 
case  in  which  recovery  from  aneurism  was 
effected  by  means  of  digital  compression — a 
method  of  treatment  which  has  since  been 
resorted  to  successfully  in  a  considerable 
number  of  cases. 

Of  American  surgeons  now  living  or  re 
cently  deceased  a  considerable  number  have 
rendered  valuable  service  by  either  origina 
ting  or  modifying  operations,  and  by  con 
tributions  to  surgical  literature.  In  this 
list  are  Gross,  who  most  appropriately  heads 
it,  and  whose  voluminous  writings  are  held 
in  the  highest  estimation  not  only  in  this 
country  but  abroad  ;  Hamilton,  whose  trea 
tise  on  fractures  and  dislocations  is  recog 
nized  as  a  standard  work  in  all  countries ; 
Sayre,  whose  original  operations  on  diseases 
of  joints  and  ingenious  improvements  in  or 
thopaedic  surgery  have  secured  for  him 
transatlantic  honors ;  Braiuard,  John  C. 
Warren,  his  son,  J.  Mason  Warren,  George 
Hay  ward,  Henry  I.  Bigelow,  James  R.  Wood, 
Van  Buren,  Parker,  Markoe,  Eve,  Moore,  and 
many  others  whose  names  would  not  be 
omitted  in  a  full  history  of  the  progress  of 
American  surgery.  To  all  justice  will  doubt 
less  be  done  in  papers  to  be  presented  at  the 
Centennial  International  Medical  Congress 
to  be  held  in  Philadelphia  in  September 
next. 

Important  improvements  in  certain  oper 
ations  for  the  treatment  of  the  accidents 
incident  to  confinement  and  the  diseases  of 
women  have  been  contributed  within  the 
last  quarter  of  a  century  by  J.  Marion  Sims, 
James  P.  White,  T.G.  Thomas,  Emmet,  Peas- 
lee,  Barker,  and  others  whose  names  are 
identified  with  the  literature  of  this  depart 
ment  of  medicine.  To  notice  these  contri- 


428 


MEDICAL  AND  SANITARY  PROGRESS. 


buttons  more  specifically  would  in  this  arti 
cle  be  out  of  place. 

Tho  foregoing  improvements  relate  to 
practical  surgery,  and,  for  obvious  reasons, 
they  are  more  easily  characterized  than 
those  relating  to  the  remedial  or  other  meas 
ures  of  treatment  in  cases  of  disease.  An 
improvement  pertaining  to  the  physical  di 
agnosis  of  the  diseases  of  the  chest  may  be 
mentioned,  namely,  the  biuaural  stethoscope 
invented  by  Caumauu  in  1854.  The  advan 
tages  of  this  acoustic  instrument  in  the  prac 
tice  of  auscultation  are  such  that,  unless  it 
be  superseded  by  further  improvements,  it 
must  take  the  place  of  the  various  stetho 
scopes  devised  since  the  time  of  Laennec. 

Let  it  not  be  inferred,  from  the  omission 
to  specify  original  views  and  improvements 
relating  to  the  treatment  of  diseases,  that 
progress  in  the  latter  within  late  years  has 
been  less  marked  than  in  surgery.  The 
writings  and  oral  teachings  of  such  men  as 
James  Jackson,  John  Ware,  Bowditch,  and 
Shattuck,  of  Boston  ;  George  B.  Wood,  Dick- 
son,  Stille",  J.  R.  Mitchell,  Da  Costa,  and  La 
Roche,  of  Philadelphia ;  Davis  and  Allen,  of 
Chicago ;  Elisha  Bartlett,  Swett,  and  Alouzo 
Clark,  of  New  York ;  and  Daniel  Drake,  of 
Ohio,  have  rendered  the  science  and  art  of 
medicine  in  this  country  steadily  progress 
ive.  In  this  connection  reference  should  be 
made  to  a  discourse,  published  in  1835,  "  on 
self-limited  diseases,"  by  Jacob  Bigelow,  of 
Boston,  which  led  physicians  in  this  country 
to  recognize  more  fully  than  before  the  im 
portant  fact  that  many  diseases  tend  intrin 
sically  to  recovery,  and  to  appreciate  the 
importance  of  the  study  of  the  natural  his 
tory  of  diseases. 

Important  contributions  to  the  materia 
medica  have  not  been  wanting.  As  long  ago 
as  1807  the  remedy  known  as  ergot  was 
brought  to  the  notice  of  the  profession  by 
Dr.  Stearns,  and  named  by  him  pulvis  partu- 
riens,  a  term  expressive  of  its  peculiar  oper 
ation  in  cases  of  confinement.  Its  potency 
in  the  application  denoted  by  this  term  has 
since  been  every  where  recognized,  and  of 
late  it  has  been  found  to  have  a  much  wider 
range  of  usefulness,  being  now  regarded  by 
many  as  possessing  much  efficiency  in  ar 
resting  hemorrhages  in  different  situations. 
The  veratrum  viride  was  employed  as  a  med 
icine  by  Tully,  Osgood,  and  other  physicians 


in  New  England  as  far  back  as  1835 ;  but  it 
was  brought  forward  more  recently  (1850) 
as  a  remedy  of  great  power  in  producing  a 
sedative  operation  on  the  heart,  by  Nor 
wood,  of  South  Carolina.  The  lobelia,  or 
Indian  tobacco,  is  also  an  American  remedy, 
introduced  to  the  notice  of  the  profession  by 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Cutter,  of  Massachusetts,  for 
the  relief  of  asthma,  and  afterward  much 
used  as  a  palliative  in  that  disease  both 
here  and  abroad.  The  use  of  the  authel- 
mintic  remedy,  chenopodium  or  worm-seed, 
originated  in  Virginia  in  the  early  part  of 
the  present  century.  The  anesthetic  agent, 
chloroform,  so  extensively  used  since  its 
employment  by  Simpson  in  1848,  was  dis 
covered  by  Guthrie,  of  Sackett's  Harbor, 
New  York,  at  about  the  same  time  that  it 
was  also  discovered  by  Soubeirau,  at  Paris, 
in  1831. 

The  medical  history  of  our  country  with 
in  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  is  not  alto 
gether  barren  in  contributions  to  anatomy 
and  physiology,  albeit  the  tendency  to  stud 
ies  having  a  direct  and  obvious  practical 
bearing  is  predominant.  The  researches  of 
Isaacs  in  relation  to  the  structure  of  the 
kidneys  were  characterized  by  great  minute 
ness,  completeness,  and  accuracy.  They  have 
been  so  considered  and  adopted  in  Europe 
as  well  as  in  America.  Brown-Se'quard,  al 
though  not  a  native  of  this  country,  is  of 
American  paternity,  his  father  having  been 
born  in  Philadelphia.  Moreover,  a  consid 
erable  part  of  his  anatomical,  physiological, 
and  pathological  labors  have  been  prose 
cuted  and  the  results  originally  published 
here.  He  has  contributed  largely  toward 
our  knowledge  of  the  structure,  functions, 
and  morbid  conditions  of  the  nervous  sys 
tem  ;  also  important  facts  relating  to  other 
organs  and  functions  of  the  body.  Bennett 
Douler,  of  New  Orleans,  had  made  valuable 
contributions  to  our  knowledge  of  the  tem 
perature  of  the  body  in  anticipation  of  re 
cent  researches  in  that  direction,  and  he  has 
also  made  interesting  contributions  to  the 
study  of  the  nervous  system.  John  C.  Dai- 
ton  has  published  original  and  valuable  ob 
servations  relating  to  the  nervous  system, 
digestion,  the  functions  of  glands,  and  oth 
er  physiological  subjects.  To  him  is  due 
the  credit  of  the  introduction  of  vivisec 
tions  into  physiological  teaching,  which  iin- 


CHANGES  IN  PRACTICE. 


429 


portant  mode  of  illustration  is  probably 
practiced  in  certain  of  our  medical  schools 
more  largely  than  in  those  of  Europe.  S. 
Weir  Mitchell  has  developed  important  facts 
in  relation  to  the  nervous  system.  Austin 
Flint,  Juu.,  has  contributed  new  views  re 
specting  circulation  and  respiration,  togeth 
er  with  experimental  researches  relating  to 
a  new  function  of  the  liver.  The  latter  re 
ceived  honorable  mention  by  the  French 
Academy  of  Sciences,  with  a  recompense  of 
1500  francs.  Brown  -Se"quard,  Dalton,  and 
Flint  junior  have  contributed  largely  to 
physiological  literature. 

It  remains  to  consider  briefly  medical  and 
sanitary  progress  as  exemplified  by  muta 
tions  in  the  practice  of  medicine.  It  is  a 
curious  fact  that,  according  to  a  wide-spread 
popular  belief,  physicians  of  the  present  day 
hold  strictly  to  doctrines  handed  down  by 
Hippocrates,  Galen,  and  others  of  the  early 
fathers  in  medicine.  These  ancient  doc 
trines,  it  is  by  many  supposed,  have  with 
the  medical  profession  somewhat  of  the  force 
exerted  by  theological  dogmas  on  their  ad 
herents.  The  practice  of  medicine  is  thought 
to  embrace  a  binding  creed,  from  which  phy 
sicians  are  expected  not  to  swerve  under  the 
penalty  of  being  repudiated  by  their  breth 
ren.  Hence  it  is  common  to  speak  of  a  med 
ical  man  as  belonging  to  the  "  old  school." 
I  say  this  is  a  curious  fact,  for  quite  the  re 
verse  is  the  truth.  The  past  history  of  med 
icine  shows  a  series  of  mutations  in  its  prin 
ciples  and  practice.  It  is  far  more  open  to 
attack  on  the  score  of  successive  changes 
than  of  fixedness.  The  illegitimate  systems 
which  from  time  to  time  have  sprung  up  are 
distinguished  by  being  based  on  particular 
dogmas.  Their  followers  are  truly  secta 
rians.  There  is  no  other  standard  for  med 
ical  orthodoxy  than  the  opinions  held  by 
the  reputable  physicians  and  inculcated  in 
the  accredited  works.  As  regards  individ 
ual  opinions  and  modes  of  practice,  so  long 
as  they  are  not  maintained  in  a  sectarian 
spirit  nor  adopted  for  unworthy  ends,  there 
are  no  restrictions  in  the  way  of  profession 
al  fellowship.  The  views  of  a  physician, 
theoretical  or  practical,  may  be  never  so 
eccentric  or  absurd  without  interference 
with  his  fraternal  relations,  provided  he 
conforms  to  the  established  principles  of 
medical  ethics,  and  does  not  place  himself 


in  an  attitude  of  antagonism  toward  the 
honor  and  dignity  of  the  profession. 

A  comparison  of  the  early  and  latter  part 
of  the  last  centennial  period  furnishes  many 
striking  points  of  contrast.  Of  course  it 
can  not  be  expected  in  this  paper  to  go  into 
details ;  I  must  confine  myself  to  leading 
characteristics.  A  very  marked  contrast  re 
lates  to  the  use  of  certain  potential  meas 
ures  of  treatment,  such  as  blood-letting,  ca 
thartics,  emetics,  blisters,  or  other  methods 
of  counter-irritation,  the  use  of  mercurial 
remedies,  etc.  Comparatively  these  are  but 
little  employed  at  the  present  time.  This 
therapeutical  change  is  by  no  means  proof 
that  these  measures  are  not  useful.  Their 
usefulness  has  heretofore  undoubtedly  in 
many  instances  been  overestimated,  and  it  is 
not  improbable  that  further  progress  in  med 
ical  experience  will  show  that  they  are  now 
underestimated.  One  reason  for  their  being 
used  with  more  circumspection  and  reserve 
is,  the  ends  for  which  they  were  employed, 
owing  to  improvements  in  materia  medico, 
and  pharmacy,  are  now  accomplished  by 
remedies  which  involve  less  repugnance  on 
the  part  of  the  patient,  and  which  are  less 
liable  to  do  harm  if  injudiciously  employed. 
In  this  point  of  view,  therefore,  the  change 
denotes  progress  in  knowledge.  Perhaps 
nowhere  more  than  in  this  country  is  the 
practice  of  medicine  characterized  by  the 
change  just  adverted  to. 

Potential  drugs  of  all  kinds  are  less  used 
now  than  heretofore.  This  is  due  in  a  meas 
ure  to  a  better  knowledge  than  formerly 
of  their  operation,  acquired  by  accumulated 
clinical  experience  and  experiments  on  the 
lower  animals.  But  it  is  in  a  great  measure 
attributable  to  the  results  of  the  study  with 
in  late  years  of  the  natural  history  of  dis 
eases.  This  term  embraces  the  laws  regu 
lating  the  termination,  the  duration,  the 
phenomena,  and  the  complications  of  dis 
eases,  irrespective  of  the  operation  of  active 
measures  of  treatment.  The  importance  of 
this  study  has  been  for  the  past  half  century 
more  appreciated  than  formerly.  As  oppor 
tunities  have  offered,  it  has  been  prosecuted 
with  much  zeal  and  patience.  Physicians 
in  this  country  have  taken  not  an  insignifi 
cant  part  in  the  prosecution  of  this  study. 
The  results  have  shown  that  many  diseases 
are  self-limited  in  duration,  and  pursue  a 


430 


MEDICAL  AND  SANITARY  PEOGRESS. 


favorable  course  without  active  medicinal 
interference,  and,  as  a  consequence,  there  is 
a  greater  reserve  now  than  heretofore  in  the 
use  of  potential  drugs.  And  in  proportion 
to  this  reserve  a  greater  importance  has 
been  attached  to  what  may  be  distinguished 
as  sanitary  measures  of  treatment,  such  as 
ventilation,  regulation  of  temperature,  etc. 
It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  many  diseases 
are  more  successfully  managed  on  account 
of  these  changes.  In  the  dietetic  manage 
ment  of  the  sick  there  has  been  great  im 
provement.  The  recognition  of  the  impor 
tance  of  supporting  the  powers  of  life  by  an 
adequate  alimentation,  together  with  the 
judicious  use  of  alcoholic  stimulants,  is  one 
of  the  striking  characteristics  of  progress  in 
the  practice  of  medicine  during  the  last  half 
century.  In  all  these  mutations  indicative 
of  progress,  it  may  be  claimed,  in  behalf  of 
the  medical  profession  of  this  country,  that 
they  have  not  been  backward  in  conforming 
to  them  nor  in  promoting  them.  The  Amer 
ican  medical  mind  may  b.e  said  to  be  emi 
nently  cosmopolitan  and  eclectic.  With 
perhaps  some  undue  readiness  in  accepting 
opinions  emanating  from  abroad,  the  pre 
vailing  disposition  is  to  seek  every  where 
for  new  developments  of  knowledge,  espe 
cially  in  the  practical  departments  of  med 
icine.  In  this  country,  as  elsewhere,  one 
point  of  contrast  between  the  present  and 
the  past  is  the  diminished  power  of  indi 
vidual  authority  in  medical  doctrines.  At 
this  day,  much  less  than  in  former  times, 
is  the  phrase,  Jurare  in  verba  magistri,  appli 
cable  to  the  medical  profession. 

In  the  preparation  of  remedies  there  is  a 
notable  contrast  between  the  earlier  and 
later  portions  of  the  last  centennial  period. 
The  improvements  in  pharmacy  have  been 
very  great.  Concentrated  forms  of  medi 
cine  have  largely  supplanted  infusions  or 
decoctions  and  bulky  medicinal  substances. 
The  discovery  of  the  alkaloid  quinia  was  in 
1820.  Previously  malarial  fevers  were  treat 
ed  with  the  powdered  cinchona  bark,  the 
quantity  requisite  for  a  cure  being  so  large 
that,  on  this  account,  the  treatment  was 
very  often  unsuccessful.  Let  it  be  consid 
ered  that  pounds  of  the  bark  are  represent 
ed  by  a  few  grains  of  the  alkaloid.  Quinia 
was  speedily  after  its  discovery  in  use  in 
America,  where  malarial  fevers  were  a  great 


obstacle  in  the  way  of  the  settlement  of 
our  vast  national  domain.  As  early  as  1841 
it  had  been  employed  in  doses  which  had 
not  been  ventured  upon  in  Europe,  but 
which  since  that  time  have  been  found  es 
sential  to  secure  its  full  remedial  power, 
not  only  in  malarial  fevers,  but  in  other  dis 
eases.  The  experience  in  our  country  did 
much  toward  developing  knowledge  re 
specting  the  curative  power  of  this  great 
autiperiodic  remedy. 

In  the  manufacture  and  employment  of 
other  isolated  medicinal  principles  from  veg 
etable  remedies,  and  of  extracts,  the  phar 
maceutists  and  physicians  in  this  country 
have  not  been  far  behind  those  of  Europe. 
To  appreciate  the  progress  in  this  regard, 
from  the  stand-point  of  the  patient,  one 
must  be  able  to  recall  the  time  when  the 
nauseousness  of  physic  could  not  fail  to 
tempt  many  to  throw  it  to  the  dogs. 
Thanks  to  pharmaceutical  improvements, 
doses  of  medicine  are  now  rarely  disagree 
able,  and  not  unfrequently  they  are  even 
rendered  palatable. 

Passing  from  this  brief  reference  to  mu 
tations  in  practice  to  the  character  of  the 
medical  profession,  as  represented  by  the 
average  of  the  professional  attainments,  to 
gether  with  the  intellectual  and  moral  quali 
fications  of  its  members,  it  is  needless  to  say 
that  the  progress  has  been  marked.  In 
these  respects  the  medical  profession  in  the 
United  States  to-day  will  compare  favora 
bly  with  the  profession  in  any  part  of  the 
world.  This  may  be  asserted  without  pre 
sumption.  It  would  be  easy  to  cite  the  tes 
timony  to  that  effect  of  competent  observers 
from  abroad  who  have  been  among  us.  No 
where  in  civilized  countries  do  medical  men 
hold  a  higher  social  position  than  here.  No 
where,  as  a  class,  do  they  exert  a  stronger 
influence  upon  other  members  of  society. 
In  our  democratic  form  of  government  no 
body  of  men  are  more  influential.  Were 
the  physicians  of  any  of  the  States  in  the 
Union  to  combine  together  to  form  a  polit 
ical  party,  their  power  would  be  irresisti 
ble.  With  such  a  combination,  the  election 
of  officers  and  law-makers  would  be  under 
their  control.  Fortunately,  or  unfortunate 
ly,  this  is  not  likely  to  happen,  for,  as  a  rule, 
physicians  are  not  inclined  to  take  an  active 
part  in  politics.  By  those  who  might  dep- 


ANTICIPATIONS. 


431 


recate  a  political  party  composed  of  doc 
tors  it  will  doubtless  be  said,  such  a  union 
is  rendered  impossible  by  their  proverbial 
tendency  to  disagree.  The  disagreement 
of  doctors  has  long  been  a  proverb.  They 
are  considered  fair  game  for  jests  in  this  re 
gard.  Were  the  charge  made  in  earnest,  it 
would  be  out  of  place  in  this  article  to  un 
dertake  to  refute  it.  Of  the  three  profes 
sions,  the  imputation,  even  in  jest,  would 
hardly  come  with  a  good  grace  from  the 
clergy.  Our  legal  friends  are  sometimes 
fond  of  comparing,  in  this  point  of  view, 
the  medical  profession  with  their  own.  If 
any  of  these  should  honor  this  article  by  a 
perusal,  I  am  sure  they  will  not  take  offense 
if  I  introduce  an  anecdote  which,  as  I  hope, 
will  not  be  considered  frivolous  or  out  of 
taste  in  treating  of  so  sober  a  subject  as 
medical  and  sanitary  progress.  The  anec 
dote  was  told  by  an  eminent  member  of  the 
bar  iu  Connecticut,  who  was  a  party  in  the 
colloquy,  and  who  related  it,  by-the-way, 
as  evidence  that  a  talent  for  humor  which 
formerly  was  possessed  by  not  a  few  physi 
cians  had  nearly  become  extinct,  the  pro 
fession  in  this  respect  having  retrograded 
rather  than  advanced.  This  distinguished 
lawyer,  meeting  one  day  an  old  physician 
of  the  humoristical  school,  in  order  to  elicit 
a  witty  rejoinder  attacked  him  on  the  score 
of  the  disagreement  of  doctors,  referring,  in 
contrast,  to  the  habitual  agreement  of  law 
yers,  no  matter  how  violently  they  opposed 
each  other  in  their  professional  antagonism. 
He  asked  his  friend  the  doctor  to  explain 
this  contrast.  "  Oh,"  said  the  doctor,  "  Mil 
ton  has  given  the  explanation  of  the  differ 
ence  between  us  in  this  respect  in  the  fol 
lowing  quotation : 

" '  Devils  with  devils  damn'd  firm  concord  hold ; 
Men  only  disagree.'" 

The  proper  scope  of  this  article  takes  in 
only  the  past ;  but  anticipations  naturally 
follow  retrospections.  After  a  review  of 
the  progress  made  during  the  last  hundred 
years,  one  can  hardly  forbear  to  ask,  what 
will  have  taken  place  at  the  end  of  the  next 
centennial  period  ?  A  few  thoughts  sug 
gested  by  this  question  may  be  permitted  in 
concluding  the  article.  It  is  quite  certain 
that  medical  and  sanitary  progress  will  con 
tinue.  This  is  a  fair  inference  from  the 


continued  progress  hitherto  up  to  this  time. 
It  is  also  a  logical  conclusion,  from  the  facts 
in  the  past  history  of  medicine,  that  future 
progress  in  this  direction  will  bo  by  slow 
advances.  As  it  has  been  heretofore,  so  it 
will  be  hereafter :  great  discoveries  or  im 
provements  will  not  follow  in  rapid  succes 
sion.  The  great  event  in  the  seventeenth 
century  was  the  discovery  of  the  circulation 
of  the  blood,  in  the  eighteenth  century  the 
discovery  of  vaccination,  and  in  the  present 
century  the  discovery  of  anaesthesia.  Events 
like  these  are  not  to  be  expected  to  recur  at 
much  shorter  intervals.  What  is  to  be  the 
next  great  event  ?  It  would,  of  course,  be 
absurd  to  attempt  to  answer  this  inquiry. 
Sometimes,  however,  preliminary  circum 
stances,  as  we  can  see  afterward,  have  point 
ed  distinctly  to  the  direction  in  which  a 
great  discovery  was  to  be  looked  for.  If  I 
were  to  indulge  a  prophetic  fancy,  it  would 
lead  me  to  predict  that,  ere  long,  the  nature 
of  what  are  called  the  special  or  specific 
causes  of  disease  will  be  demonstrated.  By 
special  causes  I  mean  those  which  produce 
certain  diseases,  such  as  the  continued,  the 
periodical,  and  the  eruptive  fevers.  That 
these  and  some  other  diseases  have  each 
its  own  special  cause,  never  occurring  with 
out  the  action  of  its  own  cause,  and  the 
latter  producing  only  that  particular  dis 
ease,  is  rationally  almost  certain.  We  are 
acquainted  with  many  of  the  conditions  un 
der  which  these  causes  are  developed,  and 
we  know  many  of  the  laws  of  their  opera 
tion  ;  but  their  nature  has  not  been  ascer 
tained.  It  is  easy  to  imagine  that  were 
these  causes  fully  known,  a  great  impetus 
would  be  given  to  the  progress  of  medicine. 
The  discovery  of  the  nature  of  one  special 
cause  would  probably  lead,  by  analogy,  to  a 
similar  knowledge  of  the  other  causes.  It 
may  reasonably  be  supposed  that  the  knowl 
edge  of  their  essential  nature  would  lead  to 
the  means  of  destroying  them,  or  of  neutral 
izing  their  morbific  operation,  and  in  this 
way  the  most  destructive  to  human  life  of 
the  acute  diseases  would  be  prevented  or 
arrested.  Many  circumstances  combine  to 
render  it  probable  that  these  special  causes 
are  either  vegetable  or  animal  organisms. 
On  these  circumstances  are  based  the  "  germ 
theory"  of  disease.  It  is,  indeed,  claimed 
by  some  that  the  causation  of  certain  dis- 


432 


MEDICAL  AND  SANITARY  PROGRESS. 


eases  by  specific  organisms  of  microscopical 
minuteness  has  been  demonstrated  ;  by  the 
majority  of  medical  thinkers,  however,  the 
demonstrative  evidence  is  not  considered  as 
complete.  It  is  an  interesting  fact  that  a 
quarter  of  a  century  ago  the  cryptogamic 
origin  of  many  diseases  was  advocated  with 
cogent  evidence  and  argument  by  a  distin 
guished  medical  teacher  in  this  country — 
the  late  J.  R.  Mitchell. 

Judging  from  the  past,  the  future  prog 
ress  of  medicine  will  involve  improvements 
of  and  additions  to  the  means  of  investiga 
ting  the  body  in  health  and  disease.  With 
in  the  present  century  the  different  organs 
were  resolved  into  their  component  tissues 
by  differences  mainly  in  sensible  properties. 
In  this  wray  Bichat  created  the  department 
of  general  anatomy,  that  is,  the  description 
of  the  elementary  tissues  into  which  the  or 
gans  are  resolvable.  Next  came  the  appli 
cation  of  analytical  chemistry  to  the  study 
of  the  solids  and  fluids,  by  means  of  which 
the  department  of  general  anatomy  was  ex 
tended.  Then  followed  the  employment  of 
the  microscope,  giving  rise  to  a  new  prov 
ince  in  anatomy  and  pathology,  namely,  his 
tology.  Meanwhile  the  investigation  of  the 
heart  and  lungs  by  means  of  the  conduction 
of  sounds  engaged  attention,  and  ausculta 
tion  became  a  branch  of  medicine.  Still 
later  the  exploration  of  the  interior  of  the 
eye  and  of  the  air  passages  by  means  of 
optical  instruments  has  given  rise  to  oph- 
thalmoscopy  and  laryugoscopy.  To  these 
might  be  added  numerous  improved  meth 
ods  of  examining  internal  parts  by  manual 
instruments. 

The  improved  and  added  means  of  inves 
tigation  which  are  in  the  future  can  not  be 
foreseen,  but  it  may  be  hoped  that  thereby, 
before  the  lapse  of  another  hundred  years, 
will  be  gained  an  insight  into  the  molecu 
lar  processes  involved  in  nutrition,  secre 
tion,  and  excretion.  At  present  our  knowl 
edge  of  these  processes  is  limited  to  the 
conditions  under  which  they  take  place, 
with  certain  of  their  laws  and  their  effects. 
In  proportion  as  they  are  more  fully  under 
stood,  the  processes  involved  in  inflamma 
tion,  the  various  morbid  alterations  of  struc 
ture,  and  the  disorders  of  glandular  organs 
may  be  expected  to  be  better  comprehend 
ed,  contributing,  moreover,  to  the  progress 


of  therapeutics  as  well  as  of  pathology,  and 
changing  materially  the  principles  and  prac 
tice  of  medicine. 

If,  as  regards  new  remedies  and  improve 
ments  in  pharmacy,  progress  continue  as  it 
has  taken  place  in  the  past,  the  present  may 
very  imperfectly  represent  the  future  treat 
ment  of  diseases.  It  is  but  a  little  over 
half  a  century  since  the  great  autiperiodic 
remedy,  quiuia,  was  discovered.  It  is  not 
improbable  that  before  the  end  of  another 
half  century  a  remedy,  or  remedies,  may  be 
discovered  which  will  arrest  other  fevers  or 
acute  inflammatory  affections  as  quinia  ar 
rests  malarial  diseases.  If  such  an  event 
take  place,  how  great  will  be  the  change 
in  practical  medicine!  New  modes  of  in 
troducing  remedies  into  the  system  may  be 
ascertained  more  effective  than  the  recently 
employed  method  of  injecting  medicated  so 
lutions  beneath  the  skin. 

The  extent  to  which  abnormal  conditions 
of  the  mind  are  dependent  on  morbid  states 
of  the  body  is  hardly  yet  fully  recognized, 
though  it  has  been  the  subject  of  much 
thought.  Mental  disorders  falling  short  of 
insanity  have  hitherto  entered  too  little 
into  pathological  study.  The  time  may 
come  when,  with  a  better  knowledge  of  the 
mutual  relations  of  the  mental  and  vital 
functions,  disorders  of  the  former,  now  in  a 
great  measure  left  for  "the  patient  to  min 
ister  to  himself,"  will  be  prevented  or  suc 
cessfully  treated,  and  the  development  of 
insanity  thereby  often  forestalled.  With 
future  progress  in  this  direction,  it  may  be 
that  not  a  little  of  the  abnormities  and  enor 
mities  which  the  law  considers  and  punishes 
as  crimes  will  be  recognized  as  more  proper 
ly  belonging  to  pathology,  claiming  the  ju 
dicious  management  of  the  physician  rather 
than  judicial  treatment. 

Finally,  the  spirit  of  imaginary  foresight 
which  has  led  to  the  few  foregoing  thoughts 
suggests  the  question,  how  will  the  coining 
physician  differ  from  the  physician  of  to 
day?  The  question  gives  rise  to  a  train 
of  speculation  which  it  would  be  pleasant 
enough  on  the  part  of  the  writer  to  pursue ; 
but  this  I  must  forego.  Suffice  it  to  say 
that  the  coming  physician  will  not  be  re 
garded  even  as  much  as  now  in  the  light  of 
a  mere  prescriber  of  drugs.  I  would  by  no 
means  be  thought  to  underrate  the  impor- 


PKEVENTION  OF  DISEASE. 


433 


tanco  of  tlus  function.  Diseases  will  al 
ways  claim  medicinal  treatment,  and  doubt 
less  medicines  will  be  prescribed  a  hundred 
years  Leuce  with  more  efficacy  than  in  the 
present  stage  of  medical  progress.  But  the 
coming  physician  will  be  regarded  in  a  high 
er  point  of  view,  as  one  on  whose  judgment 
people  will  be  content  to  rely  in  the  inter 
diction  as  well  as  in  the  prescribing  of  drugs. 
It  will  be  more  and  more  considered  that 
one  of  the  most  important  of  his  profession 
al  functions  is  to  determine,  by  skilled  in 
terrogation  of  the  different  organs  of  the 
body,  their  freedom  from  disease,  as  well  as, 
on  the  other  hand,  to  detect  accurately  and 
early  deviations  from  health.  He  will  him- 
28 


self  appreciate  more  and  more  the  fact  that 
prophylaxis — the  prevention  of  disease — is 
a  higher  and  more  useful  branch  of  medicine 
than  therapeutics.  The  prevention  of  crime 
and  the  proper  treatment  of  criminals  will 
be  recognized  as  embraced  within  the  scope 
of  medical  knowledge  and  practice.  His  of 
fices  as  a  hygienic  adviser  in  matters  per 
taining  to  mind  and  body  will  become  equal, 
if  not  superior,  to  his  duties  as  a  therapeu 
tist  ;  and  the  future  enlightened  lawgiver, 
with  "  others  in  authority,"  will  co-operate 
in  devising  and  carrying  out  measures  for 
medical  education,  the  promotion  of  med 
ical  knowledge,  and  those  having  reference 
to  public  health. 


XV. 

AMERICAN  JURISPRUDENCE. 


THE  story  is  told  that  a  company  of  set 
tlers  in  a  New  England  colony  initiated 
their  acts  of  organized  legislation  by  pass 
ing  the  resolve,  "That  this  colony  be  gov 
erned  by  the  laws  of  God  in  the  Old  Testa 
ment  until  we  have  time  to  prepare  better." 
In  this  we  discern  four  tones :  key-note — 
a  reverent  recognition  of  Divine  authority 
underlying  human  law ;  third — a  conserva 
tive  willingness  to  obey  for  the  present  the 
existing  law ;  fifth — a  progressive  confidence 
in  ability  to  improve  the  forms  and  modes 
of  law  as  the  growth  of  affairs  requires ;  oc 
tave — a  resolute  purpose  to  make  that  im 
provement  in  due  season.  These  four  tones 
have  formed  the  common  chord  of  Ameri 
can  jurisprudence.  In  the  brief,  faint  echo 
which  this  article  will  bring  to  the  ear  of 
1876,  one  may  perceive  that  this  harmony 
constantly  recurs. 

THE  AMERICAN  LIBRARY  OF  LAW. 

To  indicate  the  impossibility  of  stating 
details  in  this  article,  let  us  take  at  the 
outset  a  topic  which  otherwise  might  well 
stand  for  the  close — the  collection  of  books 
embodying  the  law.  A  glance  at  these,  in 
their  number  and  complexity,  will  show  the 
magnitude  and  elaboration  of  the  field  of 
thought  which  they  include.  Jurisprudence 
even  within  a  single  jurisdiction  is  too  mi 
nute  in  its  distinctions,  its  lines  are  too  un 
yielding,  its  angles  are  too  sharp,  and  its 
growth  is  too  wayward,  to  admit  of  repro 
ducing  its  history  in  an  epitome  which  shall 
be  both  brief  and  accurate.  In  our  country 
such  difficulty  is  increased  by  the  consider 
ation  that  the  law  in  all  its  details  diifers 
exceedingly  in  the  different  States.  A  his 
tory  of  the  rights  of  married  women  in  New 
York  could  have  no  application  to  Tennes 
see.  A  sketch,  even  very  general,  of  modes 
of  judicial  procedure  in  Illinois  would  be 
altogether  untrue  for  Indiana.  The  legal 
history  and  policy  of  Louisiana  differ  essen 
tially  from  those  of  Massachusetts.  Hence 
in  matters  of  law  it  is  not  possible  to  give 
concise,  simple  answers,  which  shall  be  accu 


rate,  to  even  the  simplest  questions.  What 
is  the  lawful  rate  of  interest?  One  must  give 
a  dozen  different  rules  to  represent  the  dif 
ferent  States.  "  Six  per  cent,  in  such  and 
such  States,  seven  in  others,  again  ten,  and 
elsewhere  it  is  left  to  private  contract." 
What  is  murder,  and  how  is  it  punished?  An 
essay  giving  the  pith  of  the  statutes  on  this 
topic,  and  the  rules  and  distinctions  estab 
lished  by  the  courts,  necessary  to  a  correct 
answer  for  the  different  States,  though  it 
excluded  all  legal  verbiage  and  narratives 
of  particular  trials,  would  overrun  the  rea 
sonable  length  of  an  article. 

Was  there  once  a  photographer  who  en 
deavored  to  take  the  surface  of  the  whole 
United  States  in  one  picture  ?  or  a  composer 
who  tried  to  bring  all  varieties  of  music 
within  one  orchestral  piece  ?  Did  they 
succeed?  No.  Then  this  writer  will  not 
attempt  to  portray  details  in  this  sketch 
of  the  development  of  jurisprudence. 

Imagine,  then,  that  we  see  arranged  be 
fore  us  the  printed  books  which  comprise 
the  law  as  it  has  grown  throughout  the 
United  States  during  the  century,  being 
such  a  collection  as  many  societies  and 
some  few  individual  lawyers  have  really 
made ;  only  these  actual  libraries  include 
numerous  English  and  some  Continental 
works,  while  our  imaginary  shelves  hold 
works  of  American  origin  alone. 

These  books,  by-the-way,  are,  as  a  mass, 
the  product  of  this  century.  There  exist  a 
few  volumes  of  decisions  rendered  previous 
to  the  Revolution ;  but  as  to  most  of  these, 
the  books  were  published  since,  though  the 
decisions  were  rendered  before.  There  are 
rare  old  volumes  of  colonial  statutes,  pub 
lished  in  colonial  days  ;  but  they  have  be 
come  reduced  almost  to  the  rank  of  curiosi 
ties  or  paper-stock  by  repeals  or  revisions 
of  the  laws.  With  trivial  exceptions,  the 
American  library  of  law  is  the  growth  and 
fruit  of  this  last  one  hundred  years. 

First  in  practical  importance  come  the 
"Reports."  These  contain  the  official  ac 
counts  of  what  the  various  courts  have  de- 


THE  AMERICAN  LIBRARY  OF  LAW. 


435 


cided;  not,  as  a  general  rule,  the  trials 
•which  one  sees  reported  in  the  public  jour 
nals,  nor  the  extended  testimony  of  witness 
es  and  speeches  of  lawyers,  but  a  concise 
statement  of  the  facts  involved  in  particular 
questions  of  law,  a  brief  memorandum  of 
the  positions  assumed  and  authorities  cited 
by  the  respective  counsel,  and  the  deliber 
ate  opinion  of  the  court.  These  reports  now 
number,  excluding  mere  curiosities  and  triv 
ialities,  second  editions,  magazines,  and  the 
like,  about  2500  volumes.  Of  these  the 
United  States  courts  have  contributed  about 
216.  There  is  a  great  disparity  in  the  num 
ber  in  the  different  States.  Thus,  among 
the  older  States,  New  York  and  Pennsyl 
vania  have  produced  392  and  184  volumes 
respectively;  New  Jersey,  sixty -two ;  and 
Delaware  and  Rhode  Island,  eight  and  ten. 
Among  the  States  most  recently  organized, 
California  exhibits  forty -eight  volumes; 
Minnesota,  twenty ;  Kansas,  thirteen ;  Ne 
vada,  nine  ;  and  Nebraska,  three. 

Next  in  order  are  the  books  of  "Stat 
utes."  These  contain  the  enactments  of 
new  laws,  the  acts  of  Congress  or  of  the 
State  Legislatures ;  not  the  bills  and  amend 
ments  considered,  nor  the  debates  and  votes, 
but  only  the  laws  finally  passed.  The  pub 
lication  of  these  follows  the  adjournment 
of  each  legislative  session.  The  number  of 
volumes  does  not  admit  of  any  precise  state 
ment,  for  several  reasons ;  one,  because  in 
many  instances  the  work  of  separate  ses 
sions  of  law-makers  is  given  in  small  pam 
phlets;  another,  because  the  same  law  is 
often  produced  again  and  again  in  succes 
sive  revisions  and  re-enactments.  These 
books  of  reports  and  statutes  are  the  orig 
inal  sources  and  authorities  from  which 
the  law  is  to  be  learned,  but  the  difficulty 
of  grappling  with  so  many  has  given  rise 
to  the  production  of  many  Digests,  Indexes, 
and  Treatises,  each  devoted  to  a  certain 
subject,  sphere,  or  field,  and  designed  to 
give  to  the  lawyer,  in  brief,  convenient 
form,  the  rules  derivable  from  the  reports 
and  statutes.  And  there  are  about  twenty- 
five  periodicals  which  may  fairly  be  deemed 
devoted  to  jurisprudence  as  their  specialty. 
Among  these  the  Albany  Law  Journal,  Amer 
ican  Law  Review,  American  Law  Register,  Cen 
tral  Law  Journal,  Chicago  Legal  News,  Legal 
Intelligencer,  Pacific  Law  Monthly,  and  West 


ern  Jurist  have  attained  celebrity  and  influ 
ence. 

The  preparation  of  treatises  has  enlisted 
the  best  efforts  of  some  of  the  ablest  and 
most  experienced  of  American  lawyers  and 
judges.  And  some  American  treatises — 
Greenleaf  on  Evidence,  Kent's  Commenta 
ries  on  American  Law,  several  of  Judge 
Story's  volumes,  the  Law  Dictionary  and 
the  Institutes  of  Bouvier,  Wheaton's  fa 
mous  treatise  on  International  Law,  and 
works  of  Angell,  George  T.  Curtis,  Dr.  Lie- 
ber,  Judge  Redfield,  Theodore  Sedgwick, 
Francis  Wharton — have  been  approved  and 
accepted  abroad,  some  of  them  having  re 
ceived  the  honor  of  republication,  and  even 
of  translation. 

Five  hundred  volumes  is  a  moderate  al 
lowance  for  the  statutes,  treatises,  digests, 
and  periodicals;  hence  the  American  library 
of  law,  developed  through  our  century,  now 
exceeds  three  thousand  volumes. 

The  occasions  for  consulting  these  books 
do  not,  upon  the  whole,  diminish.  True  it 
is,  upon  the  one  hand,  that  there  is,  at  the 
present  day,  less  subordination  to  prece 
dents,  merely  as  such,  than  in  early  years. 
Courts  are  not  as  much  swayed  by  a  sense 
that  they  must  obey  any  and  every  decided 
case.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  extent, 
variety,  and  complexity  of  the  questions 
brought  before  the  courts  increase  faster 
than  the  learning,  mental  power,  and  vigor 
of  judicial  will  among  judges;  hence  there 
is  growing  inclination  to  be  advised  by  past 
decisions;  enlarged  necessity  for  the  judge 
to  take  time  for  learning  all  that  is  known 
affecting  the  cause  before  him;  more  hesi 
tation  to  decide  a  question  until  what  has 
been  adjudicated  upon  it  has  been  review 
ed.  No  expedients  seem  to  dispense  with 
the  labor  of  research  among  the  reports  and 
statutes.  Authors  and  publishers,  indeed, 
have  proffered  compilations  of  various  kinds 
as  substitutes  for  the  original  books ;  but 
the  working  lawyers  have  generally  pre 
ferred  to  employ  them  as  means  by  which 
they  might  prosecute  research  among  the 
reports  and  statutes  themselves  more  rapid 
ly,  and  carry  it  further,  and  have  valued 
each  compilation  in  proportion  as  it  fulfilled 
this  end.  Codes  have  been  enacted  in  the 
hope  of  superseding  by  concise,  authorita 
tive  rules  the  undigested  discussions  of  the 


436 


AMERICAN  JURISPRUDENCE. 


reports.  Codes  are  useful ;  but  immediate 
ly  relieving  the  lawyer  of  his  library  has 
riot  been  their  strong  point.  The  books 
found  necessary  to  explain  the  code  some 
times  seem  to  outnumber  those  which  the 
code  assumes  to  consolidate,  besides  arous 
ing  a  new  zeal  for  research  in  older  books 
to  find  the  origin  and  materials  of  the  new 
enactment.  Lapse  of  time  does  not  assist, 
for  the  books  which  grow  obsolete  with  the 
advance  of  civilization  are  not  as  many  as 
those  to  which  each  new  year  gives  birth. 
The  necessity,  real  or  imaginary,  of  "  consult 
ing  the  books"  is  a  large  and  growing  ele 
ment  in  the  professional  labor  of  the  indus 
trious,  painstaking  lawyer.  He  must — or 
thinks  he  must — examine,  read  in,  perhaps 
quote  from,  two  or  three  hundred  of  the  three 
thousand  volumes  in  the  collection  before 
him,  to  prepare  himself  for  a  single  argu 
ment  ;  and  this  adds  a  serious  and  wearying 
physical  task  to  the  mental  duty.  In  the 
morning,  when  strength  is  fresh  and  inter 
est  awake,  the  books  come  down  easily  and 
pleasantly  enough.  But  at  night,  when  the 
brief  is  written,  and  a  hundred  or  so  of  vol 
umes  are  strewed  upon  the  tables  and  chairs, 
then  one  does  wish  that  book  covers  were 
fitted  with  springs  and  muscles  like  wings 
of  birds,  and  that  one  could  clap  his  hands 
and  frighten  the  whole  bevy  to  fly  up  to 
their  perches  on  the  lofty  shelves.  A  Hint 
to  Inventors ! 

JURISPRUDENCE  IN  COLONIAL  TIMES. 

Most  persons  will  recall  reminiscences  of 
general  reading  touching  the  status  of  ju 
risprudence  at  the  close  of  colonial  history, 
which  will  indicate  that  the  great  funda 
mental  principles  underlying  both  the  rules 
and  the  methods  of  the  science  were  recog 
nized  and  obeyed  then  substantially  as  they 
are  now.  The  changes  have  been  modifi 
cations  and  expansions  of  old  principles, 
improvements  of  ancestral  instruments  and 
methods,  rather  than  discoveries  that  can 
be  called  new.  There  has  been  a  great  ad 
vance,  but  it  has  consisted  in  the  steady, 
progressive  application  of  the  Law  to  the 
new  rights  and  relations,  the  new  ideas  and 
possessions,  which  the  growth  of  the  coun 
try  has  developed. 

Throughout  colonial  times  it  was  under 
stood  that  the  administration  of  justice  in 


the  colonies  was  guided  by  the  general  laws 
and  usages  of  England.  Parliament  claim 
ed  an  authority  over  the  colonies,  which 
they  repudiated,  but  it  was  never  under 
stood,  even  by  advocates  of  Parliamentary 
authority,  that  every  act  of  Parliament  of 
general  operation  throughout  England  was 
necessarily  of  force  in  the  colonies.  At  the 
outset  the  existing  laws  and  the  established 
decisions  in  England  formed  a  body  of  law 
which  obtained  authority  by  adoption  in 
the  English  colonies,  except  so  far  as  pro 
visions  of  the  charter  or  peculiar  circum 
stances  of  the  provincial  situation  prevent 
ed.  This  body  of  law  was  somewhat  mod 
ified  during  colonial  history  by  provincial 
laws;  also  by  changes  introduced  by  or 
adopted  from  new  laws  in  England.  The 
various  colonies  of  English  origin,  there 
fore,  possessed  a  common  law  composed  of 
the  English  common  law  and  statutes,  and 
deducible  from  the  reported  decisions  and 
authoritative  text-books  of  English  law, 
but  varied  in  many  of  its  applications  to 
suit  the  circumstances  or  views  of  the 
American  people.  This  has  continued  the 
basis  of  the  jurisprudence  of  these  com 
munities  since  they  have  ripened  into 
States.  The  Revolution,  which  repudiated 
the  crown  and  Parliament  as  the  source 
of  sovereign  authority  in  the  state,  and  ac 
corded  all  allegiance  to  the  People  as  the  ul 
timate  authors  of  civil  government,  did  not 
repudiate  or  materially  change  the  rules 
and  methods  of  the  law  as  then  existing. 

But  while  jurisprudence  remains  in  na 
ture  and  essential  principles  substantially 
unchanged,  there  is  great  contrast  between 
the  early  and  the  closing  years  of  our  cen 
tury  in  respect  to  many  of  its  applications. 
In  so  far  as  family  and  domestic  relation 
ships  remain  in  fact  unchanged,  they  have 
the  same  protection  of  law  now  as  then. 
But  views  and  usages  of  the  authority  of  a 
parent  over  his  child,  of  a  husband  over  his 
wife,  of  a  master  over  his  apprentice,  have 
advanced  among  our  people,  and  the  law 
has  followed,  though  at  a  respectful  dis 
tance,  the  alteration  in  customs.  Corpora 
tions  were  known  to  the  law  in  their  na 
ture,  and  in  a  few  of  the  many  uses  for 
which,  nowadays,  they  are  constituted ;  but 
that  multitude  of  incorporated  companies 
with  which  our  whole  country  is  now  pop- 


COLONIAL  JURISPRUDENCE. 


437 


ulous  -were,  in  1775,  unborn.  Land  was 
recognized  as  property,  and  as  fast  as  the 
•wilderness  was  reclaimed,  our  ancestors — 
except  for  the  repudiation  of  the  feudal  idea 
that  land  was  allotted  to  its  possessor  as  a 
reward  for  his  military  services  to  his  sov 
ereign,  and  should  therefore  at  his  death 
descend  undivided  to  his  eldest  son — em 
ployed  the  leading  rules  of  the  law  of  En 
gland  to  protect  the  possession  of  real  prop 
erty  and  regulate  its  transfer.  But  how 
limited  must  have  been  the  scope  of  this 
branch  of  jurisprudence  before  immigration 
had  rendered  land  valuable,  before  sur 
veyors  had  mapped  the  general  surface  to 
render  it  divisible,  and  while  only  a  few 
sea-board  cities,  inland  towns,  and  limited 
agricultural  regions  spotted  what  other 
wise  was,  so  far  as  practical  possession 
and  enjoyment  were  involved,  a  wilder 
ness  !  Contracts  were  enforced  and  person 
al  wrongs  redressed  by  courts  of  justice 
upon  substantially  the  same  general  princi 
ples  of  what  is  right  between  man  and  man 
as  now  obtain ;  but  how  few  were  the  oc 
casions  for  judicial  interference  compared 
with  what  we  now  witness!  How  could 
there  be  any  law  of  railway  traffic,  or  of 
express  or  telegraph  business,  when  there 
were  no  railroads,  expresses,  or  telegraphs  ? 
or  many  libel  suits,  when  there  were  so  few 
newspapers  ? 

What  may  be  said  as  to  the  law  of  Crimes  f 
The  English  law,  as  in  force  throughout  the 
colonies  generally,  recognized  and  punish 
ed  as  crimes  some  things  which  have  now 
ceased  to  be  so  regarded.  Absence  from 
church,  apostasy,  and  heresy  were  punish 
able.  Witchcraft,  prophesying,  divination, 
and  sorcery  in  various  forms  were  dealt  with 
as  crimes,  upon  the  theory,  now  obsolete 
among  jurists,  that  it  was  possible  truth 
could  be  ascertained  or  real  effects  produced 
by  human  employment  of  supernatural  or 
necromantic  means ;  and  so  of  "  multiplying 
the  precious  metals."  English  laws,  pre 
sumably  in  force  in  some  of  the  colonies, 
punished  some  practices  as  being  infringe 
ments  of  sound  honest  trading  which  now 
pass  unchallenged  by  any  legal  penalties — 
such  as  "  engrossing,"  or  the  buying  quanti 
ties  of  provisions  by  a  speculator  to  enhance 
the  market  price ;  "  forestalling,"  or  hinder 
ing  merchandise  upon  its  way  to  market ; 


and  "  regrating,"  or  buying  provisions  with 
in  a  market  with  intent  to  sell  them  within 
the  same.  So  of  exercising  a  trade  without 
having  served  due  apprenticeship.  Assem 
bling  in  numbers  to  petition  Parliament  was 
deemed  in  England  to  deserve  criminal  pen 
alty  ;  and  a  great  variety  of  acts  indirectly 
prejudicial  to  the  stability  of  government 
were  construed  to  come  within  the  offense 
of  treason.  And  besides  matters  which  old 
English  law  may  have  made  criminal,  many 
semi-religious  regulations  were  prescribed 
by  provincial  laws,  founded  upon  a  theory 
that  civil  government  should  punish  dis 
obedience  to  the  laws  of  Moses. 

The  administration  of  the  criminal  law 
was  severe  in  those  days  as  compared  with 
ours.  Punishments  were  graver,  the  pun 
ishment  of  death  being  imposed  for  almost 
any  of  the  principal  offenses,  instead  of  be 
ing  reserved  for  two  or  three,  the  most  hei 
nous.  The  attitude  of  government  toward 
those  accused  of  crime  was  arbitrary  and 
positive.  The  proceedings  in  criminal  cases 
were  strict,  and  the  accused,  if  convicted, 
had  no  appeal.  The  custody  of  prisoners 
was  little  regulated  for  their  comfort  or  wel 
fare.  But  accused  persons  enjoyed,  by  adop 
tion  from  England,  the  privileges  of  the  writ 
of  habeas  corpus  as  a  protection  against  un 
authorized  or  pretended  imprisonments,  and 
of  trial  by  jury  as  a  preventive  of  oppress 
ive  or  forced  convictions  of  crime.  Some 
of  the  colonies  also  possessed  important  as 
surances  of  individual  rights  in  a  "Bill  of 
Rights,"  embodying  a  distinct  declaration  of 
principles  of  liberty  obligatory  on  govern 
ment  in  every  prosecution  of  an  individual. 
The  principles  and  means  which  were  to  op 
erate  toward  an  amelioration  of  the  criminal 
law  were  in  existence  at  the  era  of  the  Rev 
olution.  And  the  amelioration  which  has 
been  accomplished  is  by  no  means  confined 
to  American  communities  or  attributable  to 
American  ideas.  It  has  been  as  clear  and 
steady  in  England  as  among  us. 

WRITTEN   CONSTITUTIONS. 

The  art  of  administering  government  ac 
cording  to  the  directions  of  a  written  con 
stitution  may  fairly  be  named  among  the 
products  of  American  thought  and  effort 
during  our  century.  The  adoption  of  writ 
ten  constitutions  by  Virginia  and  Pennsyl- 


438 


AMERICAN  JURISPRUDENCE. 


vauia  in  1776,  and  by  other  States  not  long 
afterward,  upon  recommendation  of  the  Con 
tinental  Congress,  initiated  the  system 
which  has  become  fundamental  to  our  se 
curity,  prosperity,  and  progress. 

It  is  true  there  were  written  resolutions 
adopted  by  the  people  for  the  guidance  of 
government  before  the  era  of  the  Revolu 
tion,  and  there  have  been  such  abroad  as 
well  as  among  us.  They  were,  however, 
very  limited  in  scope  as  compared  with  the 
constitutions  of  our  day.  Most  of  them,  the 
more  ancient  ones,  like  Magna  Charta,  for 
example,  instead  of  embodying  an  attempt 
to  create  and  organize  a  government,  as 
sumed  a  government  already  existing  by 
hereditary  right,  and  only  sought  to  impose 
some  special  restrictions  upon  its  action. 
Now  a  "  constitution,"  as  we  in  America  un 
derstand  the  term,  is  something  far  deeper 
and  more  fundamental  than  any  of  the  state 
papers  of  past  centuries.  Our  idea  is  that 
there  is  no  hereditary  right,  but  that  all 
the  powers  of  government,  all  the  authori 
ty  which  society  can  rightly  exercise  toward 
individuals,  are  originally  vested  in  the 
masses  of  the  people ;  that  the  people  meet 
together  (by  their  delegates)  to  organize  a 
government,  and  freely  decide  what  officers 
they  will  have  to  act  for  them  in  making 
and  administering  laws,  and  what  the  pow 
ers  of  these  officers  shall  be.  These  writ 
ten  directions  of  the  people,  declaring  what 
their  officers  may  do  and  what  they  may 
not,  form  the  constitution.  The  idea,  in  its 
practical  development,  is  American. 

The  course  of  jurisprudence  through  our 
century  has  shown  that  it  is  possible,  and, 
with  the  short  though  severe  exception  of 
the  civil  war,  that  it  is  not  difficult,  for 
an  intelligent,  conscientious,  self-controlled 
community,  who  realize  that  the  will  of  the 
people  is  the  source  of  power,  to  create  and 
administer  government  by  and  under  these 
written  constitutions.  It  has  been  practi 
cable  to  have  these  writings  framed.  The 
thirteen  colonies,  in  obedience  to  the  sug 
gestion  of  their  Congress,  and  notwithstand 
ing  the  embarrassments  and  discord  of  the 
period,  severally  adopted  constitutions  at  a 
very  early  day,  and  from  time  to  time  since, 
as  new  communities  in  the  Territories  have 
grown  to  sufficient  numbers,  they  have  been 
prompt  to  ask  an  enabling  act  from  Con 


gress,  and  have  readily  given  the  time  and 
attention  needed  for  assembling  a  conven 
tion  of  delegates  to  prepare  a  constitution, 
and  for  holding  a  popular  election  to  enact 
it.  It  has  been  practicable  to  have  these 
writings  expounded.  The  judiciary  created 
by  a  constitution  sits  clothed  with  power  to 
explain  whatever  doubtful  provisions  may 
be  found  therein,  and  to  test  the  acts  of  the 
Legislature  by  the  constitutional  standard; 
and  these  decisions  have  been  readily  ac 
cepted.  It  has  been  practicable  to  secure 
obedience.  Throughout  the  laud  a  constant 
succession  of  elections  has  been  held,  pur 
suant  to  the  directions  of  the  constitution ; 
the  defeated  candidates  have  retired  cheer 
fully  ;  the  successful  ones  have  assumed  the 
powers,  privileges,  and  duties  prescribed  by 
the  written  charter,  have  administered  them 
through  the  denned  term,  and  have  obe 
diently  relinquished  them  at  its  close  to 
constitutionally  elected  successors.  It  has 
been  practicable  to  have  these  constitu 
tions  amended.  They  do  not  become  rigid, 
iron-bound  shrouds,  stifling  the  growth  of 
the  people,  but  contain  within  themselves 
due  provision  for  alteration  as  time  may  re 
quire.  Thus  the  people  of  New  York,  who 
formed  their  original  constitution  in  1777, 
formed  new  ones  in  1822  and  in  1846 ;  and  in 
1869,  in  a  popular  election,  weighed  a  new 
constitution  against  three  amendments  to 
the  old  one,  and  accepted  one  of  the  amend 
ments,  Avhile  rejecting  all  other  changes. 
The  people  of  Massachusetts,  who  framed 
a  constitution  in  1780,  have  several  times 
adopted  amendments,  and  in  1853  employed 
delegates  four  months  in  drawing  a  new 
one,  deliberately  considered  the  draft,  and 
rejected  it  at  the  polls.  In  Louisiana,  where 
the  original  constitution  was  framed  in  1812, 
new  ones  were  adopted  in  1845  and  1853.  In 
1864  a  fourth  was  adopted,  but  disallowed  by 
Congress,  whereupon  a  fifth,  under  the  re 
construction  laws,  was  prepared  and  adopt 
ed.  The  history  of  other  States  is  similar. 

THE  TWOFOLD  SYSTEM  OF  COURTS. 

The  character  of  the  somewhat  complica 
ted  system  of  government  which  has  become 
established  in  our  country  has  been  the  sub 
ject  of  much  discussion  among  political 
writers  and  theorists.  For  while  the  duties 
of  the  various  members  and  officers  of  gov- 


TWOFOLD  SYSTEM  OF  COURTS. 


439 


eminent  are  pretty  distinctly  described  in 
the  authoritative  constitutions,  those  In 
struments  give  little  or  no  theoretic  expla 
nation  of  the  nature  of  the  union  intended 
to  be  formed.  Many  theories  have  been 
propounded. 

At  one  extreme  stands  what  has  been 
called  the  "State  Rights"  theory,  which 
presents  the  Constitution  as  a  species  of 
treaty  or  compact  between  the  States.  Ac 
cording  to  this  view,  the  colonies,  upon 
declaring  and  establishing  their  independ 
ence,  became  independent  State  govern 
ments.  Desiring  to  organize  some  mode  of 
securing  their  common  interests,  they  form 
ed  an  alliance  or  compact  for  that  purpose, 
which  was  the  old  confederation ;  and  this 
was  the  agreement  of  the  States,  not  of  the 
people.  Finding  this  compact  insufficient 
for  the  purpose,  the  States  rescinded  it,  and 
framed  another,  more  intimate  and  efficient, 
which  is  the  Constitution,  and  which  is  like 
wise  a  compact  of  the  States,  and  to  which 
States  subsequently  springing  into  exist 
ence  by  political  acts  of  the  people  of  new 
Territories  have  given  a  voluntary  adhe 
sion. 

At  the  other  extreme  stands  a  theory  that 
the  Union  is  the  original  government,  and 
the  State  governments  derive  their  existence 
from  it  or  by  its  authority.  Upon  this  view, 
the  colonies,  desirous  before  they  had  exist 
ence  as  States  to  achieve  independence, 
formed  a  union  under  the  Continental  Con 
gress,  which,  indeed,  was  not  very  formally 
organized,  and  was  incomplete  and  ineffi 
cient  as  to  many  subjects,  but  was  yet  a 
real  national  government,  by  the  military 
operations  of  which  the  colonies  were  set 
free  from  foreign  control,  and  by  the  per 
mission  of  which,  after  they  were  free,  State 
governments  were  organized  for  the  exer 
cise  of  such  powers  as  were  not  vested  in 
the  Union.  These  governments,  at  the  de 
mand  of  the  Union,  conceded  a  more  explicit 
statement  of  the  powers  and  authority  of 
the  latter  in  the  old  Articles  of  Confeder 
ation  ;  and  still  later,  by  the  Constitution, 
surrendered  to  the  national  government  all 
those  broad  powers  which  it  now  wields. 
The  Union,  having  at  the  outset  given  liber 
ty  and  political  existence  to  the  thirteen 
States,  and  having  acquired  extensive  terri 
tory  and  national  jurisdiction  beyond  their 


limits,  has  authorized  the  settlement  of  that 
territory,  and  has  from  time  to  time  organ 
ized  the  settlements  into  States  created  by 
the  Union,  and  subject  to  its  proper  nation 
al  authority. 

A  medium  view  may  be  stated  thus :  that 
the  colonial  governments  were  in  no  proper 
sense  even  the  germs  which  have  ripened 
into  the  governments  which  now  exist,  but 
were  creations  of  foreign  authority,  and  per 
ished  with  the  sundering  of  the  political 
ties  which  united  our  ancestors  to  the  laud 
of  their  origin ;  that  when,  not  the  colonial 
governments,  but  the  people  of  the  colonies, 
became  weary  of  foreign  rule  and  declared 
themselves  independent,  this,  whether  man 
ifested  by  means  of  the  forms  and  officers  in 
use  in  colonial  government  or  by  other 
modes,  was  a  revolutionary  and  popular  act, 
and  not  an  act  of  the  governments  then  ex 
isting;  and  the  independence  which  they 
established  was  rather  the  independence  of 
the  People  from  any  government,  colonial 
or  other,  of  British  origin,  than  the  inde 
pendence  of  the  colonial  governments ;  and 
they,  the  people,  then  became  the  true  and 
ultimate  source  of  all  political  power,  though 
whether  the  day  when  they  declared  this 
right  or  the  day  when  the  adversary  ac 
quiesced  in  it  should  be  taken  as  the  birth 
day  of  the  principle  is  a  question  of  some 
nicety.  The  people  within  what  were  for 
merly  the  thirteen  colonies  did,  by  adoption 
of  State  constitutions  and  other  less  formal 
and  distinct  but  really  popular  acts,  estab 
lish  State  governments;  and  these  State 
governments  allied  themselves  for  mutual 
defense  and  other  public  purposes,  under 
the  old  Articles  of  Confederation.  This  at 
tempt  of  the  States  to  provide  for  the  gen 
eral  welfare  proved  inefficient ;  upon  which 
the  people  did,  by  a  new,  original  act,  rev 
olutionary  though  peaceful,  and  popular 
though  in  part  performed  by  the  use  of  State 
governmental  instrumentalities,  withdraw 
from  the  States  a  portion  of  their  powers, 
and  vest  them,  as  expressed  in  the  Constitu 
tion,  in  a  new  and  national  government. 
Since  that  time  new  communities  of  people 
coming  into  existence  iu  newly  settled  Ter 
ritories  have  formed  new  State  governments, 
and  have  also,  upon  the  consent  of  the  na 
tion,  united  in  the  general  government.  As 
the  general  result,  the  American  people  have 


440 


AMERICAN  JURISPRUDENCE. 


established  a  duplex  political  system — a  na 
tional  government  for  national  purposes,  for 
duties  of  common  concern  to  all  their  com 
munities  ;  and  a  government  by  States  for 
objects  local  or  peculiar,  or  colored  by  the 
diifering  situations,  circumstances,  and  de 
sires  of  the  different  communities. 

Very  consonant  to  the  last-described  the 
ory  is  the  appearance  of  the  judicial  system 
as  it  exists  in  our  day.  An  important 
achievement  of  our  people  during  the  cen 
tury  has  been  the  actual  organization  of  a 
duplex  system  of  tribunals,  adapted  to  pre 
serve  and  enforce  the  administration  of  the 
powers  vested  in  the  two  fundamental  or 
ganizations  respectively.  By  the  constitu 
tions  and  laws  of  the  States  the  people  have 
created  courts  adequate  to  the  administra 
tion  of  justice  in  all  matters  intrusted  to 
the  States.  By  the  national  Constitution 
they  have  created  a  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  clothed  with  power  to  try 
originally  certain  controversies  of  high  po 
litical  importance,  and  also,  what  is  of  more 
general  interest,  to  review  and  correct  the 
decisions  of  subordinate  courts.  By  acts  of 
Congress  they  have  created,  for  the  ordi 
nary  administration  of  justice  throughout 
the  States  in  controversies  coming  within 
the  national  jurisdiction,  a  system  of  dis 
trict  and  circuit  courts. 

The  controversies  intrusted  to  the  na 
tional  tribunals,  omitting  to  mention  some 
of  rare  occurrence,  are  of  three  kinds :  cases 
arising  under  any  law  of  the  United  States ; 
cases  of  admiralty  jurisdiction,  that  is,  aris 
ing  at  sea,  or  immediately  connected  with 
maritime  matters ;  and  cases  between  cit 
izens  of  different  States.  It  was  appropri 
ate  and  highly  consistent  with  the  general 
plan  to  confide  to  the  States  all  local  and 
separate  concerns ;  to  the  Union  all  general 
and  national  affairs.  A  controversy  de 
pending  on  the  laws  of  the  Union  or  upon 
the  general  maritime  law  of  the  commercial 
world  should  be  referred  to  the  courts  of 
the  Union,  for  they  might  be  expected  to 
determine  such  cases  more  wisely  and  more 
uniformly  and  consistently  than  would  be 
done  by  twenty  or  thirty  independent  State 
courts.  Controversies  between  citizens  of 
different  States  are  referred  to  national 
tribunals  for  other  reasons :  largely  to  se 
cure  protection  against  any  favor  or  par 


tiality  which  courts  of  one  State  might 
bestow  upon  its  own  citizens  as  compared 
with  citizens  of  another. 

To  carry  this  system  into  practical  effect 
the  States  have  been  divided  by  Congress 
into  judicial  districts,  of  which  there  are 
now  fifty-seven  in  all ;  twenty  of  these  dis 
tricts  are  co-extensive  each  with  one  State ; 
fourteen  States  are  divided  each  into  two 
districts;  Alabama,  New  York,  and  Ten 
nessee  are  each  divided  into  three.  For 
each  district  there  is  a  district  judge.  The 
districts  have  also  been  allotted  in  circuits, 
of  which  there  are  nine,  and  for  each  cir 
cuit  there  is  a  circuit  judge.  These  judges 
hold  United  States  circuit  and  district  courts 
at  designated  places  throughout  the  States, 
systematic  provision  having  been  made  for 
court-rooms,  clerks,  marshals,  and  records, 
wholly  independent  of  State  legislation  or 
control ;  so  that  every  where  individuals 
concerned  in  controversies  depending  on 
national  laws,  or  arising  upon  matters  of 
maritime  origin,  or  in  which  citizens  of  one 
State  are  pitted  against  those  of  another, 
may  seek  justice  in  a  court  of  the  Union, 
free,  by  its  creation  and  surroundings  and 
by  all  its  precedents  and  traditions,  from 
any  undue  influence  or  bias  arising  from 
differences  among  the  States.  To  complete 
this  statement  of  the  national  courts,  it 
should  be  added  that  appropriate  courts 
have  been  organized  for  the  general  admin 
istration  of  justice  in  the  Territories  and  the 
District  of  Columbia,  throughout  which  the 
States  can  not  act ;  and  a  "  Court  of  Claims" 
has  been  established  for  the  determination 
of  claims  by  citizens  against  the  govern 
ment  of  the  Union. 

The  organization  of  an  appropriate  sys 
tem  of  tribunals  in  the  various  States  is  no 
less  complete  and  thorough,  though  less 
easy  to  be  described  in  brief.  As  to  almost 
every  State  it  may  be  said  that  there  is  a 
Supreme  Court,  the  judges  of  which  sep 
arately  visit  various  county  seats  at  stated 
times  to  hold  jury  trials,  and  afterward 
meet  and  hold  court  together  to  review  and 
correct  the  decisions  made  by  each  other 
upon  their  circuits.  In  New  York  decisions 
of  the  Supreme  Court  may  be  reviewed  in 
the  Court  of  Appeals ;  but  throughout  the 
country  generally  the  Supreme  Court  of 
each  State  is  the  highest  court,  and  the  de- 


ADMIRALTY  JURISDICTION. 


441 


cisions  of  the  full  bench  of  judges  settle  the 
law  for  that  State  upon  all  questions  fall 
ing  within  the  sphere  of  State  government. 
If  the  authority  and  powers  of  the  national 
government  are  involved  in  the  case,  there 
is  a  mode  by  which  it  may  be  carried  to 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  for 
final  decision. 

For  each  of  the  counties  into  which  the 
States  are  divided  there  is,  as  a  general 
rule,  a  court  for  the  trial  of  suits,  known  as 
the  Court  of  Common  Pleas,  the  County 
Court,  the  Circuit  Court  for  the  county,  or 
some  similar  name ;  also  a  court  for  the 
care  of  estates  of  deceased  persons  and  su 
perintendence  of  children  and  lunatics,  and 
for  other  matters  involving  legal  care  of 
property  without  active  lawsuits,  which  is 
differently  styled  Court  of  Probate,  Orphans' 
Court,  Surrogate's  Court,  and  the  like,  in  dif 
ferent  States.  One  town  in  each  county  is 
designated  by  law  as  the  county  seat,  where 
these  county  courts  shall  be  held,  and  where 
all  the  judicial  and  public  records  of  the  law 
business  arising  in  the  county  shall  be  pre 
served. 

The  counties,  again,  are,  except  in  some 
unsettled  regions,  divided  into  townships, 
and  throughout  these  are  justices  of  the 
peace,  who  have  authority  to  try  lawsuits 
involving  small  amounts  or  founded  upon 
minor  wrongs. 

In  many  of  the  larger  cities,  where  it  has 
been  found  that  the  general  system  of  jus 
tices  of  the  peace  and  a  county  court  is  not 
adequate  to  the  judicial  business  of  the 
place,  additional  courts  for  the  city  are  es 
tablished.  Thus  in  New  York,  in  Buffalo, 
in  Cincinnati,  in  Indianapolis,  there  is  a 
"Superior  Court;"  in  Brooklyn  there  is  a 
"City  Court."  And  for  similar  reasons  the 
justices  of  the  peace  are  in  some  cities 
organized  into  quite  a  formal  system  of 
courts. 

For  the  trial  of  crimes  there  is,  as  a  gen 
eral  rule,  a  similar  arrangement.  Petty  of 
fenses  may  be  tried  before  a  justice  of  the 
peace.  For  offenses  of  a  higher  but  me 
dium  grade  there  is  very  often  a  Court  of 
Sessions,  or  a  criminal  jurisdiction  in  the 
court  of  the  county ;  or  they  are  tried  in  a 
branch  of  the  Supreme  Court,  sometimes 
bearing  the  old-fashioned  name  "  Oyer  and 
Term  in  er." 


We  are  so  accustomed  to  hear  allusions  to 
these  tribunals  that  their  existence  seems 
a  matter  of  course.  But  in  truth  a  great 
deal  of  organizing  power  and  judicial  and 
business  ability  have  been  required  and 
displayed  in  establishing  over  so  large  a 
country  so  varied  a  scheme  of  courts,  co 
operating  in  harmony  to  secure  the  admin 
istration  of  justice. 

OUR  ADMIRALTY  JURISDICTION. 

Every  reader  upon  legal  topics  under 
stands  that  all  commercial  nations  have  ac 
knowledged  a  general  system  of  "maritime 
law,"  and  have  employed  courts  of  "  admi 
ralty  jurisdiction"  to  administer  it ;  that 
this  law  and  these  courts  deal  with  contro 
versies  arising  out  of  the  management  of 
ships,  the  carriage  and  delivery  of  cargoes, 
the  employment  and  treatment  of  seamen, 
the  award  of  damages  for  collisions  between 
vessels,  or  of  compensation  for  salvage  of  ves 
sels  in  peril  of  wreck,  the  condemnation 
and  sale  of  ships  captured  as  prize  of  war, 
and  the  punishment  of  crimes  on  board  ship. 
All  jurisdiction  of  this  nature  was  by  our 
Constitution  reserved  from  the  States,  and 
vested,  by  very  general  language,  in  the 
courts  of  the  Union.  The  manner  in  which 
the  scope  of  this  jurisdiction  has  grown  to 
meet  the  wants  of  growing  American  com 
merce  forms  a  good  illustration  of  the  ex 
pansibility  of  our  jurisprudence,  and  shows 
that  if  the  law  is  administered  in  the  future 
in  the  same  spirit  as  has  prevailed  in  the 
past,  traditions  and  precedents  may  guide 
and  advise,  but  can  not  restrict,  progress. 

Admiralty,  as  has  just  been  said,  deals 
with  matters  arising  "  at  sea."  But  what 
constitutes  the  sea,  and  what  are  its  limits 
and  bounds  ?  Is  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson 
or  of  the  Mississippi  a  part  of  the  sea  ?  If 
so,  how  far  up  stream  is  "  sea  ?"  if  not,  how 
far  out  into  the  blue  waters  is  "  river  ?" 
Goods  are  laden  on  board  ship  in  a  foreign 
land  to  come  to  an  American  port,  and  they 
are  to  be  protected  for  their  owner  by  the 
Admiralty  (or  district)  court  while  they  are 
at  sea,  and  by  the  Common-law  (or  State) 
court  after  they  are  brought  ashore.  But 
when  do  they  cease  to  be  "at  sea?"  Is  it 
when  the  vessel  enters  the  pilotage  grounds 
of  the  port?  or  when  she  is  fairly  within 
the  sheltered  harbor?  or  when  she  is  fast 


442 


AMERICAN  JURISPRUDENCE. 


moored  ?  or  not  uutil  the  goods  are  piled 
upon  the  solid  wharf  or  pier  ? 

The  leading  test  for  determining  these 
questions  in  early  English  times  was  the 
ebb  and  flow  of  the  tide.  There  was  a  long- 
continued  and  deep  prejudice  against  the 
admiralty,  and  as  England  had  no  important 
interior  commerce,  and  the  tidal  line  corre 
sponded  quite  nearly  with  the  actual  wants 
and  use  of  her  people  in  commercial  matters, 
that  line  (with  the  modification  that  admi 
ralty  should  not  interfere,  tide  or  no  tide, 
with  matters  occurring  within  the  legal 
bounds  of  an  English  county)  was  easily 
made  the  dividing  line  between  the  rival 
courts.  There  is  an  antique  caricature  rep 
resenting  the  petty  disputes  that  in  old 
times  engrossed  English  tribunals  on  this 
subject,  by  exhibiting  a  common-law  law 
yer,  armed  with  a  mace,  running  back  and 
forth  along  the  sea-side,  defending  his  juris 
diction  from  the  incursions  of  an  admiralty 
lawyer,  who  floats  in  a  tub  upon  the  water, 
brandishing  a  trident.  One  can  easily  im 
agine  that,  as  the  tide  rises,  the  tub  is  borne 
in  to  high-water  mark,  and  the  jurisdiction 
of  the  admiralty  lawyer  is  in  the  ascendant. 
As  it  falls,  the  common-law  practitioner  can 
push  his  competitor  backward  with  the  re 
ceding  waves,  until  he  can  flourish  the  mace 
over  the  entire  moist  beach  above  low  water. 

For  two-thirds  of  the  century  our  courts 
followed,  without  much  question,  the  view 
of  admiralty  which  obtained  in  England, 
and  treated  the  word  "admiralty"  in  the 
Constitution  as  meaning  only  that  juris 
diction,  limited  to  tide-waters,  which  was 
implied  by  it  in  old  English  law.  There 
were  no  early  reasons  of  importance  im 
pressing  a  different  view.  But  in  later 
years  the  increase  of  navigation  and  all  al 
lied  interests  upon  the  Great  Lakes  and  the 
rivers  at  points  above  the  rise  of  the  tide, 
together  with  the  advance  and  development 
of  all  forms  of  commerce  upon  the  various 
waters  connecting  the  States,  have  demand 
ed  and  obtained  an  entire  reconsideration 
of  the  subject.  The  year  1845  may  be  deem 
ed  the  salient  era  of  the  change.  An  act 
of  Congress  passed  in  that  year  asserting 
admiralty  jurisdiction  over  the  lakes  and 
navigable  waters  connecting  them,  and  a 
decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  announced 
in  1846,  but  founded  on  facts  occurring  ear 


lier,  introduced  the  view  that  our  admiralty 
jurisdiction  is  not  necessarily  that  recog 
nized  in  England  when  our  Constitution 
was  framed,  but  the  broader  one  known  in 
commercial  countries  elsewhere ;  and  this 
idea  has  been  developed  by  subsequent  ad 
judications,  until  it  is  now  understood  that 
(except  as  to  matters  arising  within  the  in 
ternal  commerce  of  a  single  State)  the  ques 
tion  whether  any  particular  waters  are 
within  the  American  admiralty  jurisdiction 
or  not  depends  upon  whether  they  are  nav 
igable,  not  upon  their  susceptibility  to  the 
tide ;  the  jurisdiction  may  extend,  as  has 
been  happily  said,  "  wherever  vessels  float 
and  navigation  successfully  aids  commerce." 
The  result  of  the  advanced  opinion  is,  that 
while  commerce  within  a  single  State — such 
as  the  management  of  a  ferry-boat  between 
New  York  and  Brooklyn,  a  claim  for  wages 
earned  in  running  a  boat  on  a  merely  local 
canal — is  reserved  to  the  State  courts,  con 
troversies  connected  with  vessels  in  gen 
eral  commerce  upon  our  lakes  and  great 
rivers,  upon  canals  connecting  them,  upon 
streams  which,  though  originally  uunaviga- 
ble,  have  been  practically  opened  to  naviga 
tion  by  engineering  skill  and  artificial  im 
provements,  and  upon  waters  fit  for  general 
navigation,  are  subject  to  one  uniform  rule 
of  law,  course  of  procedure,  and  line  of  de 
cisions  in  the  national  courts. 

There  is  a  parallel  question  relative  to 
the  rights  of  land-owners  upon  shores  of 
streams.  By  a  long-ago  adopted  rule  of 
English  law,  the  proprietors  of  land  upon 
the  banks  of  petty  streams  are  understood  to 
own  the  land  under  the  water,  each  to  the 
middle — to  an  imaginary  thread  running  up 
and  down  the  stream  half-way  between  its 
banks.  But  if  the  stream  is  navigable,  the 
property  of  the  land-owner  terminates  at 
the  water-line ;  the  bed  of  the  stream,  with 
the  waters,  is  public.  In  England,  as  with 
reference  to  admiralty  jurisdiction,  so  with 
reference  to  land  titles,  a  stream  was  deem 
ed  navigable  and  public  as  far  up  as  the  tide 
ebbed  and  flowed.  Beyond  this  point,  or  if 
there  was  no  tide,  it  was  deemed  private. 
Now  this  is  a  question  which  in  America 
each  State  settles  for  itself,  and  not  one 
which,  like  admiralty  jurisdiction,  can  be 
determined  for  the  whole  country  by  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court.  And  the 


PATENTS  AND  COPYRIGHTS. 


443 


States  are  not  agreed.  The  courts  of  most 
of  the  New  England  States,  and  of  Missis 
sippi  and  Virginia,  have  been  contented  to 
follow  the  old  rule.  New  York,  Pennsyl 
vania,  and  several  of  the  Southern  States 
have,  however,  adopted  the  rule  that  if  the 
river  is  actually  navigable  for  purposes  of 
commerce,  it  must  be  treated  as  public, 
whether  tidal  or  not.  The  West  is  divided 
on  the  question.  Some  States  have  had  no 
occasion  yet  to  consider  it.  But  the  prob 
ability  is  that  ultimately,  in  all  the  States 
where  there  are  any  important  navigable 
streams  which  are  not  tidal,  the  tides  will 
be  discarded  and  actual  navigability  sub 
stituted  as  the  test  of  the  extent  of  the 
shore-owner's  right. 

PATENTS — COPYRIGHTS. 

The  framers  of  the  national  Constitution 
foresaw  the  advantage  of  general  and  uni 
form  laws  to  secure  patents  for  inventions 
and  copyrights  for  writings ;  and  the  power 
to  legislate  upon  these  subjects  was  con 
ferred  upon  Congress.  There  were  early 
laws  of  these  kinds ;  a  system  of  patent 
law  was  established  by  an  act  of  1793,  and 
of  copyright  law  by  acts  of  1790  and  1802, 
which,  as  amended  by  some  later  laws,  con 
tinued  in  operation  for  many  years.  In 
1831  as  to  copyrights,  and  1836  as  to  pat 
ents,  substantially  new  systems  of  law  were 
established ;  and  these,  while  they  have 
been  altered  in  details,  continued  in  force 
quite  down  to  our  own  time.  In  1870  these 
laws  were  thoroughly  re-examined,  a  new 
system  of  provisions  covering  the  entire 
field,  with  the  addition  of  trade-marks,  was 
enacted,  all  the  old  laws  being  repeal 
ed  ;  and  this  act,  as  re-enacted,  with  some 
changes  of  arrangement  and  expression,  in 
the  United  States  Revised  Statutes,  forms 
the  present  law  for  the  whole  country. 

Authors  frequently  contend,  and  inventors 
probably  agree  with  them,  that  the  composer 
of  a  new  writing  or  the  contriver  of  a  new 
machine  has  a  natural  and  inherent  right 
of  property  in  his  ideas,  extending  to  all  the 
copies  or  reproductions  of  them.  Composi 
tions  and  inventions,  they  urge,  are  just  as 
much  the  property  of  those  who  by  talent, 
time,  and  labor  have  wrought  them  to  per 
fection  as  are  crops,  manufactures,  or  mer 
chandise  the  property  of  those  whose  capital 


and  labor  have  brought  them  into  being ; 
and  the  law  ought,  they  urge,  to  protect  the 
author  in  his  books  (and,  by  a  like  reason 
ing,  the  inventor  in  his  machine),  no  matter 
where  he  lives,  nor  how  long  he  has  enjoyed 
them.  In  particular  it  is  said  to  be  a  ground 
less  injustice  to  deny  to  a  foreign  author  the 
same  protection  as  is  accorded  to  a  citizen. 
But  this  theory  of  an  unqualified  natural 
property  in  all  the  reproductions  of  an  idea, 
whether  philosophically  correct  or  not,  is 
not  accepted  as  the  basis  of  our  jurispru 
dence.  Our  law  of  copyright,  for  instance, 
rests  upon  the  theory  that  when  an  author 
has  by  his  labor  and  skill  embodied  ideas 
in  a  manuscript,  he  has  a  natural  property 
in  his  work,  but  it  is  limited  to  the  identical 
work  he  has  done,  the  manuscript  he  has 
prepared.  In  this  property  he  Avill  be  pro 
tected,  just  as  is  the  owner  of  any  other  ar 
ticle  :  it  shall  not  be  used  by  another  with 
out  his  consent ;  if  it  is  borrowed,  the  law 
Avill  compel  its  return ;  if  it  is  stolen  from 
him,  the  thief  may  be  punished.  But  his 
natural  property  does  not  preclude  him  from 
giving  his  ideas  away  to  the  public ;  and 
if  he  does  this,  no  rule  of  jurisprudence  war 
rants  him  in  reclaiming  them,  or  in  exact 
ing  compensation  from  those  who  adopt  and 
use  them. 

But  the  practical  value  of  a  literary  work 
or  an  invention  to  the  original  proprietor 
does  not  consist  in  his  own  sole  use,  but  in 
some  means  of  disposing  of  reproductions. 
Hence  public  policy  advises  that,  as  an  en 
couragement,  some  control  over  the  repro 
duction  of  the  fruits  of  mental  labor  should 
be  assured  to  the  originators  of  ideas,  in  ad 
dition  to  the  natural  right  of  property,  by 
authority  of  which  they  might,  if  they  chose, 
keep  what  they  produce  themselves  instead 
of  disseminating  it.  Whatever  of  monopoly 
is  given  is  proffered  by  the  government  not 
as  a  limited  concession  to  a  natural  right 
which  the  law  recognizes  while  unwilling 
or  unable  to  protect  it,  but  as  a  gift,  by  way 
of  reward  or  stimulus,  additional  to  native 
right.  Such,  at  least,  has  been  the  founda 
tion  of  our  copyright  and  patent  laws — that 
it  is  wholesome  and  for  the  general  good 
not  to  leave  authors  and  inventors  to  starve 
upon  the  mere  property  in  what  they  pro 
duce,  but  to  encourage  their  beneficent  la 
bors  by  assuring  to  them  a  control  over  all 


444 


AMERICAN  JURISPRUDENCE. 


reproductions  of  the  results.  How  much 
control  to  give  them,  and  for  how  long,  is, 
upon  the  theory  of  our  jurisprudence,  pure 
ly  a  question  of  government  policy. 

Under  the  patent  laws,  particularly,  an 
immense  number  of  inventions  have  been 
developed,  and  many  of  the  patents  issued 
have  proved  very  remunerative.  The  pe 
cuniary  interests  secured  under  these  laws 
have  become  of  great  importance.  The  gen 
eral  features  of  the  manner  in  which  they 
are  protected  by  jurisprudence,  by  means  of 
injunctions  to  prevent  continuing  an  in 
fringement,  or  actions  for  damages  for  an 
infringement  already  committed,  are  famil 
iarly  known. 

EXTRADITION  OF  CRIMINALS. 

When  a  Tweed  absconds,  a  misty  ques 
tion  arises  over  the  community,  "Can  we 
find  him  ?"  And  there  is  a  second  question, 
"Can  we  fetch  him  back?"  Or  must  we 
content  ourselves  with  a  new  application 
of  the  words,  "  We  may  go  to  him,  but  he 
will  not  return  to  us  ?"  The  first  of  these 
questions  is  for  the  detective  force ;  the  sec 
ond  is  answered  by  extradition  treaties. 

The  plan  of  a  government  combining  in 
dependent  states  within  a  homogeneous 
national  organization  involves  a  necessity 
for  a  duplex  provision  for  returning  fugi 
tive  criminals.  The  national  territory,  as 
a  whole,  is  naturally  a  retreat  for  criminals 
from  foreign  lands,  and  offenders  against 
the  laws  of  one  State  will  constantly  seek 
to  escape  punishment  in  their  home  courts 
by  passing  into  the  territory  of  another. 
Provision  has  been  needed,  and  has  been 
made,  for  both  classes. 

The  matter  of  returning  criminals  who 
escape  hither  from  foreign  countries  lies 
between  the  foreign  nations  and  our  na 
tional  government.  The  Governor  of  a 
State  is  not  warranted,  according  to  the 
prevailing  opinion,  in  sending  an  escaped 
criminal  from  a  foreign  country  home  again 
for  trial ;  but  it  is  a  matter  for  the  Presi 
dent  and  Secretary  of  State  at  Washington, 
and  for  the  United  States  courts.  Even 
the  national  government  does  not  hold  it 
self  bound  by  any  absolute  or  natural  obli 
gation  to  return  an  offender.  As  a  rule,  he 
is  returned  only  under  some  treaty  stipula 
tion.  But  the  United  States,  mindful  of 


the  public  necessity  of  reciprocal  efforts 
between  different  nations  to  promote  each 
other's  administration  of  criminal  justice, 
has  from  time  to  time  formed  treaties  upon 
this  subject  with  different  governments 
abroad,  until  at  length  an  extensive  though 
somewhat  complex  system  has  become  es 
tablished,  and  is  in  full  operation  under  the 
provisions  of  a  systematic  act  of  Congress 
prescribing  the  mode  of  proceeding. 

These  treaties  have  some  features  in  com 
mon.  They  are  usually  limited  to  crimes 
involving  grave  moral  guilt,  so  that  merely 
political  offenders  and  refugees  can  not  be 
reclaimed;  for  the  United  States  has  never 
lent  its  aid  to  any  disposition  in  monarchic 
al  governments  to  repress  by  criminal  pun 
ishments  the  exercise  of  what  are  deemed 
in  this  country  the  individual  rights  of  the 
citizen.  The  treaties  do  not  require  abso 
lute  proof  of  the  guilt  of  an  alleged  offend 
er  ;  but,  as  a  rule,  he  can  be  sent  home  only 
upon  evidence  which  would  be  deemed  suf 
ficient  by  our  law  to  warrant  holding  him 
for  trial  if  he  were  charged  with  commit 
ting  the  crime  in  this  country.  Whether 
he  may  be  tried  here  upon  any  other  charge 
than  that  on  which  he  was  sent  home  is  a 
vexed  question.  And  the  treaties  are  re 
ciprocal;  that  is,  it  is  the  policy  of  this 
country  to  return  only  offenders  of  the  same 
class  as  those  whom  we  are  allowed  to  re 
claim.  This  last  principle  has  led  to  a  great 
variety  in  the  provisions  of  the  different 
treaties  governing  extradition. 

Thus  our  treaty  with  Great  Britain  of 
August  9,  1842,  provides  that  the  United 
States  and  Great  Britain  shall,  upon  mutual 
requisitions  by  their  authorities,  deliver  up 
to  justice  all  persons  who,  being  charged 
with  the  crime  of  murder,  or  assault  with 
intent  to  commit  murder,  or  piracy,  or  arson, 
or  robbery,  or  forgery,  or  the  utterance  of 
forged  paper,  committed  within  the  juris 
diction  of  either,  shall  seek  an  asylum  or  be 
found  within  the  territories  of  the  other. 
And  our  treaty  with  the  Hawaiian  Islands 
of  December  20,  1849,  contains  provisions 
corresponding  with  these. 

We  have  three  treaties  with  France  pro 
viding  for  returning  from  either  country  to 
the  other  persons  accused  of  murder  or  at 
tempt  to  commit  murder ;  or  with  rape,  for 
gery,  arson,  robbery,  burglary ;  or  with  em- 


EXTRADITION  TREATIES. 


445 


bezzlemeut  by  public  officers  or  private 
employe's,  or  forging,  or  circulating  counter 
feit  coin  or  false  uotes,  when  such  offense  is 
subject  to  infamous  punishment.  With  the 
Orange  Free  State  we  have  a  treaty  of  De 
cember  22, 1871,  covering  these  crimes,  with 
the  addition  of  piracy. 

Our  treaty  with   Sweden  of  March  21, 

1860,  includes  murder  or  attempt  to  commit 
murder,  rape,  piracy  (including  aggravated 
mutinies   of  seamen),  arson,  robbery  and 
burglary,  forgery,  and  the  fabrication  of 
counterfeit  coin  or  paper  money,  and  embez 
zlement  by  public  officers.     The  treaty  of 
July  3, 1856,  with  Austria,  and  that  with  San 
Salvador  of  June  28,  1872,  are  to  the  same 
effect.     So  are  the  treaties  with  Nicaragua, 
June  25, 1870,  and  with  Equador  of  June  28, 
1872,  except  that  these  omit   attempts  to 
murder.     So  is  that  with  Venezuela  of  Au 
gust  27,  1860,  that  with  the  Dominican  Re 
public  of  February  8,  1867,  that  with  Italy 
of  March  23,  1868,  and  that  with  Belgium 
of  March  19, 1874,  except  that  each  of  these 
extends  to  the   embezzlement   of  private 
funds.     To  the  same  effect  is  the  treaty  with 
Switzerland  of  November  25,  1850,  except 
that  counterfeiting  is  omitted,  and  the  em 
bezzlement  of  private  funds  embraced. 

Our  treaty  with  Prussia  of  June  16, 1852, 
includes  murder  or  assaults  with  intent  to 
commit  murder,  piracy,  arson,  robbery,  for 
gery,  or  utterance  of  forged  papers,  or  fabri 
cation  of  counterfeit  coin  or  paper  money, 
and  embezzlement  of  public  funds.  By  a 
subsequent  treaty  this  engagement  is  ex 
tended  to  all  the  states  of  the  North  Ger 
man  Confederation.  And  the  same  enu 
meration  of  crimes  is  found  in  the  treaty 
with  Bavaria  of  September  12, 1853. 

Our  treaty  with  Mexico  of  December  11, 

1861,  embraces  murder,  assault  with  intent 
to  commit  murder,  mutilation,  piracy,  arson, 
rape,  kidnaping  (whether  by  force  or  de 
ception),  forgery  and  counterfeiting,  or  cir 
culating  forged  or  counterfeit  coin  or  paper 
money,  embezzlement  of  public  moneys,  rob 
bery  or  burglary,  and  larceny  of  property 
above  twenty-five  dollars  in  value,  commit 
ted  within  the  frontier  States  and  Territo 
ries  of  the  contracting  parties. 

Our  treaty  with  Peru  of  September  12, 
1870,  provides  for  murder;  for  rape  and 
abduction  by  force ;  bigamy  aud  arson ; 


kidnaping,  by  force  or  deception ;  robbery, 
larceny,  burglary  ;  counterfeiting  ;  forgery 
— broadly  defined,  and  extended  to  public 
securities,  judicial  acts  and  records,  postage 
and  revenue  stamps,  public  and  authentic 
deeds  and  documents ;  embezzlement  of  pub 
lic  or  private  funds ;  fraudulent  bankrupt 
cy  ;  fraudulent  barratry  ;  mutiny,  when  the 
crew  have  taken  forcible  possession  of  the 
ship,  or  have  transferred  it  to  pirates ;  severe 
injuries  intentionally  caused  on  railroads,  to 
telegraph  lines,  or  to  persons  by  means  of 
explosions  of  mines  or  steam-boilers;  and 
piracy. 

So  much  for  the  right  or  duty  of  our  na 
tion  to  claim  or  to  make  return  of  a  fugitive 
when  the  question  arises  between  ours  and 
a  foreign  country.  Quite  as  often,  perhaps, 
it  arises  where  a  criminal  escapes  from  one 
State  into  another.  With  these  cases  the 
general  government  has  no  concern,  except 
that  Congress  has  prescribed  the  mode  of 
proceeding.  The  right  and  the  duty  lie  be 
tween  the  two  States.  The  President  and 
Secretary  of  State  at  Washington  have  no 
part  in  the  extradition.  The  Governor  of 
the  one  State  makes  a  requisition  upon  the 
Governor  of  the  other,  demanding  the  re 
turn  of  the  offender ;  and  upon  this  demand, 
accompanied  by  certain  formal  proofs,  being 
laid  before  the  Governor  of  the  other,  it  is 
his  duty  to  direct  the  fugitive,  if  found 
within  his  State,  to  be  arrested  and  sent 
home  for  trial. 

But  if  a  Governor  should  refuse  perform 
ance  of  this  duty,  there  does  not  appear  to 
be  any  way  by  which  it  can  be  compelled. 
The  national  courts  can  not  oblige  him  to 
act.  The  Constitution  simply  says  that 
such  a  fugitive  "  shall  be  delivered  up,"  but 
leaves  the  performance  of  the  duty  to  the 
several  States. 

BANKRUPTCY. 

Independent  of  something  like  a  bank 
rupt  law,  a  merchant  who  fails  in  business 
is  liable  to  be  harassed  to  an  extreme  by 
the  pressing  demands  and  suits  of  rival  cred 
itors,  and  to  be  for  long  years  excluded  from 
resuming  industry  or  seeking  new  prosperi 
ty  by  the  peril  that  any  acquisitions  he  may 
make  will  be  seized  by  those  who  hold  old 
claims — a  peril  which  both  disheartens  him 
in  exertion  and  discourages  those  who  might 


446 


AMERICAN  JURISPRUDENCE. 


be  willing  to  give  him  assistance  and  cred 
it.  The  creditors  being  independent  in  pro 
ceedings  to  collect  their  dues,  each  endeav 
ors  to  anticipate  the  others,  and  numerous 
anecdotes  are  current  of  ingenious  devices 
of  attorneys  to  outstrip  one  another  in  the 
race  of  diligence.  There  is  the  story  of  one 
who  "  attached"  the  water-wheel  of  a  fac 
tory  whose  proprietors  would  not  pay  his 
demand.  In  another  anecdote  four  attor 
neys,  in  pursuit  of  the  same  debtor,  reach 
ed  the  railroad  terminus  late  at  night,  and 
three,  by  concert  to  exclude  the  other,  hired 
the  only  cab  in  sight,  meaning  to  belate  the 
fourth  by  compelling  him  to  walk;  but  he 
jumped  on  the  box,  bought  cab  and  horse 
from  the  driver,  drove  to  a  choice  spot,  and 
upset  the  cab  with  the  door  back  against  a 
stone  wall,  then  ran  forward  and  served  his 
writ  while  his  competitors  were  struggling 
among  the  cushions  and  the  broken  glass. 
So  an  absconding  debtor,  who  undertook  to 
escape  across  a  lake  on  skates,  bearing  the 
proceeds  of  his  fraudulent  sales  in  a  fat 
pocket-book,  was  followed  and  overtaken 
by  a  collecting  agent,  also  upon  skates ;  and 
when  the  unlucky  fugitive  broke  through 
the  ice,  the  collector  insisted  on  his  throw 
ing  out  the  pocket-book  to  pay  demands  in 
full  before  he  would  help  him  ashore. 

Upon  the  other  hand,  the  pressure  of 
creditors  often  impels  debtors  to  schemes 
of  fraud  or  of  unjust  preference  in  paying 
rival  claimants. 

In  view  of  these  tendencies  of  the  ordina 
ry  laws  for  collection  of  debts,  the  Consti 
tution  has  authorized  Congress  to  establish 
uniform  laws  upon  the  subject  of  bankrupt 
cies.  Precisely  what  is  "a  bankrupt  law" 
has  been  the  subject  of  some  conflicting 
discussion.  But  practically  it  is  understood 
to  be  a  law  which  ascertains  what  persons 
have  become,  from  want  of  means,  unable 
to  pay  their  debts  in  ordinary  course  of 
business,  which  takes  their  remaining  prop 
erty  into  legal  custody,  and  distributes  it 
equitably  among  the  persons  who  are  proved 
to  have  just  demands,  and  which  gives  the 
debtor,  except  in  such  few  cases  as  are  ex 
cluded  from  the  benefit,  a  discharge  from 
his  past  debts,  assuring  him  of  immunity 
from  further  lawsuits  to  collect  them. 

In  1800,  and  again  in  1841,  laws  of  this 
description  were  enacted  under  stress  of 


general  commercial  trouble  then  existing; 
but  each  was,  within  two  or  three  years, 
repealed.  In  1867  a  comprehensive  and 
well-considered  bankrupt  law  was  passed. 
Proposals  for  its  repeal  have  been  warmly 
urged  and  earnestly  discussed,  but  have 
thus  far  resulted  only  in  some  comprehen 
sive  amendments,  indicating  that  it  may 
probably  long  continue  a  feature  of  the  ju 
risprudence  of  the  country. 

Under  this  law  the  petition  of  a  debtor 
to  be  discharged  as  a  bankrupt,  or  of  his 
creditors  that  a  surrender  of  his  estate  may 
be  compelled,  brings  up,  in  the  first  instance, 
the  question  whether  the  debtor  is  really  a 
bankrupt  and  within  the  provisions  of  the 
law.  If  the  debtor  is  the  petitioner,  there 
is  not  much  opportunity  for  question  upon 
this  point ;  but  when  creditors  make  the 
application,  they  must  prove  that  the  debt 
or  has  committed  some  "act  of  bankruptcy:" 
that  he  has  absconded  or  concealed  himself, 
or  has  concealed  or  disposed  of  or  assigned 
his  property  to  defraud  his  creditors ;  or  has 
been  arrested  or  imprisoned  for  debt  for  at 
least  a  week ;  or  has  allowed  one  creditor 
in  preference  to  others  to  get  judgment 
against  him  or  to  seize  his  property ;  or 
has  suspended  payment  of  ordinary  business 
paper  for  a  fortnight.  Such  acts  as  these 
expose  a  person  to  be  thrown  into  bank 
ruptcy  by  a  creditor. 

After  an  adjudication  that  the  debtor  is 
a  bankrupt,  an  assignee  is  appointed,  gener 
ally  upon  a  choice  by  the  creditors,  to  take 
and  dispose  of  the  debtor's  estate.  The 
debtor  is  required  to  furnish  schedules  or 
lists  of  all  his  property,  also  of  all  his  debts, 
and  may  be  strictly  examined  upon  oath  as 
to  all  the  facts.  The  assignee  takes  posses 
sion  of  the  property,  sells  it,  defrays  any 
specific  charges  or  liens  that  ought  to  be 
paid  in  full,  and  collects  the  proceeds  to  be 
distributed  among  the  creditors.  To  enable 
him  to  do  this,  very  full  powers  are  given 
him  to  take  the  place  of  the  bankrupt  in 
all  matters  connected  with  his  property, 
and  to  prosecute  any  suits  which  the  bank 
rupt  might  have  done  if  the  surrender  had 
not  been  made. 

Meantime  an  opportunity  is  accorded  to 
the  creditors  to  make  proof  of  their  de 
mands.  Each  one  must  file  a  statement 
and  make  oath,  and  if  his  claim  is  disputed, 


CALIFORNIA  LAND  CLAIMS. 


447 


must  adduce  proof  that  it  is  lawful.  The 
questions,  how  much  is  due,  at  what  date, 
*what  interest  is  to  be  allowed,  what  offsets 
should  be  made,  and  the  like,  are  all  deter 
mined.  The  money  realized  by  the  assignee 
is  then  paid  over  by  him  to  the  creditors. 
The  general  rule  is  to  distribute  the  fund 
among  the  creditors  in  proportion  to  their 
demands  proved.  But  the  expenses  of  the 
proceedings,  and  some  demands,  such  as 
debts  to  the  United  States  or  to  the  State 
in  which  the  proceedings  are  held,  taxes, 
and  wages  recently  earned  to  the  amount 
of  $50,  are  allowed  to  be  paid  in  full  be 
fore  ordinary  debts. 

The  ultimate  step  in  the  proceedings  is  to 
grant  the  debtor  a  discharge.  This  may  be 
refused  him  if  he  has  been  guilty  of  miscon 
duct,  such  as  giving  false  testimony,  with 
holding  his  property  from  the  assignee,  falsi 
fying  his  accounts,  or  giving  portions  of  his 
estate  to  particular  creditors  to  buy  their 
consent  to  a  discharge.  And  there  are  some 
restrictions  applicable  where  a  debtor's 
property  fails  to  pay  more  than  a  specified 
portion  of  his  debts.  The  discharge  does 
not  extend  to  debts  incurred  by  embezzle 
ment,  or  positive  fraud,  or  breach  of  trust. 
But,  with  exceptions  like  these,  one  main 
purpose  of  the  law  is  to  set  the  bankrupt 
free  from  indebtedness,  that  he  may  com 
mence  business  life  anew. 

THE  CALIFORNIA  LAND  CLAIMS. 

Between  the  California  of  Dana's  Two 
Years  Before  the  Mast  and  that  of  Nordhoff's 
recent  volumes,  how  great  is  the  difference ! 
A  third  part  of  a  century  has  seen  an  im 
mense  wilderness  become  a  flourishing  and 
influential  State.  The  course  of  this  trans 
formation  threw  upon  the  United  States 
judiciary  the  burden  of  determining  a  con 
glomeration  of  controversies  fully  as  com 
plex,  novel,  and  pressing  as  any  which  the 
history  of  jurisprudence  discloses — the  "pri 
vate  land  claims." 

About  a  month  after  our  declaration  of 
independence,  by  a  royal  order  of  the  gov 
ernment  of  Spain,  provinces  of  Mexico  which 
included  California  were  organized  as  "the 
Internal  Provinces  of  New  Spain."  From 
that  time  until  1847 — the  date  of  the  trans 
fer  of  California  to  the  United  States,  upon 
the  close  of  our  war  with  Mexico,  closely  fol 


lowed  in  1848  by  the  discovery  of  gold — the 
province  was  under  a  succession  of  Spanish 
and  Mexican  governments,  whose  policy  was 
to  make  liberal  grants  of  land  to  persons 
who  would  engage  to  settle  upon  and  culti 
vate  the  tracts  given  them.  This  was  done 
for  the  purpose  of  attracting  immigrants. 
Immense  quantities — eleven  square  leagues 
being  a  usual  limit — were  granted  without 
exacting  any  payment,  upon  simple  condi 
tions  that  the  settler  should  occupy,  build 
upon,  and  cultivate  his  acquisition. 

By  the  treaty  which  transferred  Califor 
nia  from  Mexico  to  the  United  States  our 
government  engaged  to  recognize  and  pro 
tect  the  rights  of  these  settlers ;  not  only 
of  those  who  had  fully  performed  all  condi 
tions  and  had  received  full  papers  of  title 
to  their  lands,  but  also  those  who,  by  any 
circumstances,  ought  to  be  allowed  to  con 
tinue  incomplete  or  delayed  improvements, 
and  to  acquire  lands  which  had  been  prom 
ised  them  therefor. 

At  the  time  of  the  treaty  an  immense 
number  of  these  claims  existed.  In  some 
cases  the  settler  had  died,  and  there  were 
claims  of  his  heirs  to  be  considered ;  in  oth 
ers,  he  had  sold  his  claim,  and  the  purchaser 
demanded  to  fulfill  the  conditions  and  take 
the  title  in  his  place ;  or  he  had  commenced 
building  and  cultivation,  but  had  delayed 
completing  what  was  prescribed ;  or  he  had 
been  prevented  from  so  doing,  notwithstand 
ing  his  best  efforts ;  or  he  had  neglected  and 
abandoned  his  grant  altogether ;  or  he  had 
lost  his  papers.  The  claims  involved  ques 
tions  of  all  sorts ;  biit  the  United  States 
agreed  to  take  the  place  of  Mexico  in  re 
gard  to  the  lands,  to  recognize  and  respect 
such  equitable  claims  as  had  their  origin  in 
the  action  of  the  Mexican  government,  but 
were  yet  inchoate  and  imperfect,  and  to  take 
such  steps  as  were  needed  to  perfect  them, 
just  as  if  the  sovereignty  of  the  country 
had  continued  unchanged. 

The  ink  of  this  treaty  was  hardly  dry 
when  the  discovery  of  gold  aroused  intense 
interest  in  these  wild  lands.  Claims  that 
had  been  neglected  were  revived;  settle 
ments  that  had  been  abandoned  were  re 
newed.  All  kinds  of  reasons  were  brought 
forward  to  excuse  the  delays  of  grantees  in 
taking  possession  and  cultivating  as  they 
had  engaged.  False  claims  were  advanced, 


448 


AMERICAN  JURISPRUDENCE. 


and  spurious  records  and  papers  were  pre 
pared  to  support  them.  There  arose  very 
rapidly  a  large  mass  of  claims  very  novel, 
complex,  and  extensive,  and  pressed  with 
the  utmost  zeal. 

Under  these  circumstances  Congress  in 
1851  created  a  board  of  commissioners,  who 
should,  under  review  by  the  United  States 
courts,  try  and  determine  these  claims ;  and 
this  complicated  and  difficult  task  has  been, 
during  the  past  quarter  of  a  century,  quietly 
and  successfully  accomplished.  The  extent 
and  scope  of  the  Governors'  powers,  under 
the  old  laws  of  Spain  and  Mexico,  to  make 
these  grants  have  been  ascertained,  and  the 
date  when  their  power  ceased  has  been  de 
termined.  Of  course  all  grants  made  in  ex 
cess  of  their  authority,  or  after  it  expired, 
have  been  adjudged  valueless.  The  validi 
ty  of  each  grant  has  been  examined — wheth 
er  the  papers  were  genuine,  whether  they 
were  regular  in  form  and  duly  signed.  The 
conditions  imposed  upon  the  grantee  have 
received  attention,  and  the  claimant  has 
been  required  to  show  by  some  proper  proof 
that  the  grantee  took  possession,  that  he 
built  and  cultivated  as  Avas  required,  or  to 
show  some  excuse.  Claims  which  could  not 
be  substantiated  have  been  forever  annulled, 
while  all  which  would  bear  a  judicial  inves 
tigation  have  been  formally  confirmed,  and 
complete  and  final  evidences  of  title  have 
been  issued  to  the  claimants. 

In  this  affair  the  number  and  variety  of 
the  claims  the  extent  of  the  tracts  of  laud 
involved,  their  remoteness  from  the  seat  of 
government  and  settled  portions  of  our  coun 
try,  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  evidence  in 
that  Avilderness,  the  novelty  and  obscurity 
of  the  questions  involved,  and  the  value 
placed  upon  the  lands  since  their  sudden 
appreciation,  have  combined  to  render  the 
task  of  judicial  determination  one  of  unusu 
al  difficulty  and  magnitude. 

And  it  is  worth  noting  that  during  ear 
lier  years  of  the  century  numerous  land 
claims  of  similar  nature,  though  less  ex 
tended  in  respect  of  territory,  less  sudden 
in  their  rise,  and  less  romantic  in  the  at 
tendant  circumstances,  involving  lauds  in 
Alabama,  Arkansas,  Florida,  Louisiana,  Mis 
sissippi,  and  Missouri,  have  been  determined 
by  our  judiciary  upon  similar  principles 
and  with  like  success. 


EIGHTS   OF   MARRIED   WOMEN. 

By  the  English  law,  as  enforced  through 
early  years  in  this  country  except  in  Loui 
siana,  the  legal  existence  and  rights  of  a  wife 
were  for  the  most  part  deemed  merged  in 
those  of  her  husband.  She  continued,  in 
deed,  the  owner  of  her  lands,  but  he  con 
trolled  them  and  their  income.  Money  or 
personal  property  coming  to  her,  vested  at 
once  in  him,  and  so  did  the  fruits  or  pro 
ceeds  of  any  demand  or  right  of  action,  if 
he  would  take  the  trouble  to  assert  his  mar 
ital  rights.  Her  services  also  belonged  to 
him.  She  was  disabled  from  making  any 
contracts.  In  almost  all  judicial  proceed 
ings  affecting  her  he  either  took  her  place 
or  stood  by  her  side,  with  a  practical  con 
trol  of  the  affair.  As  to  any  criminal  acts 
done  in  his  presence,  she  was  irresponsible, 
and  he  alone  was  legally  to  blame. 

Throughout  the  recent  third  of  the  cen 
tury  in  many  of  the  States  there  has  been 
a  steady  change  introduced  by  legislation, 
and  carried  into  effect  by  the  courts  in  the 
whole  jurisprudence  of  this  subject.  The 
change  has  been  of  slow  growth.  The  in 
creased  rights  and  privileges  have  been  ac 
corded  piecemeal.  Take  Connecticut,  for 
example.  Full  and  complete  protection  to 
married  women  in  their  rights  of  property, 
against  creditors  of  the  husband,  is  now  the 
established  policy  of  the  State.  But  this 
result  has  been  attained  gradually  and  with 
difficulty.  The  first  act  was  passed  in  1845 ; 
it  protected  the  interest  of  the  husband  in 
the  real  estate  of  the  wife  which  was  hers 
at  the  time  of  the  marriage,  or  accrued  to 
her  by  devise  or  inheritance  duriug  covert 
ure.  The  second,  in  1849,  protected  the 
personal  estate  which  should  thereafter  ac 
crue  to  her  during  her  married  life  by  be 
quest  or  distribution,  by  vesting  it  in  him 
as  trustee  for  her.  The  third,  in  1850,  pro 
tected  real  estate  conveyed  to  her  in  con 
sideration  of  money  or  property  acquired 
by  her  personal  services.  The  fourth,  also 
in  1850,  protected  re -in vestments  of  the 
avails  of  her  real  estate  when  sold.  The 
fifth,  in  1853,  vested  in  her  for  her  sole  use 
all  her  property,  real  and  personal,  when 
abandoned.  The  sixth,  in  1855,  extended 
the  provisions  of  the  act  of  1849  to  personal 
property  owned  by  her  at  time  of  marriage. 
The  seventh,  in  1856,  extended  the  provis- 


HOMESTEAD  AND  EXEMPTION  LAWS. 


449 


ions  of  the  act  of  1849  to  patent -rights, 
copyrights,  pensions,  and  grants  and  allow 
ances  by  government ;  and  an  eighth,  in 
1857,  further  extended  it  to  property  ac 
quired  by  gift.  The  ninth,  in  1860,  extended 
the  act  of  1850  respecting  property  acquired 
by  personal  services  to  re-investments  of 
the  same.  The  tenth,  in  1865,  extended  the 
provisions  of  the  act  of  1845  to  real  estate 
acquired  by  gift  or  purchase ;  and  by  the 
eleventh,  in  1866,  that  of  1849  was  extend 
ed  and  applied  to  all  personal  property, 
whether  acquired  before  or  after  marriage. 
But  while  the  method  of  the  reform  has 
been  irregular,  the  results  have  been  exten 
sive  and  thorough ;  and  the  rules  that  the 
real  and  personal  property  of  a  wife,  coming 
to  her  before  or  after  marriage,  continues 
hers,  to  be  used,  enjoyed,  and  disposed  of, 
except  as  to  manner  and  form  of  convey 
ance,  as  if  she  were  single,  may  be  said  to 
be  substantially  true  in  the  majority  of  the 
States. 

An  independent  capacity  to  sue  and  be 
sued  alone  has  been  conferred  in  many; 
and  in  not  a  few  of  the  States  wide  powers 
to  make  contracts  and  to  carry  on  general 
business,  even  to  the  extent  of  employing 
the  husband  as  a  managing  agent  of  a  large 
farm  or  manufacturing  establishment,  have 
been  conferred. 

HOMESTEAD  AND  EXEMPTION  LAWS. 

Books  tell  us  of  ancient  laws  by  which  a 
debtor  who  could  not  pay  his  debts  might, 
upon  demand  of  his  creditors,  be  cut  in 
pieces  and  divided  bodily  among  them. 
Rigor  like  this  had  become  obsolete  long 
before  the  commencement  of  our  century, 
but  the  law  for  the  collection  of  debts  was 
still  rigid  in  exacting  all  property  that 
could  be  obtained  from  a  debtor  for  the 
satisfaction  of  his  creditors.  In  modern 
years  the  view  has  obtained  that  creditors 
shall  not  have  every  thing ;  some  reserva 
tion  of  property  shall  be  allowed,  to  provide 
for  the  instant  wants  of  an  insolvent,  and  to 
relieve  his  family  from  absolute  destitution. 
This  privilege  is  given  by  laws  of  the  vari 
ous  States  allowing  a  head  of  a  family  to 
designate  by  public  record  a  house  and  lot 
as  his  "homestead,"  which  shall  not  there 
after  be  taken  for  his  general  debts,  and  by 
laws  prescribing  certain  kinds  and  amounts 
29 


of  personal  property  which  shall  be  "ex 
empt  from  sale  on  execution."  The  prin 
ciple  of  allowing  a  debtor  to  retain  some 
little  property  for  himself,  and  still  more  for 
his  family,  if  he  has  one,  is  now  recognized 
throughout  the  country.  The  extent  of  the 
privilege  granted  differs  in  the  different 
States.  Probably  every  State  accords  some 
privilege  of  exemption  of  personal  property 
— clothing,  a  little  live  stock,  and  necessary 
tools  for  the  debtor's  farm,  a  limited  number 
of  articles  of  furniture  for  the  house,  wages 
just  earned,  and  the  like ;  but  the  different 
statutes  upon  the  subject  run  into  an  im 
mense  number  of  petty  details. 

Homestead  exemptions  are  not  allowed  in 
all  the  States.  Down  to  1875,  Connecticut, 
Delaware,  Indiana,  Maryland,  Oregon,  Penn 
sylvania,  and  Rhode  Island,  also  the  District 
of  Columbia,  appear  not  to  have  passed  laws 
of  this  kind.  Through  the  other  States 
there  are  laws  by  which  a  head  of  a  family 
may  designate  a  homestead,  and  protect  it 
from  being  sold  for  his  debts,  except  for  the 
price  of  it,  or  for  a  mortgage  upon  it,  or  oth 
er  special  indebtedness.  If  the  property  is 
a  farm,  the  privilege  is  limited  in  about 
half  the  States  by  number  of  acres ;  forty, 
eighty,  or  one  hundred  and  sixty  is  a  com 
mon  limit.  In  others  the  restriction  is  by 
value,  such  as  $5000,  $2000,  or  in  some  of  the 
States  less.  In  Texas  two  hundred  acres 
may  be  exempt.  If  the  property  is  a  town 
or  city  lot,  the  exemption  is  generally  limit 
ed  by  a  value  corresponding  to  the  value  al 
lowed  for  farms,  or  the  quantity  is  closely 
restricted — as  to  a  quarter  or  half  an  acre. 
The  homestead  laws  usually  give  the  wife 
of  the  proprietor  some  control  over  any  sale 
or  mortgage  of  the  property. 

MECHANICS'  LIEN  LAWS. 

When  an  owner  of  laud  desires  to  erect  a 
building,  he  does  not  usually  himself  buy 
the  wood,  the  brick,  and  the  iron-mongery 
needed,  nor  personally  hire  and  pay  the 
workmen  employed.  By  custom  he  makes 
a  contract  with  a  builder  for  the  erection, 
and  the  builder  makes  the  purchases  and 
employs  the  workmen.  It  has  long  been 
found  that  this  system  is  prolific  of  frauds 
or  losses  to  those  who  sell  the  materials  or 
do  the  labor.  The  builder  may  collect  the 
contract  price  of  the  house  from  the  owner, 


450 


AMERICAN  JURISPRUDENCE. 


and  refuse  to  pay  bis  subordinates,  and  tbe 
latter  may  lose  tbeir  remedy  against  tbe 
builder  for  want  of  his  having  any  tangible 
property  which  they  can  reach,  and  against 
the  owner  because  he  made  no  contract  with 
them,  while  they  can  not  reclaim  each  what 
he  contributed  toward  the  work,  because, 
whatever  it  is,  it  has  become  inextricably 
involved  in  the  building. 

To  prevent  or  redress  such  frauds,  laws 
have  gradually  been  framed  in  the  various 
States  to  give  the  subordinate  mechanics 
a  lien  upon  the  property  which  they  assist 
to  improve.  Under  these  laws,  "material 
men,"  as  those  who  sell  materials  for  a  build 
ing  may  be  called,  or  laborers,  may  file  a 
notice  in  a  designated  public  office,  setting 
forth  what  they  have  done  toward  a  build 
ing,  and  what  is  due  to  them  for  the  same. 
By  doing  this  they  gain  a  right  to  be  paid 
out  of  the  value  of  the  property.  If  the 
contractor  pays  them,  as  he  should  do,  very 
well.  If  he  does  not,  the  owner  may  pay 
them  and  deduct  from  the  money  due  the 
contractor.  If  neither  will  pay,  the  proper 
ty  may  be  sold,  and  the  demands  paid  from 
the  proceeds. 

Laws  of  this  description  exist  in  nearly 
all  the  States,  though  they  vary  greatly  in 
details,  and  within  any  one  State  the  law 
may  differ  in  different  counties.  In  Louisi 
ana  and  Florida  a  lien  is  allowed  for  ad 
vances  made  or  work  done  in  carrying  on  a 
plantation  or  farm. 

PROTECTION  OF  ANIMALS. 

The  notable  and  successful  efforts  which 
have  been  made  for  the  protection  of  ani 
mals  involve  a  new  thought.  In  the  admin 
istration  of  the  law  in  old  times  there  is 
very  little  trace  of  any  recognition  of  ani 
mals  as  entitled  in  themselves  to  any  legal 
care  or  protection.  Animals  have  very  long 
been  esteemed  property,  and  ill  treatment 
of  one  which  rendered  it  less  valuable  to 
the  owner  has  been  recognized  as  a  wrong 
which  the  law  would  redress.  Inhuman 
and  barbarous  treatment  may  also  be  com 
mitted  under  circumstances  rendering  it  de 
moralizing  to  those  who  witness  it ;  on  this 
ground  it  has  long  been  punishable.  But 
the  additional  view  that  sentient  life  should 
be,  for  its  own  sake,  sheltered  and  guarded 
by  the  law,  has  only  lately  been  developed 


with  any  distinctness  and  efficiency.  Found 
ed  upou  this  sentiment,  laws  and  efficient 
societies  for  the  prevention  of  cruelty  to  ani 
mals  have  been  established  in  thirty-seven 
of  the  States  and  Territories.  Throughout 
the  world  there  are  no  less  than  229  of  these 
societies,  the  movement  having  been  initi 
ated  by  the  New  York  society. 

REFORMED  PROCEDURE. 

The  English  law  of  civil  rights  and  reme 
dies,  as  administered  throughout  our  coun 
try  at  the  era  of  our  Revolution,  and  for  more 
than  half  a  century  afterward,  abounded  in 
strict  rules  and  exact  forms,  which  were  de 
signed,  and,  if  skillfully  followed,  were  in 
many  respects  adapted,  to  shorten  and  per 
haps  to  simplify  legal  proceedings,  but,  as 
actually  pursued,  were  often  the  means  of 
doing  injustice  in  the  name  of  the  Law.-  The 
proceedings  in  the  law  courts  were  also  sub 
ject  to  interference  in  large  classes  of  cases 
from  courts  of  equity,  whose  mode  of  pro 
ceeding  and  principles  of  deciding  causes 
were  very  different  from  those  of  the  law 
courts.  Thus  it  might  happen  that  a  man 
who  had  an  unquestionable  right  to  recover 
in  a  suit  lost  his  case  because  his  lawyers 
brought  the  suit  in  the  wrong  court,  or  be 
cause,  bringing  it  in  the  right  court,  they 
drew  the  papers  in  the  wrong  form  of  action. 
The  double  and  technical  system  which  pre 
vailed  gave  rise  to  great  inconvenience,  and 
the  fictions  constantly  employed  strength 
ened  the  distrust  which  other  causes  created. 
Attempts  have  often  been  made  to  justify 
the  obnoxious  features  of  the  system  upon 
the  ground  of  accuracy,  simplicity,  brevity, 
and  the  like ;  but,  in  truth,  the  reasons  were 
historic,  not  logical  or  practical.  The  prac 
tice  was  as  it  had  grown  to  be,  not  as  it 
ought  to  be. 

The  Reformed  practice  is  now  just  above 
a  quarter  of  a  century  old.  It  was  initiated 
by  a  Code  of  Procedure  adopted  in  New  York 
in  1848,  and  amended  and  re-enacted  in  1849. 
More  than  half  the  States  have  since  adopt 
ed  its  essential  principles  and  leading  pro 
visions,  and  they  underlie  a  very  important 
measure  of  law  reform  which  has  recently 
gone  into  operation  in  England. 

The  important  features  of  these  codes  of 
reformed  procedure  are  four.  1.  The  distinc 
tion  between  courts  of  law  and  equity  is 


CODES  AND  REVISED  STATUTES. 


451 


abrogated;  the  same  court  has  power  to 
apply  the  rules  of  law  or  principles  of  equity 
to  the  controversy  before  it  as  circumstances 
may  require.  2.  Forms  of  action,  particu 
larly  the  technical  differences  between  what 
used  to  be  called  actions  of  assumpsit  and 
debt,  of  case  and  trespass,  of  trover  and  re 
plevin,  are  abolished ;  John  Doe  and  Rich 
ard  Roe  are  dead  and  buried.  3.  They  recog 
nize  the  assignee  of  all  assignable  demands ; 
and  allow  the  real  owner  of  the  cause  of 
action  to  sue,  instead  of  requiring  the  action 
to  be  brought,  by  fiction  of  law,  in  the  name 
of  the  original  party,  as  was  formerly  the 
case.  4.  They  discard  the  strict  technical 
nicety  of  pleading  and  practice  which  was 
required  by  the  common-law  system;  and 
seek  to  elicit  and  try  the  real  merits  of  the 
controversy,  permitting  liberal  amendments, 
and  disregarding  errors  and  variances,  un 
less  such  as  to  cause  real  injustice. 

CODES  AND  REVISED  STATUTES. 

The  readiness  of  American  Legislatures  to 
codify  or  revise  the  laws  is  a  noticeable  feat 
ure.  By  a  code,  in  strict  usage,  is  under 
stood  a  concise,  comprehensive,  systematic 
re-enactment  of  the  law,  deduced  from  both 
sources — the  pre-existing  statutes  and  the 
adjudications  of  courts.  A  revision  of  the 
statutes  is  a  less  extensive  undertaking ;  it 
aims  only  to  exhibit,  in  brief  compass  and 
with  proper  corrections  and  improvements, 
the  statutes  which  have  been  for  a  period 
accumulating  in  annual  volumes.  A  code, 
if  perfect  and  unambiguous,  would  be  at 
its  first  enactment  a  substitute  both  for 
statutes  and  reports  previously  in  use.  A 
revision, however  complete,  would  supersede 
only  previous  acts  of  the  Legislature.  But 
this  distinction  is  not  very  nicely  regarded 
in  the  nomenclature  of  our  books  of  legisla 
tion.  There  are,  at  the  present  time,  about 
ten  "  Codes,"  so  called,  and  partaking  large 
ly  of  the  nature  of  a  true  code ;  about  fif 
teen  systems  of  "Revised  Statutes;"  and 
about  twelve  compilations,  which  are  in 
substance  revisions,  but  are  named  "  Gen 
eral  Statutes,"  "  Compiled  Statutes,"  and  the 
like.  Some  works  of  this  class  are  merely 
private  compilations.  But  nearly  every 
State  has  either  authorized  and  adopted  as 
official  a  compilation  of  its  laws  by  lawyers 
of  ability  and  reputation,  or  has  employed 


commissioners  to  draft  its  laws  into  a  sys 
tem,  and  has  re-enacted  them  as  compiled. 
In  mauy  of  the  States  one  or  other  of  these 
things  has  been  done  several  times.  There 
does  not  appear  to  be  any  State,  with  per 
haps  the  exception  of  Pennsylvania  and  Ten 
nessee,  which  does  not  possess  a  codification 
or  revision  of  the  laws  made  since  the  com 
mencement  of  1860 ;  and  in  the  great  ma 
jority  there  are  such  dating  within  the  past 
ten  years. 

Some  of  these  works  involve  important 
and  extended  reforms  of  the  pre-existing 
law ;  others  do  not.  The  New  York  Revised 
Statutes,  adopted  in  1828  and  1830,  and  the 
Massachusetts  General  Statutes  of  I860,  are 
notable  examples  of  revisions  embodying 
many  improvements.  The  United  States 
Revised  Statutes  (1873)  is  an  instance  of  a 
simple  consolidation.  The  statutes,  as  an 
nually  published,  were  rapidly  accumula 
ting,  and  had  become  not  only  inconvenient 
ly  bulky,  but  inconsistent  and  obscure.  The 
revision  aims  to  present,  in  a  single  volume, 
the  general  and  permanent  laws,  previous 
ly  running  through  seventeen  volumes,  ac 
curately  condensed,  but  unchanged  in  sub 
stance. 

A  BRIEF  RETROSPECT. 

This  paper  draws  toward  a  close,  but  not 
for  want  of  further  examples  of  the  progress 
of  our  law.  The  brief  illustrations  which 
have  been  given  might  easily  be  doubled  in 
number.  Each  one  suggests  auxiliary  top 
ics.  Jurisprudence  has  not  only  made  ex 
position  of  the  law  in  three  thousand  pub 
lished  volumes,  and  declared  its  rules  anew 
in  half  a  hundred  distinct  codes  or  revisions, 
but  has  dotted  the  States  with  Law  Schools 
well  equipped  for  the  systematic  instruction 
of  her  disciples.  She  has  not  only  develop 
ed  written  constitutions  and  wrought  out  a 
twofold  system  of  courts,  but  has  erected 
State  and  national  Capitals,  and  organized 
county  seats  supplied  with  buildings,  ex 
tensive  record  books  and  files,  and  libraries 
appropriate  for  judicial  labor.  She  has  not 
only  devised  a  new  and  homogeneous  mode 
of  pleading  and  practice  in  courts  of  justice, 
but  has  extensively  relaxed  the  old  tech 
nical  rules  excluding  Witnesses  who  might  be 
interested  in  a  suit,  even  to  the  extent  in 
several  jurisdictions  of  allowing  one  upon 
trial  for  a  crime  to  testify  in  his  own  behalf. 


452 


AMERICAN  JURISPRUDENCE. 


She  has  not  only  established  the  law  of  the 
sea  over  our  inland  waters,  but  has  also 
brought  the  employment  and  treatment  of 
Merchant  Seamen  under  one  uniform  and  na 
tional  system  of  regulations.  Upon  the 
land  she  has  not  only  adjusted  the  private 
land  claims  arising  against  former  govern 
ments,  she  has  also  administered  systems  of 
laws  governing  the  survey  and  disposal  of 
the  Public  Lands,  under  which  the  territory 
owned  by  the  nation  or  by  the  various  States 
has  been  subdivided  and  opened  to  a  peace 
ful  settlement  and  cultivation  as  fast  as  has 
been  desired.  She  has  promoted  such  set 
tlement  by  a  hospitable  Naturalization  Law  ; 
by  large  modifications  of  the  ancient  Land 
Titles,  discarding  primogeniture  and  compli 
cated  entails  and  trusts,  and  promoting  sub 
division  and  ready  sale  of  estates ;  by  pre 
scribing  modes  in  which  lands  needed  for 
public  uses  may  be  freely  taken  in  right  of 
Eminent  Domain,  but  strictly  requiring  com 
pensation  to  the  land-owner ;  and  by  devis 
ing  in  the  rich  mineral  Territories  of  the 
far  West  appropriate  rules  for  the  develop 
ment  of  Mines  and  the  protection  of  mining 
claims.  Witnessing,  without  power  to  pre 
vent  them,  the  evils  of  a  gigantic  system  of 
Slavery  and  the  horrors  of  a  Civil  War,  she  did 
something  while  they  lasted  to  control  and 
restrain  them,  and  is  doing  much  in  super 
intending  the  reconstruction  of  the  shatter 
ed  social  fabric,  in  harmonizing  the  indi 
vidual  controversies  of  which  the  war  was 
so  fruitful,  and  has  fairly  entered  upon  the 
newly  assigned  duty  of  elevating  four  mill 
ions  of  a  lately  enslaved  and  still  depressed 
and  ignorant  race  to  enjoyment  of  equal 
Civil  Eights.  She  has  encouraged  Corpora 
tions,  has  added  to  the  old  method  of  incor 
poration  by  charter  a  free  system  of  general 
laws  for  their  formation,  management,  and 
dissolution,  and  to  the  old  remedies  against 
corporate  property  a  principle  of  individual 
liability,  so  that  incorporation  has  become  a 
familiar,  convenient,  and  approved  mode  of 
uniting  many  men  and  aggregating  large 
capital  in  the  pursuit  of  almost  every  spe 
cies  of  enterprise  or  purpose,  of  very  many 
purposes  to  which  in  old  times  it  never  was, 
and  in  old  countries  even  now  it  scarcely  is, 
applied.  She  has  rescued  Banking  from  the 
uncertain  basis  of  private  capital  and  re 
sponsibility,  and  has  established  it  upon  a 


foundation  of  securities  lodged  with  govern 
ment — that  of  the  State  or  nation,  as  you 
please — for  the  bill-holder's  protection.  She 
has  liberalized  the  ancient  law  of  Carriers, 
giving  them  leave  to  restrict  their  liability 
by  a  special  contract,  and  thus  has  promoted 
that  expansion  of  our  facilities  for  commerce 
which  has  been  accomplished  by  adding  to 
the  ships,  stage-coaches,  and  baggage-wag 
ons  of  old  times  our  immense  net-work  of 
canals,  steamboats,  and  railway  routes,  ex 
press  and  telegraph  lines.  She  has  fostered 
the  principle  of  education  of  the  common 
people  at  the  charge  of  the  State,  and  super 
intends  a  comprehensive  and  efficient  sys 
tem  of  Public  Schools.  She  has  liberalized 
the  Criminal  Law  and  ameliorated  Prison 
Discipline  (until  the  element  of  humanity 
sometimes  seems  to  verge  upon  laxity),  has 
restricted  the  old  views  of  Sedition  and  Trea 
son  to  conform  to  the  principles  of  a  popular 
government,  and  has  given  increased  effi 
ciency  to  the  writ  of  Habeas  Corpus ;  but 
has  by  Liquor  Laics,  embodying  even  the  en- 
tleavor  to  prohibit  the  traffic  in  intoxica 
ting  drink  entirely,  or  to  compel  the  seller 
to  make  compensation  for  all  damages  re 
sulting  from  excess,  and  by  stringent  laws 
against  Abortion,  Seduction,  and  the  traffic 
in  Vicious  Literature  and  merchandise,  made 
punishable  some  causes  of  demoralization 
which  our  forefathers  considered  must  be 
exempt  from  punishment  because  the  vic 
tim  was  a  willing  one. 

These  topics  might  well  receive  extended 
explanation  ;  and  if  space  could  be  allowed, 
the  writer  would  gladly  add  some  descrip 
tive  sketches  of  Celebrities — of  our  eminent 
judges,  brilliant  advocates,  and  judicious 
legislators;  some  narratives  of  the  Great 
Trials  of  the  century,  with  explanations  of 
their  influence  upon  the  tone  of  judicial 
thought ;  and  perhaps  some  revelations  of 
the  methods  and  achievements  of  American 
Detectives. 

"SHE  HATH  DONE  WHAT  SHE  COULD." 

These  achievements  of  Jurisprudence, 
when  compared  Avith  the  works  of  her  sis 
ters  in  other  fields  of  labor,  appear  moder 
ate,  plain,  and  plodding,  rather  than  rapid, 
brilliant,  or  extensive.  But  then,  for  many, 
many  centuries,  Jurisprudence  has  had  no 
gift  of  new  powers.  Sudden  and  wonder- 


CONCLUSION. 


453 


ful  progress  iu  either  of  the  various  fields 
of  humaii  effort  is  generally  observable  with 
in  a  few  centuries  after  some  new  power  or 
means  has  been  bestowed.  Not  three  cen 
turies  have  passed  since  the  Novum  Organon 
of  Bacon  gave  to  practical  science  a  new 
method  of  research,  which  has  substituted 
astronomy  for  astrology,  chemistry  for  al 
chemy,  and  has  rendered  attainments  in 
science  rapid  and  easy  which  upon  old 
methods  would  have  remained  impossible. 
The  steam-engine  was  a  new  gift  to  Com 
merce  and  Manufactures ;  so  was  the  print 
ing-press  to  Literature;  so  has  been  the 
telegraph  to  Journalism.  The  enunciation 
and  application  of  the  principle  that  "gov 
ernments  derive  their  just  powers  from  the 
consent  of  the  governed,"  as  a  substitute 
for  the  idea  of  a  divinely  given,  hereditarily 
transmitted  right,  was  a  gift  of  a  uew  power 
to  Government.  These  were  not  improve 
ments  in  old  methods ;  they  involved  the 
total  subversion  of  old  methods  and  sub 
stitution  of  new  ones.  They  are  compara 


tively  modern ;  some  of  them  are  very  re 
cent,  and  one  need  not  wonder  that  brilliant 
results  are  flowing  from  them  within  our 
century.  But  how  long  it  is  since  Anglo- 
Saxon  Jurisprudence  has  received  any  new 
endowment !  We  have  only  the  ancient 
methods.  When  a  controversy  arises  we 
employ  a  lawyer — a  species  of  agent  which 
flourished  in  the  times  of  Demosthenes  and 
Cicero;  he  brings  the  cause  before  a  judge 
— an  officer  suggested  by  Jethro  to  relieve 
the  labors  of  Moses ;  who  summons  a  jury — 
as  ordained  by  Alfred.  We  have  statutes — 
so  had  the  Medes  and  Persians ;  and  codes 
— so  had  Justinian;  and  a  common  law — 
so  had  the  Saxons.  What  is  older  than  our 
courts,  our  trials,  our  prisons?  Trial  by 
jury — a  device  ten  centuries  old — is  the 
most  modern  of  all  the  important  means 
and  instruments  with  which  Jurisprudence 
does  her  work.  All  we  can  say  for  her  in 
the  century  now  closing  is  that,  with  her 
antique  tools,  "  she  hath  done  what  she 
could." 


XVI. 


HUMANITARIAN  PROGRESS. 


rTlHE  spirit  of  humanity  belongs  to  all 
-*-  races,  and  has  been  stimulated  by  many 
of  the  religions  of  mankind. 

It  has  attained  its  highest  development 
and  greatest  power  under  Christianity ;  and 
so  imbued  is  modern  society  with  its  silent 
influences,  that  even  those  who  deny  the  su 
pernatural  origin  of  the  Christian  religion, 
and  who  reject  its  doctrines,  are  often  filled 
with  the  spirit  which  it  has  especially  culti 
vated  in  the  world.  The  history  of  this  re 
public  has  been  no  exception  to  this  silent 
and  powerful  working  of  the  Christian  faith. 
Both  through  its  organized  forms,  and  even 
as  effectively  through  external  agencies  in 
spired  by  its  spirit,  through  literature  and 
law  and  associations  for  reform  and  charity, 
this  divine  impulse  has  been  slowly  over 
coming  in  our  history  the  instinct  of  selfish 
ness,  the  indifference  to  human  ills,  the  ig 
norant  pride  of  race,  and  the  hardness  and 
cruelty  which  have  come  down  from  ages 
of  barbarism.  In  no  nation  has  this  spirit, 
which  has  been  spread  abroad  in  the  world 
by  Christ,  had  such  power  as  in  this ;  and 
yet  we  seem  to  be  but  just  touched  by  its 
civilizing  influences,  and  scarcely  yet  to 
have  emerged  from  the  savagery  and  inhu 
manity  of  barbarous  times. 

Many  dreadful  abuses  and  cruel  evils  yet 
exist.  Still  the  whole  opinion  and  feeling 
of  the  day  are  against  them ;  much  ability 
and  labor  are  expended  to  diminish  these 
ills  or  remove  their  sources;  and  the  path 
of  true  progress  and  reform  has  been  steadi 
ly  entered  upon.  Another  centennial  will 
probably  see  Christianity  enthroned  in  this 
country,  in  custom  and  law  and  institution, 
as  it  has  never  yet  been  in  modern  days ; 
and  the  spirit  of  humanity,  guided  by  rea 
son  and  culture,  governing  more  human  be 
ings,  in  their  relations  to  the  great  evils  of 
mankind,  than  were  ever  witnessed  before. 

This  sketch  being  necessarily  brief,  the 
writer  has  been  obliged  to  choose  certain 
distinct  fields  where  the  progress  in  the 
spirit  of  humanity  can  be  clearly  tested; 


such  as  the  treatment  of  prisoners ;  the  pen 
alties  and  enactments  against  crime ;  the 
punishment  of  debtors,  and  the  legislation 
in  regard  to  them ;  the  treatment  of  crimi 
nal  and  neglected  youth,  and  the  care  of  the 
insane  poor.  Great  departments  of  the  sub 
ject,  such  as  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves, 
together  with  the  sanitary  labors  of  the  civ 
il  war,  could  only  be  alluded  to. 

THE  PRISONS. 

One  of  the  tests  of  the  progress  of  the  race 
in  humanity  and  civilization  is  its  treatment 
of  criminals  and  the  large  and  varied  class 
of  unfortunates.  The  infliction  of  severe 
and  bloody  punishment  for  comparatively 
slight  offenses,  the  use  of  degrading  and 
brutalizing  penalties,  the  treatment  of  of 
fenders  against  the  law  as  if  they  were  an 
irreclaimable  and  distinct  class  of  the  com 
munity,  and  the  neglect  of  the  elements  of 
hope  and  reform  in  the  management  of  crim 
inals,  are  all  being  gradually  left  behind,  as 
relics  of  barbarism,  by  Christian  nations  in 
their  onward  progress.  The  true  indica 
tions  of  advance  in  the  spirit  of  humanity 
are  not  in  any  false  and  sentimental  views 
of  punishment  and  its  object.  The  crimi 
nal  has  violated  human  law,  and,  in  the  in 
terest  of  social  security,  must  be  deterred 
himself  from  committing  the  offense  again, 
and  through  his  punishment  must  deter  oth 
ers.  But  it  is  equally  for  the  interest  of  so 
ciety,  and  a  duty  of  humanity  and  religion, 
that  he  should  not  finish  his  period  of  penal 
ty  worse  than  he  began  it.  It  is  quite  pos 
sible  that  he  may  not  be  worse,  morally, 
than  many  whose  offenses  have  not  been  de 
tected  or  whose  temptations  have  not  been 
so  great.  But  human  law  can  not  regard 
this :  it  must  treat  his  violation  of  it  as  an 
offense,  and  inflict  a  "deterrent"  penalty. 
But  here  humanity  and  sound  policy  can 
suggest  modes  and  modifications  of  punish 
ment  which  may  bring  with  them  improve 
ment  on  the  part  of  the  prisoner,  and  which 
will  at  least  prevent  him  from  becoming 


MANAGEMENT  OF  CRIMINALS. 


455 


worse,  and  thus  injuriiig  society  more  in  the 
future  than  he  has  done  in  the  past. 

Wisdom  in  this  matter  of  punishment  will 
naturally  suggest  that  offenses  which  are 
caused  by  pure  misfortune,  or  which  are 
technical  in  their  nature,  should  not  be  pun 
ished  as  are  immoral  actions.  The  debtor 
should  not  suffer  the  same  penalty  as  the 
thief,  and  certainly  should  not  share  the 
same  cell.  The  smuggler  or  the  uninten 
tional  violator  of  revenue  laws  is  not  to  be 
treated  as  the  robber  or  the  forger. 

Classification  of  prisoners  is  one  of  the 
first  elements  in  true  progress  in  the  science 
of  punishment.  The  innocent — such  as  wit 
nesses  or  persons  arrested  on  suspicion — 
should  not  be  imprisoned  with  the  guilty ; 
the  young  should  be  separated  from  the  old, 
the  recent  offender  from  the  experienced  and 
hardened  convict,  woman  from  man,  and  each 
similar  grade  of  prisoners  as  much  as  possi 
ble  be  kept  together.  It  is  of  vital  impor 
tance  that  the  young  criminal  should  not 
learn  in  the  jails  new  lessons  of  crime ;  and 
that  the  old  should  not  grow  worse  by  vile 
associations. 

The  weakness  at  the  foundation  of  crimi 
nal  life  is  the  want  of  habit  of  continuous 
labor.  It  becomes,  then,  of  the  utmost  con 
sequence  that  the  convict  should  be  trained 
to  constant  and  steady  industry.  Occupa 
tion  in  the  prison  will  fit  him  for  a  better 
life  outside,  and,  at  the  same  time,  will  pay 
the  expenses  of  his  support.  No  offender  of 
civil  law  ought  to  be  a  burden  on  his  fellow- 
citizens. 

But  the  prison  life  has  the  same  principles 
at  its  basis  as  life  outside.  There  can  be  no 
reform  without  the  element  of  hope.  The 
convict  needs,  in  order  to  elevate  him,  the 
same  forces  which  work  upon  society  gener 
ally:  the  prospect  of  reward,  the  approval 
of  the  worthy,  and  a  certain  liberty  of  action 
bringing  either  penalty  or  profit,  according 
to  his  self-control,  or  feebleness  of  principle. 
There  must  be,  then,  in  a  real  advance  in 
the  treatment  of  offenders  .against  the  law,  a 
system  which  would  first  show  the  prisoner 
the  magnitude  of  his  offense,  and  give  him 
time  and  cause  for  sober  reflection,  which 
would  have  the  severe  and  deterrent  effects 
of  punishment ;  he  must  have  terms  of  soli 
tude  and  idleness.  Then  he  must  gradually 
be  admitted  to  a  higher  stage  of  prison  life, 


where  work  is  offered  him  as  a  relief  from 
idleness.  Here  he  begins  to  see  a  reward 
from  labor  and  good  conduct,  both  in  the 
proportion  of  his  wages  allowed  him,  and  in 
the  commutation  of  his  punishment  which 
they  will  bring.  He  has  all  the  time,  to  a 
large  degree,  his  future  in  his  hands ;  he  can 
cause  his  own  penalty  to  be  light  or  severe. 
A  failure  of  self-control,  a  neglect  of  indus 
try,  will  lengthen  his  imprisonment,  and  di 
minish  the  wages  he  would  carry  forth  at  his 
release. 

Finally,  strengthened  thus  by  years  of 
hard  labor  and  virtuous  conduct,  he  is  ad 
mitted,  in  his  final  term,  to  a  greater  free 
dom  of  action,  which  will  prepare  him  for 
his  life  in  the  world ;  in  which  a  failure  of 
principle  will  cause  him  to  ser.ve  the  full 
term  of  years  to  which  he  had  been  sen 
tenced. 

Under  such  an  improved  prison -system, 
there  will  be  both  solitary  and  cellular  im 
prisonment  and  congregated  labor;  there 
will  be  the  influences  of  secular-school  and 
Sunday  religious  teaching,  of  lessons  and  li 
braries.  The  cells  will  be  clean  and  healthy ; 
no  brutalizing  punishments  of  tread-mill  and 
cat  will  be  permitted;  penalties  will  be  the 
deprivation  of  what  has  been  gained,  or,  at 
the  worst,  solitary  confinement.  The  convict 
will  come  forth,  not  imbittered  against  so 
ciety,  nor  depraved  by  bad  association,  nor 
weak  through  long  dependence  on  others. 
He  starts  on  a  vantage-ground  as  he  leaves 
the  prison  ;  he  has  learned  habits  of  indus 
try  and  self-control,  he  has  been  approved 
by  the  prison  authorities,  and  has  perhaps 
regained  his  rights  of  citizenship  ;  he  has 
saved  money,  and  has  felt  the  power  of  re 
ligion,  and  his  mind  has  been  awakened  by 
instruction  and  knowledge.  He  will  not 
easily  fall  again. 

This  ideal  prison-system,  set  forth  in  so  re 
markable  a  manner  by  Edward  Livingston,1 
fifty  years  since,  is  the  high-water  mark  in 
the  tide  of  human  thought  thus  far  ou  this 
subject.  How  far  has  this  nation  approach 
ed  it  in  a  hundred  years,  and  from  what 
beginnings  in  the  management  of  criminals 
has  it  advanced  f 

1  Livingston's  Code  of  Criminal  Reform  (published 
in  1833)  contains,  fifty  years  before  their  adoption,  the 
best  ideas  of  this  generation  on  prison  reform.  The 
Crofton  system  is  there  in  its  essential  features. 


456 


HUMANITARIAN  PROGRESS. 


OVERCROWDING  OF  FORMER  PRISONS. 

The  accounts  of  the  crowding  of  convicts 
in  the  various  prisons  and  jails  of  the  coun 
try  during  the  first  fifty  years  of  our  history 
as  a  republic  are  distressing  in  the  extreme. 
It  is  stated  on  the  best  authority1  that  the 
average  number  of  prisoners,  from  1776  to 
1826,  confined  in  each  cell  at  night  in  the 
penitentiaries  of  New  Hampshire  and  Ver 
mont  was  from  2  to  6 ;  in  those  of  Massa 
chusetts,  4  to  6 ;  of  Connecticut,  15  to  32 ;  in 
New  York  City,  12 ;  in  New  Jersey,  10  to  12 ; 
in  Maryland,  7  to  10 ;  and  in  Pennsylvania, 
worst  of  all,  from  29  to  31.  In  the  Phila 
delphia  prison  the  cells  only  measured  18 
feet  by  20,  so  that  each  convict  at  night 
"  had  only  &  space  as  large  as  a  coffin,"  or 
about  6  feet  by  2.  In  the  Massachusetts 
prisons  the  cells  were  so  narrow,  that  the 
prisoners  were  often  lodged  by  swinging 
hammocks,  one  over  the  other ;  and  in  one 
Connecticut  prison  it  is  related  that  during 
the  hot  weather  of  July,  1825,  32  convicts 
were  confined  in  a  basement  under  7  feet  in 
height  and  only  21  feet  by  10,  the  only  ven 
tilation  being  one  small  window  and  an  ori 
fice  over  the  door. 

During  more  than  fifty  years  (from  1773 
to  1827)  the  enlightened  State  of  Connecti 
cut  had  an  under -ground  prison  in  an  old 
mining-pit  on  the  hills  near  Simsbury,  which 
surpassed  in  horrors  all  that  is  known  of 
European  or  American  prisons. 

The  passage  to  the  "  New-gate  Prison,"  as 
it  was  called,  was  down  a  shaft  by  means 
of  a  ladder,  to  some  caverns  in  the  sides  of 
the  hill.  Here  rooms  were  built  of  boards 
for  the  convicts,  and  heaps  of  straw  formed 
their  beds.  "The  horrid  gloom  of  these 
dungeons  can  be  realized  only  by  those  who 
pass  among  its  solitary  windings.  The  im 
penetrable  vastuess  supporting  the  awful 
mass  above,  impending  as  if  ready  to  crush 
one  to  atoms;  the  dripping  waters,  trick 
ling  like  tears  from  its  sides ;  the  unearthly 
echoes — all  conspire  to  strike  the  beholders 
aghast  with  amazement  and  horror."2 

Here  from  thirty  to  one  hundred  prison 
ers  were  crowded  together  at  night,  their 
feet  fastened  to  bars  of  iron,  and  chains 

1  Report  of  Boston  Prison  Discipline  Society  for  1826. 

2  A  Hintory  of  the  New-gate  Prison,  by  R.  H.  Phelps, 
East  Granby,  Conn.,  1844. 


about  their  necks  attached  to  beams  above. 
The  caves  reeked  with  filth,  occasioning  in 
cessant  contagious  fevers.  The  prison  was 
the  scene  of  constant  outbreaks,  and  the 
most  cruel  and  degrading  punishments  fail 
ed  to  reform  the  convicts.  "  The  system," 
says  the  writer  quoted  above,  "was  very 
well  suited  to  make  men  into  devils,  but 
could  never  make  devils  into  men."  The 
prisoners  educated  one  another  in  crime. 
"Their  midnight  revels  were  often  like  the 
howling  in  a  pandemonium  of  tigers,  banish 
ing  sleep  and  forbidding  rest !" 

Nearly  all  the  county  jails  had  what  were 
called  "dungeons,"  or  cells  not  fit  for  human 
beings,  in  which  convicts  were  confined. 

At  Northampton,  Massachusetts,  a  dun 
geon  is  described,  only  four  feet  high,  with 
out  window  or  chimney,  the  only  ventilation 
being  through  the  privy-vault  and  two  ori 
fices  in  the  wall.  In  Worcester,  a  similar 
cell  was  only  three  feet  high  and  eleven  feet 
square,  without  window  or  orifice,  the  air 
entering  through  the  vault  and  through  the 
cracks  in  the  door.  This  was  connected 
with  a  similar  room  for  lunatics.  At  Con 
cord  was  a  cell  of  like  construction ;  and  in 
Scheuectady,  New  York,  it  is  related  that 
three  men  confined  a  few  hours  in  such  a 
duugeon  were  found  lifeless,  though  after 
ward  they  Avere  revived. 

Worse  even  than  the  overcrowding  was 
the  indiscriminate  association,  in  the  Ameri 
can  prisons,  of  all  ages,  classes,  and  sexes. 
Of  the  Philadelphia  Walnut-street  Prison 
it  was  said,  "  Its  crowded  night-rooms,  un 
disciplined  throng,  enormous  expense,  dread 
ful  mortality ;  its  issues  of  highway  robbers, 
incendiaries,  and  thieves,  as  proved  by  its 
recommitments,  are  believed  not  to  be  sur 
passed  in  the  United  States."1 

Of  the  old  Market  -  street  Prison  in  the 
same  city,  Mr.  Vaux  says,  "  All  ages  and  sex 
es  are  mingled:  the  trembling  novice  in 
crime,  the  debtor,  the  disgusting  object  of 
popular  contempt  besmeared  with  filth  from 
the  pillory,  the  unhappy  victim  of  the  lash 
streaming  with  blood  from  the  whipping 
post,  the  half-naked  vagrant,  the  loathsome 
drunkard,  the  sick  and  the  condemned  crim 
inal." 

An  old  report  says  of  the  New  York  Bricle- 

1  Report  of  Boston  Prison  Discipline  Society  for 
1S26,  p.  7T. 


OVERCROWDED  PRISONS. 


457 


well,  "More  to  be  lamented  than  its  fever 
and  mortality  is  the  indiscriminate  min 
gling  of  over  two  thousand  persons  annu 
ally  of  all  ages  and  degrees  of  guilt."  The 
French  commissioners  who  visited  the  pris 
ons  of  this  country,  MM.  Beaumont  and  De 
Tocqueville,  state  that  in  1834  they  saw 
more  than  fifty  untried  persons  in  the  same 
room  with  old  offenders,  there  being  no  bed, 
-chair,  or  plank  in  the  cell,  and  no  means  of 
obtaining  pure  air.  A  common  custom  in 
the  prison  was  what  was  called  "  blanket 
ing  a  stranger;"  that  is,  the  new-comer  was 
tossed  in  a  blanket  by  the  older  ruffians  un 
til  he  parted  with  all  his  superfluous  cloth 
ing,  to  be  used  in  exchange  for  liquor. 

Of  the  Leverett- street  Jail,  Boston,  it  is 
stated,  in  1831,  that  over  one  thousand  debt 
ors  were  confined  in  the  same  crowded 
night-rooms  with  over  a  thousand  criminals 
and  vagrants.  Men  and  women,  old  men 
and  black  boys,  idiots,  lunatics,  and  drunk 
ards,  all  mingled  together  in  two  buildings. 
No  restraint  was  used  to  prevent  gambling, 
lascivious  conversation,  or  quarreling. 

It  is  said  in  regard  to  the  old  prison  in 
Connecticut,  that  if  the  prisoners  themselves 
had  been  permitted  to  build  the  prison  with 
the  greatest  facilities  for  the  concealment  of 
crime  and  the  least  possibility  of  detection, 
they  could  not  have  succeeded  better. 

Of  the  State  -  prison  in  New  York  City, 
the  French  commissioners  report  that  the 
prisoners,  when  the  cells  were  unlocked  in 
the  morning,  flocked  confusedly  into  the 
yard,  and,  at  the  sound  of  the  bell  for  meals, 
they  moved  like  an  undisciplined  mob  to  the 
mess-room. 

The  New  York  Society  for  the  "Prevention 
of  Pauperism"  states  in  its  second  report, 
1820,  that  "  in  Bellevue  Prison,  New  York, 
more  than  three  hundred  wretches  of  all 
ages,  and  graduating  in  crime,  are  placed  in 
a  community  by  themselves,  often  without 
employment,  without  instruction,  without 
admonition  or  advice,  to  become  the  sub 
jects  of  reformation."  Girls  from  ten  to 
eighteen  years  of  age  were  confined  here  in 
the  same  cell  with  old  prostitutes.  "  Why," 
says  the  report,  "  this  melancholy  spectacle 
of  female  wretchedness  has  claimed  no  more 
attention  and  excited  no  more  sympathy  in 
a  city  like  ours,  we  can  not  say.  Why  no 
female  messengers  have  entered  this  gloomy 


abode  of  guilt  and  despair  like  angels  of 
mercy,  is  a  matter  of  deep  reflection  and  re 
gret  !" 

In  1828,  it  is  stated  that  the  convicts  in 
Bellevue  Penitentiary  were  so  crowded  in 
the  night-rooms  that  they  could  not  lie  down 
on  the  floor  without  mingling  their  limbs  in 
one  solid  mass.  The  natural  results  were 
repeated  attacks  of  terrible  jail-fevers. 

In  the  old  prisons  of  Philadelphia,  partic 
ularly  in  the  one  on  the  corner  of  High  and 
Third  streets,  it  is  stated  that,  in  1837,  wom 
en  caused  their  own  imprisonment  for  ficti 
tious  debts,  in  order  to  join  in  the  orgies  of 
the  jail.  Intoxicating  liquors  were  bought 
and  sold  at  the  bar  kept  by  one  of  the  prison 
officials ;  acquitted  prisoners  were  kept  there 
for  jail  fees;  the  custom  of  "garnish"  pre 
vailed,  whereby  a  new  prisoner  was  stripped 
of  his  clothing,  which  was  held  by  the  other 
convicts  till  the  man  redeemed  it  by  "  drink- 
money."  No  instruction  or  religious  teach 
ing  was  known  there.  It  is  related  that  the 
first  clergyman,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Rogers,  who 
was  admitted  there  to  preach,  obtained  en 
trance  with  the  greatest  difficulty.  There 
was  supposed  to  be  danger  of  a  riot  and  a 
combined  escape  of  the  prisoners.  He  was, 
however,  finally  admitted  to  a  platform  at 
the  top  of  steps  leading  to  the  prison-yard, 
where  a  man  stood  with  a  cannon  and  a 
lighted  match  during  the  preaching  of  the 
first  sermon  in  that  prison. 

Mr.  Edward  Livingston,  the  great  penal 
reformer  of  this  country,  mentions,  in  1822, 
that  from  fifteen  hundred  to  two  thousand 
persons  of  both  sexes  were  committed  to 
prison  in  each  year  in  New  York  City,  all 
being  presumed  to  be  innocent,  and  the 
large  proportion  really  so,  and  were  forced 
into  association  with  old  criminals,  eating, 
drinking,  and  sleeping  in  the  same  rooms 
with  them ;  then,  after  having  learned  the 
lesson  of  crime,  they  are  turned  out  to  prac 
tice  it. 

"The  innocent  stranger, unable  to  find  se 
curity,  is  joint  tenant  to  the  same  chamber 
with  three-times-convicted  convicts  ;  vaga 
bonds  sunk  in  vice  and  brutified  by  intoxi 
cation,  perpetrators  of  every  infamous  crime, 
and  even  with  the  murderers  taken  in  the 
fact." 

"Women  of  innocence  and  virtue  are 
sometimes  forced,  by  this  unhallowed  ad- 


458 


HUMANITARIAN  PROGRESS. 


ministration  of  justice,  into  aii  association 
with  all  that  is  disgusting  in  female  vice, 
•with  vulgarity  and  intemperance." 

With  regard  to  Western  and  Southern 
prisoners,  the  French  commissioners  report 
that  in  1832  they  found  in  the  Cincinnati 
prison  one  -  half  the  prisoners  loaded  with 
irons,  and  the  rest  plunged  into  infected 
dungeons. 

In  the  prison  of  New  Orleans  they  found 
men  together  with  hogs,  in  the  midst  of  all 
odors  and  nuisances. 

A  natural  effect  of  these  wretched  and 
overcrowded  prisons  was  that  they  became 
schools  of  crime.  Here  were  learned  the  arts 
of  making  false  keys,  of  counterfeiting  coiu 
and  bank-paper;  here  youth  received  their 
first  lessons  in  petty  thieveries  and  the  prac 
tice  of  picking  pockets ;  here,  also,  extensive 
combinations  for  crime  were  made  among 
the  prisoners. 

As  a  natural  result,  too,  the  proportion  of 
recommitments  was  enormously  large.  lu 
the  New  York  Penitentiary  they  reached  the 
proportion  of  50  out  of  100 ;  in  the  New  York 
City  State-prison,  25  out  of  100  convicts;  in 
the  Philadelphia  Penitentiary  in  1817,  and 
in  the  Massachusetts  Penitentiary,  there 
were  33  in  100 ;  in  the  Charlestown  Prison, 
Massachusetts,  there  were  30  out  of  100  ;  in 
the  Maryland  prison,  the  recommitments 
are  given  about  14  in  100 ;  in  the  Walnut- 
street  Prison,  Philadelphia,  1GJ  ;  in  the  Con 
necticut  Prison.  25;  in  the  Boston  Jail.lGJ. 

7          b 

The  present  proportion  is  given  as  10  per 
cent,  in  the  Pennsylvania  prisons;  13.44  in 
those  of  Massachusetts  ;  in  Wisconsin,  5jL  • 
in  Ohio,  6^;  and  in  New  Hampshire,  5  per 
cent. 

All  these  figures,  however,  are  to  be  re 
ceived  with  hesitation,  on  account  of  the 
loose  way  in  which  statistics  are  made  up 
in  onr  prisons. 

Another  frightful  effect  of  these  over 
crowded  prisons  was  their  extreme  mortal 
ity.  The  death  rate  of  the  old  State-prison 
in  New  York  City  from  1805  to  1823  reached 
GO  in  1000;  in  the  Richmond  Prison,  Vir 
ginia,  it  was  70;  and  in  the  Philadelphia 
Old  County  Prison  it  attained  the  extreme 
point  in  one  year  of  130,  and  in  six  years  it 
averaged  60.  When  it  is  remembered  that 
during  the  last  forty -two  years  the  death 
rate  in  the  Philadelphia  prisons  has  been 


only  17-jfi^j,  and  in  Massachusetts,  during 
four  years,  19-j^,  while  Auburn  has  eveii 
attained  (1874)  13,  and  the  Alleghany  County 
Prison  2^  per  cent,  to  1000,  we  can  judge  of 
the  sanitary  progress  made  during  the  last 
one  hundred  years. 

IMPRISONMENT  OF  DEBTORS. 

One  of  the  frightful  abuses  of  the  past 
was  the  mode  of  imprisonment  and  treat-  • 
meiit  of  debtors.  It  is  not,  necessarily,  an 
evidence  of  low  degree  of  progress,  that  per 
sons  who  have  incurred  a  money  obligation, 
and  have  been  unable  or  unwilling  to  dis 
charge  it,  should  be  bjT  legal  enactment  pun 
ished  ;  still,  experience  has  shown  that  im 
prisonment  of  debtors  does  not  in  itself  tend 
to  make  the  community  more  honest,  and 
seldom  aids  the  creditor  in  recovering  his 
debt.  It  is  a  great  hardship,  moreover,  to 
persons  who  have  been  unfortunate  in  busi 
ness  through  no  fault  of  their  own ;  and  as 
it  was  executed  in  this  country,  it  degraded 
the  debtor  to  a  level  with  the  criminal  and 
pauper.  Even  as  late  as  1829,  it  was  esti 
mated  that  there  were  as  many  as  3000  of 
these  unfortunate  persons  confined  in  the 
prisons  of  Massachusetts;  10,000  in  New 
York ;  7000  in  Pennsylvania ;  3000  in  Mary 
land,  and  a  like  proportion  in  other  States. 
In  the  Philadelphia  prisons  of  that  year, 
there  were  imprisoned  for  debts  of  less  than 
one  dollar  32  persons ;  and  in  thirty  prisons 
of  the  State,  595  persons  were  imprisoned  for 
debts  of  between  one  and  five  dollars.  Many 
of  these  were  honest  debtors,  who  had  been 
unable  to  pay  solely  through  misfortune. 
The  proportion  of  debtors  to  other  prisoners 
was  as  5  to  1. 

The  Report  of  the  Boston  Prison  Disci 
pline  Society,  page  388,  says:  "We  have 
known  of  a  respectable  mechanic  imprisoned 
for  a  debt  of  five  dollars,  contracted  by  his 
family  at  a  grocer's  while  he  was  very  ill; 
he  was  sent  to  jail,  and  he  was  not  only  with 
out  a  shilling,  but  his  family  was  without 
bread,  because  he  was  not  able  to  work." 
The  keeper  of  the  debtors'  department  of  the 
Philadelphia  Prison  reported,  in  1828,  1085 
debtors  imprisoned ;  their  debts  amounting 
to  $25,409,  their  expense  to  the  community 
$362,076 ;  the  amount  of  the  debt  recovered 
in  jail  was  $295.  In  1831,  the  Gazette  of 
that  ci-ty  reported  forty  debtors  imprisoned 


IMPRISONMENT  OF  DEBTORS. 


459 


for  debts  amounting  to  twenty-three  dollars 
and  forty  cents.  One  man  was  confined  thir 
ty  days  for  a  debt  of  seventy-two  cents ;  an 
other,  two  days  for  two  cents ;  another,  thir 
ty-two  days  for  two  cents ;  seven  were  con 
fined  one  hundred  and  seventy-two  days  for 
two  dollars  and  eighty-four  cents,  and  the 
only  debt  recovered  was  one  of  twenty-five 
cents.  During  fifteen  months,  five  hundred 
and  eighty-four  persons  were  confined  for 
debts  of  less  than  five  dollars.  In  the  Arch- 
street  Prison,  one  hundred  debtors  per  mouth 
were  received.  No  attendants  were  provided 
for  the  sick,  no  medicines,  no  additional 
nourishment;  none  of  the  prisoners  received 
bedding  or  a  supply  of  clothing.  The  poor 
est  class  slept  on  the  floor.  A  bed,  says  the 
same  report  quoted  above,  is  seldom  seen  in 
this  prison.  No  provision  is  made  by  law  for 
either  sex,  though  some  4500  debtors  are  sen 
tenced  here  annually.  It  is  a  common  re 
ceptacle  for  all  untried  prisoners.  Highway 
robbers,  murderers,  burglars,  vagrants,  to 
gether  with  those  arrested  for  most  petty 
offeuses,  are  here  confined  with  debtors. 

In  New  Jersey,  food,  bedding,  and  fuel 
were  provided  for  criminals,  but  "for  debt 
ors,  only  walls,  bars,  and  bolts."  Their  pris 
ons  were  fearfully  filthy  and  neglected. 
Many  of  these  debts  were  what  were  called 
"rum  debts;"  that  is,  they  had  been  incur 
red  for  alcoholic  liquors  with  those  who  had 
tempted  them  to  drink,  and  had  perhaps 
ruined  their  families. 

In  all  the  States,  these  unfortunate  per 
sons  were  thrust  into  the  same  prisons  with 
the  most  abandoned  offenders  against  socie 
ty.  The  voice  of  humanity  was  raised  in 
cessantly  against  these  abuses,  and  by  none 
more  than  by  the  members  of  the  Prison 
Discipline  Societies  of  the  country.  Impris 
onment  for  debt  was  gradually  abolished 
throughout  the  country. 

In  New  York  State,  it  was  abolished  in 
1831,  except  in  certain  cases  where  fraud 
•was  supposed,  or  in  cases  of  torts,  or  wrongs 
to  the  public  interest.  This  arrest  was  per- 
,mitt«d  where  the  debtor  had  been  a  non 
resident,  or  where  his  debts  were  for  moneys 
collected  as  a  public  officer,  or  in  any  profes 
sional  employment,  or  in  a  fiduciary  capaci 
ty;  also  if  the  debtor  seemed  about  to  re 
move  his  property,  with  intent  to  defraud. 
He  could  avoid  his  imprisonment  by  paying 


his  debt;  by  giving  security  that  the  debt 
should  be  paid  within  sixty  days;  by  giv 
ing  an  inventory  of  his  property,  and  mak 
ing  an  assignment  of  it  for  the  payment  of 
his  debts ;  or  by  giving  a  bond  that  he 
would  not  remove  his  property  or  defraud 
his  creditors.  If  imprisoned,  he  could  pe 
tition  the  judge  for  an  assignment  of  his 
property,  and  thus  secure  the  benefit  of  the 
act.  No  arrest  was  allowed  for  debts  under 
fifty  dollars.  The  same  principles  in  the 
treatment  of  debtors  were  adopted  in  the 
New  York  Code  of  1849.  Arrest  was  forbid 
den  in  civil  cases,  except  in  actions  for  in 
jury  to  person  or  character,  etc. ;  or  where 
personal  property  was  concealed  or  kept  out 
of  the  reach  of  the  sheriff;  and  also  where 
the  defendant  was  guilty  of  fraud  in  con 
tracting  the  debt,  or  avoiding  the  payment 
of  it,  or  in  concealing  the  property.  Fe 
males  were  exempted  from  .arrest,  except 
in  an  action  for  willful  injury  to  person 
or  character.  The  law  was  still  further 
amended  in  1875,  with  the  intent  to  em 
brace  cases  of  embezzlement  by  public  offi 
cials,  and  where  they  seemed  about  to  re 
move  property  from  the  State,  or  were  con 
cealing  property  which  they  had  illegally 
acquired.  In  other  respects  the  principles 
of  the  law  of  1831  were  re -affirmed;  and 
these  are  substantially  the  features  of  the 
laws  against  debtors  throughout  the  Union. 
The  present  law  in  regard  to  imprisonment 
for  debt  in  Massachusetts  dates  from  1857. 

Any  person  can  be  arrested  upon  "mesue" 
processes  or  execution,  upon  a  claim  of  not 
less  than  twenty  dollars,  exclusive  of  costs, 
and  committed  to  jail,  unless  the  debtor 
gives  bail,  or  pays  the  debt.  The  writ  or 
execution  must  have  affidavit  of  plaintiff 
or  his  attorney  attached,  signed  by  a  com 
missioner,  setting  forth,  in  case  of  an  origi 
nal  writ,  that  the  debtor  ia  about  to  leave 
the  State,  and,  in  case  of  execution,  that  the 
debtor  has  property  he  does  not  intend  to 
apply  toward  payment  of  the  debt.  The 
commissioner  will  always  grant  the  affida 
vit  on  payment  of  one  dollar,  and  either 
plaintiff  or  attorney  signing  it;  the  debtor 
is  then  arrested,  and  he  must  go  to  jail  or 
give  bail.  If  he  gives  bail,  which  is  for  thir 
ty  days,  he  must  take  the  "  poor  debtor's 
oath,"  or  the  bail  is  liable.  He  can  cite  the 
plaintiff  or  attorney  if  he  has  money,  and  if 


460 


HUMANITARIAN  PROGRESS. 


he  has  not,  lie  must  go  to  jail.  If  he  does 
cite,  he  caii  have  a  heariug  within  twenty- 
four  hours.  It  will  be  observed  that  the 
presumption  or  suspicion  of  fraud  is  the 
grouud  for  action  against  the  person  of  the 
debtor.  No  innocent  debtor  can  remain, 
under  this  law,  long  in  jail. 

In  Kentucky,  imprisonment  for  debt  was 
abolished  in  1821  ;  in  Ohio,  in  1828;  in  Mary 
land,  in  1830,  for  debts  under  thirty  dollars ; 
in  Connecticut,  in  1837.  In  Alabama,  in  1848, 
arrest  was  permitted,  but  no  imprisonment, 
except  on  conditions  similar  to  those  of  New 
York.  In  Louisiana,  it  was  abolished  in 
1840 ;  in  Missouri,  in  1845.  In  fact,  the  law 
in  all  the  States  seemed  substantially  the 
same :  that  imprisonment  is  permitted  where 
fraud  is  reasonably  suspected,  or  in  cases  of 
torts. 

Under  United  States  law,  this  punishment 
was  finally  abolished  in  1839,  or  made  to 
conform  to  State  laws.  In  1840,  the  provis 
ion  against  non-resident  debtors  was  struck 
out. 

SEVERITY  OF  PENALTIES. 

One  of  the  barbarities  of  the  past  was  the 
extreme  severity  of  the  penalties.  Progress 
in  humanity  is  not  necessarily  shown  by 
abolishing  the  death  penalty,  but  this 
should  be  reserved  alone  for  the  extreme 
offense  of  murder  in  the  first  degree. 

In  Massachusetts,  under  the  early  legis 
lation  succeeding  the  Declaration  of  Inde 
pendence,  ten  different  crimes  were  punish 
ed  by  death — among  them  being  rape  and 
burglary.  Fornication  was  punished  with 
fine,  and  if  this  was  not  paid  in  twenty-four 
hours,  the  offender  was  punished  with  ten 
stripes  of  the  whip.  Blasphemy  was  pun 
ished  with  the  pillory  and  stripes,  even  till 
the  year  1829.  Persons  recommitted  to  prison 
were  branded  on  the  arm,  at  the  end  of  their 
imprisonment,  with  the  words  "Massachu 
setts  State-prison." 

In  Rhode  Island  and  Connecticut,  the 
death  penalty  was  also  inflicted  for  ten  dif 
ferent  crimes.  In  Rhode  Island,  the  sentence 
for  forgery  was  exposure  iu  the  pillory,  a 
piece  of  the  offender's  ear  to  be  cut  off,  and 
branding  with  the  letter  C. 

In  Delaware,  the  penalty  for  pretended 
niiigical  arts  was  twenty -one  stripes.  In 
Pennsylvania,  in  1718,  twelve  crimes  re 
ceived  the  death  penalty,  and  several  others 


oil  the  second  conviction.  These,  with  two 
or  three  others,  remained  capital  offenses  till 
after  the  Revolution.  In  1776  twenty  crimes 
were  liable  to  the  death  penalty ;  among 
them,  high  and  petit  treason,  murder,  rob- 
bery,burglary,  rape,  sodomy,  malicious  maim 
ing,  manslaughter  by  stabbing,  witchcraft, 
arson,  and  the  second  conviction  for  any 
crime  except  larceny  ;  and  besides  these,  the 
counterfeiting  or  passing  of  counterfeit  mon 
ey,  whether  bills  of  credit,  gold  or  silver. 

In  Virginia  and  Kentucky,  twenty-seven 
offenses  were  punished  by  death  or  maim 
ing  ;  among  them  perjury,  the  destroying  or 
concealing  of  a  will,  the  obtaining  of  money 
or  goods  on  false  pretenses,  horse-stealing, 
the  stealing  of  any  record  or  writ  of  court, 
and  the  breaking  out  of  jail  where  the  of 
fender  was  imprisoned  for  crimes  punishable 
with  death.  The  "  benefit  of  clergy"  was 
denied  to  certain  criminals ;  as,  for  instance, 
all  principals  in  murder,  burglary,  or  arson, 
to  all  those  convicted  of  a  willful  burgla 
ry  of  a  court-house  or  public  institution ;  to 
those  sentenced  for  stealing  goods  from  a 
church,  for  robbing  on  the  highway  or  in  a 
dwelling-house,  and  for  Iwrse-stealing.  In  In 
diana,  even  in  1807,  horse-stealing,  treason, 
murder,  and  arson  were  punished  with  death. 
Burglary,  robbery,  larceny,  hog-stealing,  the 
striking  of  parent  or  master,  received  the 
penalty  of  whipping. 

In  New  York,  iu  1712,  a  negro  convicted 
of  being  engaged  in  the  negro  plot  was 
burned  in  that  city  ;  another  was  broken 
upon  the  wheel;  and  another  hanged  alive. 
Negroes  were  sometimes  burned  with  green 
wood,  to  prolong  their  agony ;  at  other  times 
they  were  hanged  in  iron  frames,  to  die  of 
starvation,  their  bodies  being  devoured  by 
birds  of  prey.  In  1733  several  negroes  were 
burned  in  that  city.  In  1741  an  instance  of 
this  punishment  is  recorded.  Even  in  1822 
the  degrading  punishment  of  the  tread-mill 
still  continued  in  this  State. 

For  a  long  period,  one  of  the  well-known 
sights  at  the  head  of  Broad  Street  were  the 
public  whipping  -  post,  pillory,  and  stocks. 
In  almost  every  village  of  this  country,  the 
stocks,  whipping -post,  and  pillory  were  to 
be  seen. 

Whipping  with  the  "cat,"  burning, brand 
ing,  and  cropping  of  ears  were  common  pun 
ishments.  The  objection  to  this  description 


COUNTY  PRISONS. 


461 


of  penalties  is,  it  should  be  remembered,  not 
that  they  give  pain,  but  that  they  tend  to 
degrade  and  brutalize,  not  merely  the  crim 
inal,  but  the  community  who  witness  them, 
and  thus  form  a  soil,  as  it  were,  on  which 
the  same  kind  of  offenses  will  grow  luxuri 
antly. 

Thus  the  experience  of  all  civilized  coun 
tries  is  that  the  punishment  of  the  "  cat" 
for  brutal  offenses  against  women  tends  to 
keep  up  the  class  of  brutalities.  Continent 
al  countries  and  the  United  States  are  main 
ly  free  from  the  horrible  brutalities  inflicted 
in  England  by  ignorant  husbands  on  wives ; 
it  is  these  countries  which  have  mainly 
abolished  corporal  punishments. 

COUNTY  PRISONS. 

The  most  crying  abuse  during  our  colonial 
history,  and  in  this  first  century  of  the  na 
tion's  growth,  has  been  the  condition  of  the 
county  prisons.  In  Boston  the  Leverett- 
street  Jail,  even  in  1835,  is  described  as  a 
horrible  den  of  filth  and  iniquity.  The  old 
and  young  were  mingled  here ;  the  idle  and 
industrious  ;  the  hardened  convicts  and  per 
sons  arrested  merely  on  suspicion,  or  as  wit 
nesses.  There  was  no  ventilation  in  the 
prison  and  no  cleanliness ;  the  prisoners 
were  under  no  proper  discipline,  and  moral 
or  religious  instruction  was  unknown. 

In  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  the  prison  is 
described  as  having  broken  windows  stuffed 
with  rags  ;  the  wainscoting  dark  and  filthy, 
with  the  doors  open  between  the  different 
cells,  so  that  there  was  free  communication 
between  the  prisoners.  Gambling  prevail 
ed,  and  liquors  were  bought  and  sold  in  the 
jail. 

In  Middlebury,  Vermont,  the  jail  contain 
ed  one  dungeon  ten  feet  by  twelve  in  dimen 
sions,  without  window  or  orifice,  except  the 
stove-pipe  hole,  where  the  old  and  young, 
those  sentenced  and  those  arrested,  were  con 
fined  for  months. 

In  Ohio,  in  1840,  says  the  secretary  of  the 
Prison  Discipline  Society,  "I  have  seen  in  the 
prison  of  the  principal  town  a  respectable 
stranger,  a  debtor,  confined  in  the  same  cell 
with  an  insane  black  woman."  He  speaks 
even  of  a  prisoner's  feet  being  frozen  by  the 
want  of  proper  warmth  in  the  jail.  The 
Hamilton  County  Jail  he  describes  as  having 
no  window  or  fire-place  in  the  cells,  light, 


heat,  and  air  entering  by  the  grated  doors. 
There  were  no  beds  in  the  jail,  and  slops 
were  emptied  only  once  a  week.  The  build 
ing  was  exceedingly  unhealthy  and  filled 
with  vermin.  No  religious  instruction  was 
known  there. 

In  Hartford,  Connecticut,  in  1838,  the 
county  jail  is  said  to  have  contained  from 
six  to  ten  persons  in  each  cell.  Drink  was 
freely  supplied  to  the  prisoners,  and  a  tavern 
communicated  with  the  prison.  The  New 
Haven  County  Jail  was  one  of  similar  char 
acter.  The  prisoners  had  free  access  to  liq 
uor,  and  both  jails  became  schools  of  vice 
where  many  combinations  of  crime  were 
formed.  Very  few  of  the  county  jails  of 
this  country  were  superior  to  these. 

REFORM  OF   THE   PRISON   SYSTEM   OF  THE 
UNITED    STATES. 

The  great  reforms  in  the  prison  systems 
of  the  United  States  began  where  the  abuses 
were  the  greatest — in  the  State  of  Pennsyl 
vania.  In  1786  the  first  alleviation  of  the 
severity  of  punishment  was  made  through 
the  Society  of  Friends,  and  the  efforts  of 
the  Philadelphia  Society  for  the  Alleviat 
ing  the  Miseries  of  Public  Prisons.  Three 
of  the  former  offenses  punishable  by  death 
were  now  punished  by  the  forfeiture  of  the 
real  and  personal  estate  of  the  offender,  and 
by  confinement  at  hard  labor.  By  the  same 
act  all  barbarous  punishments  were  abroga 
ted.  Under  the  former  system,  the  convicts 
of  Philadelphia  were  obliged  to  perform  la 
bor  in  the  public  streets  under  degrading 
circumstances.  These  prisoners  were  call 
ed  "  the  wheel-barrow  men,"  and  were  often 
exposed  to  insult  and  ill-treatment  by  the 
mob.  This  practice  was  now  done  away 
with.  In  1788,  the  Philadelphia  Prison  So 
ciety  addressed  the  Legislature,  recommend 
ing  more  private  and  solitary  labor  in  the 
prisons.  In  1790  all  the  previous  penal  laws 
were  repealed,  and  a  revised  system  adopt 
ed,  which  provided  for  a  better  union  of 
punishment  and  labor.  Separate  cells  were 
authorized  for  hardened  offenders.  Crim 
inals  were  henceforth  to  be  employed  in  the 
jail ;  the  introduction  of  intoxicating  liq 
uors  into  the  prisons  was  forbidden.  Al 
ready,  ten  years  previous,  in  1780,  the  law 
had  passed  authorizing  the  erection  of  the 
Walnut-street  Prison  in  Philadelphia  with 


4G2 


HUMANITARIAN  PROGRESS. 


the  principle  of  seclusion — a  great  advance 
in  the  prison  system,  beyond  any  thing 
which  had  been  known  in  Europe  or  Ameri 
ca.  Unfortunately  this  prison  was  subse 
quently  so  much  crowded  as  somewhat  to 
defeat  the  purposes  of  the  law. 

By  the  reforms  of  1790,  labor  was  to  be 
come  a  necessary  part  of  the  system  of  puu- 
ishmeut ;  the  sexes  among  the  criminals 
were  to  be  separated ;  the  untried  prisoners 
and  debtors  were  to  be  kept  in  different 
compartments  from  those  convicted ;  suita 
ble  food  and  clothing  were  to  be  supplied, 
jail  fees  abolished,  and  secular  and  religious 
instruction  to  be  provided.  The  custom  of 
"garnish"  was  forbidden.  In  1794,  an  act 
was  passed  abolishing  the  punishment  of 
death  except  for  murder  in  the  first  degree. 
In  the  same  year  an  effort  was  made  to  in 
troduce  separate  confinement  into  the  pris 
ons  of  the  State.  In  1795  further  provision 
was  made  for  the  classification  of  prison 
ers  and  their  employment  at  hard  labor; 
the  punishment  of  whipping  was  abolished, 
and  confinement  in  cell,  with  bread  and  wa 
ter,  for  not  more  than  fifteen  days,  substi 
tuted. 

In  1803,  the  erection  of  the  Arch-street  Pris 
on  was  ordered,  which  was  finished  in  1818 ; 
a  prison  constructed  on  the  improved  prin 
ciples  of  prison  reform. 

In  1814  an  allowance  was  made  to  debtors 
by  law  of  fourteen  cents  a  day  for  clothing, 
bedding,  fuel,  and  food.  In  1818,  an  act  was 
passed  authorizing  the  erection  of  the  West 
ern  State  Penitentiary,  and  another,  in  1821, 
authorizing  the  Eastern  State  Penitentiary, 
both  on  the  principle  of  solitary  confinement 
of  convicts.  The  latter  prison  was  finished 
in  1829. 

The  system  of  solitary  confinement,  though 
now  generally  held  by  the  prison  reformers 
as  too  severe  for  the  reformation  of  convicts, 
was  a  great  advance  on  the  promiscuous 
herding  of  prisoners  which  prevailed  before, 
and  was  a  fitting  introduction  to  the  reforms 
of  the  present  day.  In  other  States,  similar 
reforms  were  carried  out ;  in  New  Hamp 
shire,  the  old  and  bloody  code  of  1791  was 
improved  in  1812,  and  revised  in  1829 ;  by 
this,  burglary,  robbery,  rape,  and  arson,  which 
had  been  punished  by  death,  were  now  pun 
ished  by  solitary  confinement  for  not  more 
than  six  months,  and  hard  labor  for  life.  The 


punishment  of  death  except  for  murder  was 
finally  abolished  in  1837. 

In  New  York,  in  1796,  capital  punishment 
was  abolished  for  fourteen  offenses,  and  only 
retained  for  treason  and  homicide.  Whip 
ping  for  minor  crimes  was  forbidden.  The 
same  Legislature  forbade  the  use  of  the  lash 
in  the  prisons  ;  but,  unfortunately,  in  1819, 
this  punishment,  so  easily  abused,  was  re 
authorized  in  our  State-prisons.  No  con 
viction  in  that  State  (except  of  treason)  can 
work  forfeiture  of  goods,  chattels,  or  lands. 
As  far  back  as  in  1822,  the  punishment  of 
the  tread-mill  had  been  given  up  in  New 
York  State  as  barbarous. 

In  1847,  a  law  was  passed  attempting  to 
reform  county  prisons.  Sufficient  room  was 
required  to  keep  the  witnesses  from  crimi 
nals  separate ;  and  an  entire  separation  was 
endeavored  to  be  effected  between  those  ar 
rested  and  those  convicted,  and  between 
males  and  females.  Hard  labor  was  also 
prescribed  upon  the  public  works  for  the 
constant  offenders.  Each  keeper  was  re 
quired  to  have  a  Bible  in  every  cell.  No 
whipping  of  female  prisoners  was  permitted. 
In  1851,  an  act  passed  the  Pennsylvania 
Legislature  designed  to  effect  sanitary  re 
form  in  the  construction  of  county  prisons. 
In  Connecticut,  in  1790,  the  punishment  of 
death  for  burglary,  arson,  horse -stealing, 
rape,  and  forgery  was  replaced  by  confine 
ment  in  Newgate.  Cropping  and  branding 
of  criminals  were  abolished.  In  Rhode  Isl 
and,  in  1838,  a  mild  code,  like  that  of  Penn 
sylvania,  was  introduced  in  place  of  a  cruel 
one. 

In  Massachusetts,  the  first  improved  peni 
tentiary  of  the  country  was  probably  erect 
ed — that  at  Charlestown — in  1805. 

In  nearly  all  the  modern  prisons  of  our 
different  States  the  reforms  of  combined  la 
bor  in  the  day,  and  separation  in  the  cell  at 
night,  have  been  introduced.  Strict  classi 
fication  so  far  as  possible  is  the  rule.  The 
abuses  of  the  old  prisons  have  passed  away  ; 
discipline,  sobriety,  industry,  and  cleanli 
ness  prevail.  The  former  brutalizing  pun 
ishments  within  the  prison  have  been  mostly 
done  away  with.  The  penalties  now  inflict 
ed  by  the  keepers  are  solitary  confinement 
in  a  dark  cell,  bread  and  water,  the  with 
holding  of  letters,  and  the  loss  of  commuta 
tion.  In  many  of  the  States  the  lash  is  no 


RELIGIOUS  INSTRUCTION. 


463 


longer  employed,  aud  in  all,  except  Ken 
tucky,  the  power  of  punishment  by  under- 
officials  is  taken  away. 

In  the  New  York  prisons  alone  certain  se 
vere  punishments  are  still  permitted.  In 
very  many  of  the  States  the  greatest  reform 
of  the  modern  prison  system  has  been  intro 
duced — that  of  "  the  commutation"  of  sen 
tences  ;  that  is,  the  convict,  by  good  conduct 
and  industry  while  in  the  prison,  can  reduce 
the  term  of  his  sentence  by  a  specified 
amount,  and  can  earn  wages  to  support  him 
self  or  his  family  after  he  is  discharged.  In 
1867,  in  nine  States  of  the  Union  the  convict 
could  earn  five  days  per  month  by  good  con 
duct.  In  New  York  he  could  diminish  his 
sentence  from  seven  and  a  half  to  ten  days 
per  month ;  so  that  if  the  prisoner  were  sen 
tenced  for  ten  years  he  could  shorten  his  sen 
tence  by  two  years  aud  one  mouth ;  if  for 
twenty  years,  by  five  years  and  five  months. 
All  the  States  testify  to  the  remarkably  good 
results  of  this  reform. 

In  Connecticut,  more  than  80  per  cent,  of 
the  prisoners  had  a  perfect  record  of  conduct 
for  the  year.  In  Michigan,  for  1864,  more 
than  90  per  cent,  presented  such  a  record. 
In  all  except  Maine  the  commutation  can  be 
forfeited  by  bad  conduct.  In  Ohio,  Wiscon 
sin,  or  Illinois,  the  gaining  of  a  certain  num 
ber  of  marks  by  the  convict  in  his  prison 
will  enable  him  to  recover  his  rights  of  cit 
izenship. 

As  an  instance  of  the  highest  point  which 
our  prison  system  has  reached,  the  Ohio  Pen 
itentiary  of  Columbus  may  be  taken.  In 
this  prison  the  convict  may,  by  good  be 
havior  and  diligence,  diminish  his  sentence 
by  a  period  of  five  days  per  mouth,  and  he 
is  permitted  to  receive  an  allowance  not  ex 
ceeding  one-tenth  of  his  earnings.  Should 
he  violate  the  rules,  he  may  lose  not  only  all 
the  time  he  has  gained  in  the  month  and  his 
earnings,  but  also  a  portion  gained  in  pre 
vious  months.  If  his  labor  is  diminished  by 
sickness  or  other  causes  beyond  his  control, 
two  and  a  half  days  commutation  are  allow 
ed  him  in  each  month.  The  names,  penal 
ties,  and  commutations  of  the  prisoners  are 
read  publicly  in  the  prison.  At  the  end  of 
his  time  of  sentence,  if  he  has  gained  his  full 
commutation,  the  convict  is  restored  by  the 
governor  of  the  State  to  his  rights  of  cit 
izenship.  No  cruel  or  degrading  punish 


ments  are  employed  in  this  prison ;  even 
prison  clothing  is  done  away  with  as  de 
grading.  Flannel  under -clothing  is  sup 
plied,  and  good  corn  -  husk  mattresses  arc 
provided  in  each  cell.  The  library  of  the 
prison  is  much  used ;  the  Sabbath  -  school 
and  prayer  -  meeting  are  constantly  attend 
ed  ;  while  there  are  two  hundred  well-con 
ducted  members  of  the  prison  church.  A 
chapel  is  now  in  process  of  building. 

Without  having  accurate  returns  as  yet 
of  the  number  reformed,  it  is  believed  that 
in  no  prison  in  the  United  States  are  there 
so  few  recommitments.  Financially,  it  is 
by  far  the  most  successful  one.  The  con 
victs  on  their  discharge  have  received  the 
following  amounts  as  wages :  in  1868,  $1872 ; 
in  1869,  $2890 ;  in  1871,  $5598 ;  in  1873, $6271. 
Besides  earning  this  extra  money  for  the 
support  of  their  families,  the  convicts  have 
been  able  to  pay  not  only  all  the  current  ex 
penses  of  the  prison,  but  the  cost  of  the  per 
manent  improvements,  and  to  turn  in  a  large 
sum  of  money  to  the  treasury  of  the  State. 
For  instance,  from  1869  to  1873  the  prison 
paid  all  its  own  expenses ;  paid  for  perma 
nent  improvements  $58,145,  and  turned  into 
the  State  treasury  $38,818.  In  1873,  the 
ordinary  expenses  were  $152,163,  while  the 
receipts  from  the  labor  of  the  convicts  were 
$174,450. 

RELIGIOUS  INSTRUCTION. 

In  the  prisons  of  the  country  immediately 
after  the  Revolution  there  was  no  religious 
instruction.  As  we  have  seen,  the  first  pas 
tor  who  preached  in  the  Philadelphia  Peni 
tentiary  had  to  be  supported  with  a  cannon, 
with  a  lighted  match  at  the  side.  Even 
fifty  years  since  there  was  no  regular  chap 
lain  in  any  State  -  prison  of  the  United 
States,  and  very  little  religious  instruction 
was  given.  In  1828,  more  provision  was 
made  for  religious  teaching  in  the  prisons 
of  New  England  and  the  Middle  States.  In 
1833,  every  prison  was  supplied  with  Bibles, 
and  a  Sabbath-school  was  established  in  ten 
of  the  whole  number,  while  fifteen  hundred 
convicts  received  religious  instruction.  In 
1867,  there  were  regular  chaplains  in  ten 
State  -  prisons,  and  stated  preaching  in  five 
others.  Ten  also  enjoyed  the  benefit  of  Sab 
bath  -  schools,  wherein  about  two  thousand 
convicts  were  taught  by  two  hundred  teach- 


464 


HUMANITARIAN  PROGRESS. 


ers.     In  some  of  the  prisons  there  was  daily 
religious  service. 

SECULAR    TEACHIXG. 

In  New  York,  schools  were  first  establish 
ed  in  the  State -prisons  in  1822;  Sunday- 
schools  were  opened  in  the  Anbnru  Prison  in 
1826.  In  1829,  an  act  was  passed  by  the  New 
York  Legislature  ordering  convicts  to  be 
taught.  In  1841,  there  was  secular  teach 
ing  in  several  of  our  State-prisons.  In  1847, 
the  law  was  passed  in  New  York  to  provide 
teachers  for  all  the  State -prisons;  other 
States  followed  this  enlightened  example. 
In  1848,  a  society  was  formed  in  the  Massa 
chusetts  State-prison  by  the  convicts  them 
selves  for  mutual  improvement  and  debate. 

LIBRARIES. 

The  first  notice  we  have  of  these  is  in  1802, 
in  the  regulation  of  the  Kentucky  State-pris 
on  in  regard  to  donations  of  books.  One  of 
the  first  prison  libraries  was  formed  in  Sing 
Sing  in  1840.  In  1867,  there  were  libraries  in 
most  of  the  State-prisons,  one  in  Ohio  con 
taining  3000  volumes,  another  in  Sing  Sing 
with  4000.  Thirteen  prison  libraries  con 
tained  in  that  year  20,413  volumes.  A  fixed 
sum  was  appropriated  by  the  Legislatures  of 
many  States  for  the  purchase  of  prison  libra- 


THE  TREATMENT  OF  CRIMINAL  AND  UNFOR 
TUNATE  CHILDREN. 

Nothing  is  more  characteristic  of  the  bar 
barous  period  of  society  than  its  utter  neg 
lect  of  children ;  while,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  highest  attainment  of  social  wisdom  and 
the  realization  of  Christianity  are  shown  in 
the  most  watchful  care  for  the  young,  and 
especially  for  the  children  of  the  unfortu 
nate  and  the  criminal.  The  culture  of  the 
young  guards  the  future  of  society,  and  the 
prevention  of  misery  and  crime  among  chil 
dren  is  a  duty  at  once  of  economy  and  hu 
manity. 

In  no  way  can  society  save  the  vast  losses 
it  now  sustains  through  pauperism  and  crim 
inal  offenses  so  well  as  by  the  care  and  edu 
cation  of  the  children  of  the  most  destitute 
classes.  The  extent  and  wisdom  of  this  care 
are  the  measure  of  the  civilization  of  a  peo 
ple.  The  records  of  our  early  criminal  ad 
ministration  show  that  children  who  had 


committed  offenses  against  the  law  were 
treated  precisely  like  any  other  criminals; 
and  what  that  treatment  was  we  have  suffi 
ciently  indicated  in  the  description  of  the 
wretched  prisons  in  Philadelphia,  New  York, 
and  Boston  during  the  first  fifty  years  of  our 
existence  as  a  nation.  Old  and  young,  crim 
inals  and  accused,  witnesses  and  hardened 
offenders,  persons  of  all  ages  and  both  sexes, 
were  often  crowded  together  in  the  day,  and 
confined  so  as  to  communicate  with  one  an 
other  at  night.  The  young  took  lessons  in 
crime,  and  the  prisons  became  a  nursery  of 
criminals.  A  child  once  condemned  to  one 
of  these  schools  of  vice  came  forth,  if  con 
fined  a  sufficient  time,  a  skilled  and  harden 
ed  young  offender.  The  prison  was  never 
under  this  system  a  place  of  reform.  The 
offenses  of  children  became  a  crying  evil. 
New  convicts  were  being  constantly  trained. 
And  this  young  country,  with  all  its  bound 
less  possibilities  for  the  laboring  classes,  be 
came  cursed  with  some  of  the  worst  evils  of 
old  communities,  in  the  increase  of  the  crim 
inal  classes  among  the  young. 

Edward  Livingston,  in  his  celebrated  es 
say  on  A  Code  of  Criminal  Reform,  speaks 
of  an  infant  of  nine  years  of  age  being  tried 
and  executed  for  murder.  And  in  another 
passage  he  describes  a  boy  of  eleven  in  the 
Philadelphia  Arch -street  Prison  awaiting 
trial  for  felony  who  had  been  a  year  in  a 
New  Jersey  prison  for  horse -stealing,  and 
during  this  period  the  only  lessons  he  re 
ceived  were  the  histories  related  by  his  fel 
low-convicts  of  their  exploits.  A  boy  is  also 
mentioned  who  was  first  committed  to  a  New 
York  prison  at  ten  years  of  age,  and,  under 
various  sentences,  was  twenty-eight  years  a 
convict. 

Livingston  also  gives  this  testimony  to 
the  character  of  previous  legislation  in  re 
gard  to  the  young.  "  The  provisions  of  law 
have  heretofore  pronounced  the  same  punish 
ment  against  the  first  offense  of  a  child  that 
they  awarded  to  the  veteran  in  guilt.  The 
seducer  to  crime  and  the  artless  victim  of 
his  corruption  were  confounded  in  the  same 
penalty  ;  and  that  penalty,  until  lately,  was 
here,  and  in  the  land  from  whence  we  de 
rived  our  jurisprudence  still  is,  death.  We 
have  substituted  imprisonment.  *  *  *  For 
the  minor  offenses  affecting  property  indict 
ments  against  children  are  frequent;  and 


TREATMENT  OF  UNFORTUNATE  CHILDREN. 


465 


humanity  is  equally  shocked  whether  they 
are  convicted,  or,  by  the  lenity  of  the  jury, 
discharged  to  complete  their  education  of 
infamy"  ( A  Code  of  Criminal  Jteform,  p.  60). 
In  one  of  his  annual  messages,  Mayor  Cold- 
en,  of  New  York,  reports  that  he  had  sen 
tenced  youth  between  twelve  and  sixteen 
years  several  times  to  the  penitentiary,  from 
which  they  invariably  came  out  worse  than 
they  entered.  Innumerable  facts  of  this 
kind  can  be  gathered  in  the  early  reports 
of  the  prison  associations  of  New  York,  Bos 
ton,  and  Philadelphia.  The  first  institution 
founded  in  the  country  for  youth  charged 
with  crime  was  the  New  York  House  of  Ref 
uge,  in  1824.  Its  influence,  especially  in  its 
earlier  years,  when  but  few  children  were 
inmates,  was  remarkably  reformatory,  and 
great  numbers  of  youth  were  saved  then, 
and  many  others  have  been  since,  from  lives 
of  crime,  by  its  excellent  teachings  and  the 
effect  of  regular  industry.  This  reformatory 
was  soon  followed  by  others  in  various  parts 
of  the  country. 

How  immensely  these  useful  institutions 
have  increased  may  be  gathered  from  the 
following  statistics :  There  were,  in  1874,  in 
twenty  States  and  one  Territory,  thirty-four 
of  these  reformatories  for  youthful  crimi 
nals;  they  owned  in  the  aggregate  6153 
acres  of  land ;  the  total  estimated  value  of 
buildings  and  lands,  with  the  personal  prop 
erty,  was  $7,826,480 ;  the  average  number  of 
inmates  was  8924,  and  the  whole  number  re 
ceived  since  their  opening  was  91,402,  of 
whom  77,678  were  boys  and  13,724  girls ;  the 
whole  number  of  persons  engaged  in  this 
work  was  771,  and  the  total  annual  cost  for 
maintenance  was  $1,358,885,  or  $152  for  each 
inmate.  Three -fourths  of  the  inmates,  or 
nearly  seventy  thousand,  are  reported  as 
permanently  reformed.  These  figures,  how 
ever  are  to  be  received  with  great  caution, 
as  there  is  no  accurate  tabulating  of  the  re 
sults  ;  and  in  a  country  like  this,  the  fort 
unes  of  boys  in  after-life  can  not  be  easily 
traced  out. 

These  useful  institutions  are  an  immense 
advance  on  the  prisons  which  preceded 
them.  The  youth  is  no  longer  confined  in 
company  with  mature  criminals ;  the  young 
alone  are  placed  in  the  reformatory;  the 
sexes  also  are  separated ;  and  at  night,  as  a 
general  practice,  there  is  but  one  child  in 
30 


each  cell,  or,  if  in  a  large  dormitory,  the  chil 
dren  are  carefully  watched,  to  prevent  evil 
communications.  They  are  all  taught  useful 
trades,  and  have  regular  day  instruction  in 
schools,  besides  religious  teaching  on  the 
Sunday.  After  their  term  of  sentence  has 
expired,  or  previously,  if  their  good  conduct 
permit,  they  are  indentured  with  worthy  and 
respectable  farmers  and  mechanics.  Great 
numbers  are,  no  doubt,  thns  saved  to  socie 
ty.  Still  there  is  a  radical  defect  in  the 
constitution  of  most  of  the  houses  of  refuge 
and  reformatories  throughout  the  country. 
They  are  managed,  with  the  exception  of 
the  Ohio  State  Reform  School  and  a  few  oth 
ers,  on  the  "  congregated  system,"  and  what 
ever  influence  is  exerted  is  on  the  children 
en  masse  rather  than  individually.  There  is 
too  much  machinery,  and  too  little  personal 
influence.  No  criminal  child  can  be  thor 
oughly  reformed  without  a  direct  and  per 
sonal  influence.  These  large  reformatories 
should  be  broken  up,  their  land  and  build 
ings,  if  possible,  sold,  and  farms  purchased 
where  small  groups  of  children  could  be 
placed  in  separate  cottages,  under  individu 
al  teachers  or  superintendents.  Then  each 
child  may  be  reached  by  personal  example, 
with  a  much  greater  probability  of  thorough 
reform.  The  present  system  of  the  houses 
of  refuge  in  the  United  States  can  not  be  re 
garded  as  the  highest  point  to  which  reform 
among  youthful  criminals  is  able  to  reach 
in  this  country;  and  viewed  as  an  indica 
tion  of  humanitarian  progress,  the  preven 
tion  of  misery  and  crime  among  children  is 
more  important  even  than  their  reform. 

PREVENTION  OF  CHILDREN'S  CRIMES. 

Owing  to  the  enormous  emigration  of  des 
titute  laboring  people  from  Europe  to  the 
United  States,  New  York,  the  port  of  entry, 
became  crowded  with  masses  of  exceeding 
ly  poor,  ignorant  people.  As  the  children 
of  these  persons  grew  up,  without  care  or 
instruction,  and  often  without  homes,  they 
formed  a  singularly  miserable  and  danger 
ous  element  in  the  New  York  community. 
Hundreds  and  thousands  were  known  to  be 
roving  about  the  streets  of  the  city  without 
any  lawful  occupation,  and  without  any  set 
tled  home.  They  were  growing  up,  natural 
ly,  as  vagrants,  beggars,  petty  thieves,  and 
prostitutes ;  the  prisons  became  full  of 


466 


HUMANITARIAN  PROGRESS. 


them;  the  House  of  Refuge  was  crowded, 
and  the  whole  public  began  to  feel  the  dan 
gers  which  might  arise  from  these  miserable 
youths,  and  to  consider  what  could  be  done 
for  their  elevation  and  improvement.  The 
first  distinct  note  of  alarm  was  sounded  in 
1848,  by  Captain  Matsell,  then  Chief  of  Po 
lice,  in  a.  public  report,  wherein  it  was  stated 
that  over  ten  thousand  of  these  wretched 
and  half-criminal  children  were  wandering 
vagrant  through  the  streets  of  New  York. 
This  report  was  accompanied,  or  followed, 
by  a  number  of  preventive  or  reformatory 
movements  in  various  parts  of  the  city, 
among  which  should  be  noted  especially  the 
foundation  of  the  two  missions  in  the  Five 
Points  (1850  and  1852)  and  the  forming  of 
the  Juvenile  Asylum  in  1851 ;  but  more  im 
portant  than  any  or  all  of  these  was  the 
foundation,  in  1853,  of  one  of  the  most  re 
markable  associations  for  the  prevention  of 
children's  crime  and  misery  that  have  been 
known  in  modern  times — the  Children's  Aid 
Society  of  New  York. 

So  wide-spread,  however,  were  the  crime 
and  misfortune  among  children,  that  for 
several  years  but  little  effect  was  produced 
upon  them  by  the  labors  of  this  association. 
Thus,  even  in  1859,  the  number  of  female 
vagrants  committed  to  prison  was  5778,  and 
in  1860,  5880 ;  and  even  in  1863, 1133  young 
girls  were  committed  for  thieving  or  petit 
larceny ;  in  1863,  403  little  girls  under  fif 
teen  were  committed  for  various  offenses. 
Among  boys,  in  1859,  2829  were  committed 
for  vagrancy,  and  2626  for  petit  larceny. 
In  1853,  the  Children's  Aid  Society  began  its 
labors,  with  the  formation  of  one  industrial 
school,  and  the  sending-out  to  homes  in  the 
country  of  207  boys  and  girls,  the  expenses 
for  this  first  year  being  $4191.  In  1854,  the 
first  Newsboys'  Lodging-house  was  found 
ed,  at  an  expense  of  about  $700.  This  asso 
ciation  has  now  been  in  existence  twenty- 
three  years.  The  plan  and  methods  of  the 
society  were  peculiar :  its  great  object  was 
to  save  the  vagrant,  homeless,  and  semi- 
criminal  children  of  the  city  by  drawing 
them  into  places  of  instruction  and  shelter, 
and  then  by  transferring  them  to  careful 
ly  selected  homes  in  the  rural  districts.  It 
was  seen  that  the  condition  of  this  coun 
try  was  peculiar,  in  an  economical  point  of 
viewt  there  being  an  almost  unlimited  de 


mand  here  for  children's  labor,  and  no  neces 
sity  existed  for  placing  homeless  and  va 
grant  children  in  asylums  or  institutions. 
The  best  of  all  institutions  for  a  poor  child 
is  the  farmer's  home.  Here  he  would  be  ele 
vated  and  reformed  sooner  than  any  where 
else,  and  with  very  little  expense  to  the 
community. 

The  effort  of  the  society  was,  according 
ly,  to  draw  the  poor  and  vagrant  children  of 
the  city  into  industrial  schools  or  lodging- 
houses,  to  instruct  and  train  them  there  for 
a  brief  period,  and  then  to  forward  those 
who  were  willing  to  go,  or  who  were  with 
out  friends  or  parents,  to  places  in  the  coun 
try. 

The  "industrial  schools"  were  also  de 
signed  for  that  large  class  of  children  who, 
though  having  friends  and  home,  are  too 
poor  and  ragged  to  attend  the  public  schools, 
and  are  obliged  to  be  on  the  streets  a  part 
of  the  day  engaged  in  street  occupations. 
To  these  children  a  simple  meal  is  given ; 
clothing  and  shoes  are  distributed  to  the 
needy  ;  and  industrial  branches  taught,  be 
sides  the  common  -  school  branches.  The 
"  lodging-houses"  were  contrived  with  spe 
cial  reference  to  the  wants  of  the  street 
children.  Each  child  paid  a  certain  small 
sum  for  his  maintenance,  and  received  in  re 
turn  simple  and  substantial  meals,  a  com 
fortable  bed,  a  pleasant  play-room,  means  of 
cleanliness  with  hot  and  cold  water,  a  place 
to  deposit  his  savings  and  to  store  his  lit 
tle  property,  while  the  only  obligations  in 
return  were  neatness  and  good  order,  and 
obedience  to  the  rules  of  the  house.  A  night- 
school  was  opened  in  each  lodging-house  to 
teach  common-school  branches,  and  simple 
religious  teaching  was  given  on  the  Sunday 
evening. 

The  growth  and  success  of  this  association 
have  been  truly  remarkable.  In  1876,  the 
society  counts  twenty  -  one  day  industrial 
schools  aud  thirteen  night-schools  as  found 
ed  by  it,  where  over  ten  thousand  children 
annually  are  partly  fed,  clothed,  and  in 
structed.  It  had  founded  six  lodging-houses 
for  boys  and  one  for  girls,  where  in  the 
course  of  the  year  some  13,000  different 
homeless  children  were  sheltered ;  the  aver 
age  each  night  being  about  600.  A  single 
lodging-house,  the  Newsboys',  has  contain 
ed,  since  it  was  founded,  over  100,000  differ- 


CHILDREN'S  AID  SOCIETY. 


467 


ent  boys.  The  society  sent  forth  to  country 
homes  over  3000  children  during  1875,  and 
in  all  the  twenty -three  years  it  had  pro 
vided  over  30,000  homeless  children  with 
homes  and  work  in  the  country.  Besides 
these  works  of  education  and  charity,  it 
had  supported  a  Sea -side  Summer  Home, 
where  some  2000  children  during  the  sum 
mer  had  enjoyed  a  week  of  recreation  and 
country  air.  Several  hundred  sick  children 
had  also  been  tended  and  supplied  with  food 
and  medicine  through  its  benevolent  agen 
cy.  The  total  outlay,  during  twenty-three 
years,  for  these  various  benevolent  enter 
prises  has  reached  the  large  sum  of  $1,877,569, 
and  the  receipts  during  1874  alone  amount 
ed  to  $230,604.  A  single  one  of  its  lodg 
ing-houses  had  been  erected  at  a  cost  of 
$200,000. 

The  effect  upon  the  increase  of  crime  in 
New  York  City  of  these  benevolent  labors 
for  children  has  been  remarkable. 

The  commitments  of  females  for  "va 
grancy,"  a  term  which  includes  many  of  the 
peculiar  offenses  of  girls  and  women,  have 
fallen  from  5880  in  1860  to  548  in  1871— the 
latest  year  to  whose  reports  we  have  access, 
as  no  public  reports  are  now  issued  by  the 
Commissioners  of  Charities  and  Correction. 
If  this  class  of  offenders  had  increased  with 
the  population,  the  number  would  have 
been,  in  1871,  over  6700. 

The  arrests  of  female  vagrants  fell  from 
2161  in  1861  to  914  in  1871.  The  commit 
ments  of  young  girls  for  petty  thieving  fell 
from  1133  in  1860  to  572  in  1871 ;  "juvenile 
delinquency,"  from  240  females  in  1860  to 
59  in  1870 :  the  commitments  of  female 
young  children  from  403  in  1863  to  212  in 
1871.  Among  males,  the  commitments  for 
vagrancy  diminished  from  2829  in  1859  to 
934  in  1871 :  the  natural  increase  would  have 
been  3225;  for  petty  larceny  the  decrease 
is  from  2626  in  1859  to  1978  in  1871 :  by 
natural  increase,  the  number  would  have 
been  2861.  The  classification  of  commit 
ments  of  lads  under  fifteen  years  only  be 
gins  in  1864 ;  but  the  decrease  is  from  1965 
in  that  year  to  1017  in  1871.  The  arrests 
of  pickpockets  have  diminished  from  466  in 
1861  to  313  in  1871.  This  comparison  might 
be  followed  farther,  but  enough  has  been 
shown  to  prove  the  distinct  effect  produced 
upon  the  growth  of  juvenile  crime  by  the 


labors  of  the  Children's  Aid  Society  and  sim 
ilar  organizations. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  during  the 
period  covered  by  its  operations  there  have 
been  the  disasters  of  two  business  panics 
and  a  gigantic  civil  war,  with  all  the  de 
moralization  naturally  arising  from  them, 
besides  an  immense  influx  into  New  York 
of  poor  foreign  laboring  people,  the  profound 
influence  of  such  preventive  and  education 
al  labors  upon  the  criminal  classes  may  be 
partially  estimated.  In  fact,  these  labors 
may  be  considered  as  one  of  the  historical 
landmarks  to  indicate  the  gradual  but  sure 
elevation  of  the  spirit  of  humanity  among 
our  people  since  our  century  opened. 

While  even  fifty  years  since,  according  to 
Livingston,  the  practice  of  this  and  all  civ 
ilized  nations  was  to  punish  the  criminal  or 
vagrant  children,  as  the  old  offender  and 
tramp  were  punished,  by  confining  them, 
without  moral  influence,  among  older  con 
victs  and  rogues,  and  punishing  them  with 
extreme  severity,  at  the  same  time  society 
permitting  the  children  of  the  street  to  grow 
up  half-starved  and  neglected,  to  inevitably 
become  criminals ;  now  not  only  does  each 
State  open  reformatories  for  youthful  law 
breakers,  but  a  large  part  of  the  best  of  the 
community  set  themselves  to  work  to  pre 
vent  crime  and  misery  among  children.  The 
Children's  Aid  Society  illustrates  the  higher 
Christian  estimate  of  the  duties  of  society : 
that  the  fortunate  classes  can  and  ought  to 
prevent  the  growth  of  the  pauper  and  crim 
inal  classes,  and  that  it  is  the  wisest  econo 
my,  as  well  as  the  highest  humanity,  to  ed 
ucate  and  rescue  the  outcast  children  and 
youth  of  large  cities. 

Another  remarkable  instance  of  the  work 
ing  of  the  spirit  of  humanity  among  our  in 
telligent  classes  is  the  formation  of  commit 
tees  of  leading  ladies  and  gentlemen  through 
out  this  State  to  inspect  and  improve  pub 
lic  charities.  These  "  State  Charities  Aid" 
associations  have  already,  in  New  York  State, 
thrown  a  new  spirit  of  kindness  and  order 
and  improvement  into  those  worst  of  all 
institutions  in  modern  days,  county  alms- 
houses.  The  county  jails,  however,  through 
out  the  Union  unfortunately  remain  yet  un 
touched  by  the  spirit  of  the  age,  and  are  as 
bad  as  they  were  at  the  time  our  independ 
ence  was  declared.  Those  useful  organiza- 


468 


HUMANITARIAN  PROGRESS. 


tions  also,  State  Boards  of  Charities,  have 
iii  our  most  populous  States  brought  about 
much -needed  reforms.  In  New  York  State 
they  have  gradually  succeeded  in  transfer 
ring  all  the  pauper  children  in  alms-houses 
to  orphan  asylums  or  to  private  families. 
In  several  States  they  have  removed  the 
pauper  lunatics,  the  blind,  the  deaf  and 
dumb,  and  other  unfortunates,  from  the 
poor-houses  each  to  their  appropriate  asy 
lums.  This  grand  reform  is  one  of  the 
most  encouraging  evidences  of  human  prog 
ress  which  the  country  offers. 

TREATMENT  OF  LUNATICS. 

One  of  the  incomprehensible  things  to  the 
student  of  humanity,  and  its  progress  in  the 
spirit  of  brotherly  kindness,  is  the  treatment, 
in  all  ages  and  countries,  of  those  unhappy 
persons  who  are  bereft  of  reason.  These 
unfortunate  beings  could  not  usually  suffer 
more  from  society  if  they  had  committed  the 
greatest  crimes.  The  history  of  this  nation 
is  no  exception  to  this  inhuman  and  stupid 
practice  of  dealing  with  lunatics.  Fifty 
years  since  it  was  customary  to  confine  these 
sufferers  in  jails,  a  custom  which  still  pre 
vails  in  many  parts  of  this  country.  In  1826, 
a  young  clergyman,  rendered  insane  by  over 
work,  was  found  in  the  Bridewell  Prison  of 
New  York,  herded  with  ruffians  and  murder 
ers.  At  that  time  there  were  in  the  prisons 
of  Massachusetts  thirty  lunatics.  Of  one 
who  had  been  in  his  cell  nine  years,  the  re 
port  of  the  Boston  Prison  Association  says  : 
"  He  had  a  wreath  of  rags  around  his  body, 
and  another  around  his  neck.  This  was  all 
his  clothing.  He  had  no  bed,  chair,  or  bench ; 
a  heap  of  filthy  straw,  like  the  nest  of  swine, 
was  in  the  corner.  He  had  built  a  bird's-nest 
of  mud  in  the  iron  grate  of  his  den."  Oth 
ers  were  confined  with  thieves  and  murder 
ers.  Of  one  prison  the  report  says :  "  It  was 
difficult  after  the  door  was  open,  to  see  them 
[the  lunatics]  distinctly.  The  ventilation 
was  so  incomplete  that  more  than  one  per 
son,  on  entering,  vomited.  The  old  straw 
and  filthy  garments  made  their  insanity 
more  hopeless." 

In  the  Boston  House  of  Correction,  it  is 
said,  were  ten  insane  persons.  Two,  nearly 
seventy  years  of  age,  were  in  one  cell.  The 
woman  had  been  there  twenty -one  years. 
She  lay  on  a  heap  of  straw  under  a  broken 


window.  "The  snow,  in  a  severe  storm, 
was  beating  through  the  windows,  and  lay 
upon  the  straw  round  her  withered  body, 
partly  covered  by  a  few  filthy  and  tattered 
garments."  The  man  had  been  there  six 
years,  and  lay  in  a  similar  condition.  An 
other  is  described  who  had  never  left  his 
cell  but  twice  in  eight  years,  the  door  of 
which  was  not  opened  for  eighteen  months, 
his  food  being  furnished  by  a  small  orifice  in 
the  door.  There  was  no  fire,  and  the  poor 
creature  did  not  look  like  a  human  being. 

In  1834,  the  message  of  the  Governor  of 
New  Hampshire  stated  that  in  141  towns  of 
the  State  there  were  189  lunatics,  of  whom 
76  were  kept  in  prison,  25  in  private  houses, 
and  34  in  alms-houses.  Seven  were  report 
ed  as  kept  in  cells  or  cages,  and  six  in  irons. 
"  Many  of  these  forsaken  beings,  during  the 
dreadful  period  of  dungeon  life,  had  been 
systematically  subject  to  almost  every  form 
of  privation  and  suffering."  It  not  uufre- 
quently  happened  that  in  the  cold  and  ex 
posed  cells  where  they  were  confined,  these 
unfortunate  creatures  were  frozen.  The 
fate  of  one  who  was  thus  treated  in  the  New 
York  prison  in  1826,  and  died  from  cold 
and  nakedness,  aroused  a  profound  feeling 
among  the  humane.  In  a  New  Hampshire 
prison  an  insane  woman  was  so  housed  that 
her  feet  froze,  and  they  had  to  be  amputated, 
and  she  was  restored  thus  to  her  friends. 
Another  is  described  as  imprisoned  so  long 
in  a  low  cell  that  he  lost  the  use  of  his  legs, 
and  was  obliged  to  walk  on  his  feet  and 
hands ;  still  another,  who  had  been  in  easy 
circumstances,  was  now  "  fastened  in  a  ken 
nel  like  a  wild  beast."  It  was  estimated 
that,  in  1833,  there  were  2400  lunatics  thus 
confined  in  jails  and  prisons  in  the  United 
States.  They  were,  however,  no  worse  off 
than  the  crazed  in  the  county  poor-houses,  or 
sometimes  those  under  the  care  of  private 
families.  Within  thirty  years,  under  the 
writer's  knowledge,  in  a  Connecticut  town, 
was  a  lunatic  woman  who  lived  habitually 
in  a  hole  in  the  ground  under  a  hay-stack, 
and  was  fed  as  an  animal  would  be  fed. 

The  deepest  feeling  was  aroused  among 
the  humane  by  these  enormities  and  suffer 
ings,  and  at  length  asylums  for  the  insane 
were  opened  in  various  States.  The  first  of 
these  was,  undoubtedly,  the  one  at  Williams- 
burg,  Virginia,  in  1773.  The  present  Bloom- 


TREATMENT  OF  LUNATICS. 


469 


ingdale  Asylum,  New  York,  dates  its  care  of 
the  insane  from  the  close  of  the  last  centu 
ry,  or  about  1797.  All  of  these,  so  far  as  we 
have  record,  began  their  management  under 
the  modern  reform,  or  the  "  non-restraint" 
system,  never  having  employed  chains  and 
cells,  and  blows  and  torture,  as  had  so  often 
been  done  in  Europe ;  yet  none  of  them  now 
carry  out  the  non-restraint  method  so  far  as 
do  the  English  asylums. 

These  asylums  were  an  unmingled  bless 
ing  to  the  unfortunates  taken  from  the  pris 
ons.  The  report  of  the  Worcester  Asylum 
(1834)  says:  "Many  who,  in  their  paroxysms, 
used  formerly  to  lacerate  and  wound  their 
own  bodies  to  a  degree  that  threatened  life 
itself,  now  habitually  exercise  an  ordinary 
degree  of  prudence  in  avoiding  the  common 
causes  of  annoyance  or  accident.  Not  less 
than  one  hundred  of  those  brought  to  the 
hospital  seemed  to  regard  human  beings  as 
enemies,  and  their  first  impulse  was  to  assail 
them  with  open  or  disguised  force.  Now, 
there  are  not  more  than  twelve  who  offer  vi 
olence.  Of  forty  persous  who  formerly  di 
vested  themselves  of  clothing,  even  in  the 
most  inclement  season  of  the  year,  only  eight 
do  it  now "  "The  wailings  of  the  de 
sponding  and  the  ravings  of  the  frantic  are 
dispelled.  The  wide-circling  and  heart-sick 
ening  variety  of  horrors  exhibited  by  the  in 
mates  when  first  brought  together  have  been 
greatly  reduced  in  extent  and  mitigated  in 
quality." 

Great  as  was  the  reform  in  removing  these 
diseased  creatures  from  the  prison  to  the 
hospital,  there  still  remained  a  fearful  crowd 
of  unfortunates  in  the  county  poor-houses. 
These  institutions  have  usually  no  facilities 
for  the  proper  treatment  of  lunatics.  They 
must  be  imprisoned  with  the  other  inmates, 
old  and  young,  criminal  and  innocent,  or  be 
confined  in  dungeons.  The  officials  are  ig 
norant  of  the  only  proper  method  of  dealing 
with  the  malady,  and  are  often  hard  and 
cruel  in  their  habits  toward  the  paupers ; 
and  if  they  chance  to  be  humane,  they  have 
no  means,  or  a  proper  number  of  assistants, 
to  manage  these  persons  suitably.  They  can 
not  watch  and  regulate  the  habits  of  the  in 
sane  (which  are  often  very  disgusting),  nor 
keep  their  bodies  clean,  nor  furnish  the  sim 
ple  comforts  which  at  once  mitigate  the  vi 
olence  of  the  disease,  or  in  any  way  minister 


to  the  mind  as  well  as  the  body.  They  neg 
lect  all  this,  and  usually  are  almost  forced 
to  treat  the  crazed  as  if  he  were  a  dangerous 
and  filthy  brute.  The  consequence  is  that 
the  acme  of  human  suffering  and  of  horrors 
is  reached  in  those  relics  of  barbarism — the 
lunatic  wards  of  the  county  poor-houses. 

There,  are  innocent  but  diseased  human 
beings  treated  worse  than  the  most  abandon 
ed  criminals.  They  are  whipped,  scourged, 
chained,  ironed,  fastened  in  cages,  and  shut 
in  close  cells,  left  for  years  in  their  filth,  na 
ked,  hungry,  exposed  to  bitter  cold,  taunted 
and  jeered  at  by  villainous  ruffians,  disre 
garded  in  their  every  feeling  and  wish,  half 
fed,  their  feet  often  frozen,  wallowing  in  dirt 
and  straw,  surrounded  by  a  pandemonium 
of  paupers  and  criminals.  If  women,  it  oft 
en  happens  that  they  are  suffered  to  be 
tempted  and  ruined  by  the  ruffians  of  the 
poor-house,  and  a  hideous  progeny  begins, 
the  offspring  of  the  pauper  and  the  lunatic, 
of  the  epileptic  and  the  criminal.  It  is  not 
strange  that  in  such  places  the  disease  only 
becomes  more  intense,  and  there  are  very 
few  cases  of  recovery. 

Miss  Dix's  reports  in  1844,  and  Dr.  Willard'a 
report  in  1865,  together  with  the  reports  of 
the  State  Board  of  Charity,  reveal  the  hor 
rors  of  these  "  dark  places  of  the  earth"  in 
New  York  State.  In  1868,  the  New  York 
State  Board  of  Charity  found  that  out  of 
1528  insane  in  the  couuty  poor-house,  213 
were  locked  in  cells,  or  chained  habitually. 
Dr.  Willard  reports  that  in  1865,  in  many 
alms-houses,  the  insane  were  never  washed, 
and  that  their  bodies  were  in  an  especially 
filthy  and  disgusting  condition  ;  their  cloth 
ing  was  torn  and  scattered  about  their  cells, 
and  that  they  often  lay  naked  on  straw, 
which  was  wet  and  unchanged  for  days. 
The  cells  had  no  ventilation,  and  sometimes 
no  means  of  access  to  pure  air.  In  many 
towns  they  were  kept  in  dark  dungeons  or 
in  cages,  without  shoes  or  stockings,  under 
intense  cold,  sleeping  on  heaps  of  filthy  straw. 
There  was  no  place  for  exercise,  none  for 
amusement ;  the  diseased  mind  was  left  to 
itself.  There  was  no  classification  ;  old  and 
young,  virtuous  and  vicious,  male  and  fe 
male,  were  crowded  together.  Frequently 
insane  females  were  employed  to  take  care 
of  the  quarters  of  male  paupers  or  vaga 
bonds,  with  consequences  Avhich  might  have 


470 


HUMANITAKIAN  PROGRESS. 


been  expected.  Out  of  the  1345  insane  in  one 
year  in  the  county  houses,  it  was  estimated 
that  345  were  able,  in  part  or  in  whole,  to 
support  themselves. 

We  need  not  add  to  the  evidence  as  to  the 
condition  of  the  insane  in  the  alms-houses 
of  New  York  State.  The  same  terrible  pict 
ure  could  be  drawn  of  these  unhappy  beings 
in  all  the  county  houses  of  the  other  States. 
But  in  New  York  a  great  reform  has  begun. 
By  an  act  of  Legislature  (1865),  the  insane 
of  the  county  poor-houses  were  to  be  trans 
ferred  to  State  asylums,  and  supported  there 
at  the  expense  of  the  counties.  Probably 
no  one  legislative  measure  (except  the  na 
tional  act  of  emancipation)  ever  diffused 
within  a  limited  space  so  much  happiness, 
and  lessened  so  much  suffering. 

As  a  landmark,  showing  the  point  to 
•which  the  tide  of  human  feeling  and  prac 
tice  in  this  matter  has  reached  in  the  United 
States,  we  would  speak  somewhat  in  detail 
of  the  great  "  Willard  Asylum"  for  the  chron 
ic  insane  poor  of  New  York,  at  Ovid,  on  Sen 
eca  Lake.  Here  are  gathered  a  thousand 
lunatics,  taken  from  the  alms-houses  of  the 
rural  districts  of  the  State,  nearly  all  chron 
ic  and  incurable  cases.  The  first  patient 
who  was  brought  was  a  delicate  woman, 
heavily  ironed,  led  by  three  strong  "  super 
visors."  She  had  been  kept  in  a  cell  in  a 
state  of  nudity  for  some  ten  years,  tearing 
her  clothes  from  her  body,  very  violent,  and 
disgustingly  dirty.  The  first  step  in  the 
new  treatment  was  to  take  off  her  irons, 
then  to  give  her  a  warm  bath  and  clothe  her 
in  decent  garments;  next  she  was  fed  in  a 
Christian  manner.  She  had  a  long,  light, 
warm  corridor  to  walk  in,  if  it  was  winter, 
and  pleasant  grounds  in  summer.  At  night 
she  was  placed  in  a  comfortable  bed,  and 
treated  as  a  mother  watches  her  babe.  Soon 
a  little  work  was  given  to  her.  The  nerv 
ous  irritation  of  the  disease  was  soothed,  the 
mind  was  somewhat  occupied,  the  body  was 
well  cared  for.  If,  after  an  interval,  a  par 
oxysm  returned  and  she  would  tear  her 
clothes,  a  leather  muff  was  the  only  restraint, 
or  a  cloth  camisole  ;  or,  if  very  violent,  she 
might  be  fastened  to  her  chair  by  a  strap. 
When  we  saw  this  particular  patient,  she 
was  a  quiet,  decent,  industrious  lunatic,  and 
needed  no  restraint. 

We  saw  another  bright,  active  young  girl 


in  a  neat  attire,  who  in  the  county  alms- 
house  had  been  kept  for  years  in  chains, 
scourged  and  beaten,  having  the  marks  on 
her  body  of  this  treatment.  The  only  thing 
which  ever  quieted  her  there,  she  confessed, 
was  when  "  they  tied  her  up  by  the  thumbs 
and  flogged  her !"  In  this  asylum  she  was 
one  of  the  best  patients. 

A  man  was  shown  us  who  looked  calm  and 
quite  rational,  who  had  been  ten  years  in  an 
alms-house,  naked  and  in  chains.  A  Span 
iard  from  Dutchess  County  was  pointed  out 
who  had  been  kept  nineteen  years  in  chains. 
Another,  from  St.  Lawrence  County,  was 
eight  years  in  a  cage,  his  garments  not  re 
moved  for  weeks,  fed  like  a  wild  beast, 
flogged,  jeered,  and  gazed  at,  and  finally  in 
such  a  condition  that  to  his  diseased  mind 
it  seemed  to  him  "  the  people  threw  in  lice 
at  me."  He  was  in  this  confinement  many 
years.  Here  he  was  like  any  other  patient. 
We  spoke  with  another  man  who  had  been 
shut  up  for  fifteen  years  in  an  outhouse  (in 
Richmond  County)  in  so  narrow  a  place  that 
he  had  lost  the  use  of  his  flexor  muscles, 
in  the  midst  of  indescribable  filth.  Now, 
though  crippled,  he  could  sit  at  table,  and 
was  a  quiet,  inoffensive  lunatic. 

Some  had  lost  their  toes  or  feet  through 
the  exposure  to  which  they  had  been  sub 
ject.  Many  were  marked  with  blows ;  and 
hundreds  had  been  ironed,  or  chained,  or 
caged  before  they  were  brought  to  this 
asylum.  Several  women  were  pointed  out 
to  me  who  had  been  mothers  in  the  alms- 
house.  We  saw  but  two  or  three  out  of  the 
thousand  with  the  restraint  even  of  the 
"muff,"  and  two  or  three  were  fastened  to 
a  chair.  They  all  sit  at  table,  and  have 
healthful  fare.  The  bedrooms  are  clean 
and  well -aired,  the  corridors  warm  and 
pleasant,  their  dress  neat  and  well  kept; 
they  have  plays  and  amusements  in  their 
public  room,  and  attend  worship  on  Sunday. 
Though  peculiarly  weakened  and  diseased, 
the5r  perform  considerable  industrial  work. 
The  disgusting  and  fearful  habits  of  insanity 
are  to  a  large  degree  broken  up.  So  far  as 
such  people  can  do  so,  they  enjoy  life,  and 
the  pains  and  evils  of  their  disease  are  less 
ened. 

The  Willard  Asylum  is  one  of  the  mile 
stones  of  human  progress  in  this  country. 

There  are  questions,  however,  connected 


CONCLUSION. 


471 


with  the  congregating  so  many  human  be 
ings  in  one  institution  and  the  reserving 
one  asylum  for  the  incurables,  as  well  as  the 
degree  to  which  restraint  can  be  dispensed 
with,  and  labor  usefully  performed  by  the 
insane,  which  we  need  not  here  consider. 
The  wonderful  advance  is  from  the  couuty 
poor-house  to  the  State  asylum. 

In  reconsidering  the  various  topics  in 
which  we  have  endeavored  to  show  the 
steady  progress  of  the  American  spirit  of 
humauity  during  the  century  past,  we  are 
struck  with  one  Held  where  the  advance  has 
been  little  or  nothing :  we  mean  in  the  coun 
ty  institutions  of  the  various  States  for  the 
relief  of  the  unfortunate  and  the  punish 
ment  of  the  criminal.  Great  reforms,  it  is 
true,  have  begun  in  some  of  the  States,  in 
the  removal  of  pauper  children,  and  of  the 
insane  and  idiotic,  in  alms-houses,  to  their 
appropriate  State  asylums.  But,  on  the 
whole,  taking  the  country  through,  the  con 
dition  of  the  rural  jails  and  of  the  county 
poor-houses  is  not  essentially  changed  since 
1800.  The  greatest  abuses  and  the  worst 
instances  of  inhumanity  in  the  country  are 
found  in  these  "  institutions." 

The  explanation  of  this  singular  obstruc 
tion  to  humane  progress  in  one  field  is  that, 
in  our  rural  administration,  we  have  follow 
ed  the  old  English  system  of  decentraliza 
tion  in  the  public  care  of  the  poor,  unfortu 
nate,  and  criminal,  to  an  excessive  degree. 
No  small  rural  community,  like  a  couuty, 
for  instance,  can  do  justice  and  observe  the 
spirit  of  humanity  in  its  management  of 
those  persons  who  are  thrown  on  its  public 
charge. 

The  first  condition  of  reform  and  of  hu 
mane  treatment  in  regard  to  the  "defect 
ives,"  the  poor  and  the  offenders  against 
law,  is  classification.  But  no  county  has 
the  means  and  appliances  for  classifying 
public  dependents  and  criminals.  No  such 
small  division  can  afford  to  employ  the  kind 
of  officials  needed,  nor  can  it  carry  out  any 
method  of  improvement  requiring  expense, 
nor  are  its  places  of  charity  and  penalty  un 
der  much  public  observation.  The  conse 
quences  are  what  we  have  seen,  that  the 
county  alms-houses  and  jails  become  abodes 
of  unspeakable  misery  and  degradation. 
The  advantages  of  local  administration  are 


not  to  be  foregone  in  many  important  par 
ticulars;  but  these  can  be  retained,  while 
the  greater  benefits  from  larger  manage 
ment  of  the  pauper  and  criminal  subjects 
may  be  secured. 

The  erection  of  State  work-houses,  State 
lunatic  and  idiotic  asylums,  State  "  interme 
diate  or  reformatory"  prisons,  would  at  once 
drain  from  the  county  houses  and  jails  all 
the  subjects  who  are  now  herded  together 
in  these  places,  and  who  are  there  degraded 
or  injured.  With  the  erection  of  these  State 
institutions  should  be  passed  strict  laws,  re 
quiring  every  pauper  child  of  sound  mind 
and  body  to  be  removed  from  the  alms- 
houses,  and  placed  in  private  families  or  or 
phan  asylums,  and  the  transference  of  the 
other  inmates  as  far  as  practicable  to  their 
appropriate  State  institutions.  When  this 
is  accomplished  throughout  the  Union,  a 
new  century  of  improvement  will  begin  for 
some  of  the  most  unfortunate  and  neglected 
members  of  modern  society. 

In  reviewing  the  management  of  the  pris 
ons  and  penitentiaries  of  the  country,  we 
have  beheld  a  marked  advance  during  the 
century ;  and  an  approach,  at  least  in  the 
State  of  Ohio,  to  Livingston's  great  ideal, 
since  realized  in  the  Irish,  or  Croftou,  pris 
on  system.  Yet  it  is  but  justice  to  say 
that,  on  the  whole,  the  progress  in  this  mat 
ter  in  the  American  Union  has  not  been 
equal  to  that  of  Europe.  The  great  evil 
here  has  been  the  connection  of  prison  man 
agement  with  political  and  party  interests, 
and  the  consequent  appointment  of  unwor 
thy  and  ignorant  men  to  have  charge  of 
these  difficult  places  of  administration. 

The  great  prison  reform  of  the  century, 
the  Croftou  system,  has  scarcely  as  yet  been 
introduced  into  a  single  prison  of  the  coun 
try — the  State-prison  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  be 
ing  the  nearest  approach  to  it.  The  intro 
duction  of  "commutation,"  however,  shows 
a  great  advance. 

One  great  step  in  improvement  has  been 
made  by  the  formation  of  a  National  Pris 
on  Association,"  whereby  the  methods  adopt 
ed  in  different  States  can  be  compared  and 
unity  of  plan  can  be  introduced.  Under  the 
influence  of  the  conventions  meeting  at  the 
call  of  this  association  many  great  reforms 
will  undoubtedly  be  carried  out  during 


472 


HUMANITARIAN  PROGRESS. 


the  coming  century  in  our  prison  manage 
ment. 

The  barbarities  of  the  past ;  the  imprison 
ment  of  debtors  with  felons  ;  the  use  of  cruel 
and  brutalizing  punishments;  the  herding 
of  young  and  old,  male  and  female,  innocent 
and  guilty,  in  common  prisons,  we  have 
mainly  abandoned,  and  we  have  introduced 
every  where  the  influences  of  education,  in 
dustry,  and  religion  to  work  upon  the  char 
acters  of  the  convicts.  There  remains  much, 
however,  to  be  done  in  this  field. 

An  immense  progress  has  also  been  made 
in  the  treatment  of  the  insane,  the  blind,  the 
deaf  and  dumb,  and  idiotic.  These  unfortu 
nate  beings,  if  not  belonging  to  the  pauper 
class,  are  all  now  comfortably  treated,  and 
often  much  improved,  in  their  appropriate 
asylums.  A  considerable  number  of  the  in 
sane  (though  not  so  large  as  might  be  ex 
pected)  are  cured  and  restored  to  society ; 
the  idiotic  are  much  advanced  in  self-control 
and  the  use  of  their  faculties ;  the  blind,  if 
not  taught  to  see,  are  at  least  so  instructed 
that  they  join  steadily  in  labors  for  pro 
duction,  and  obtain  much  enjoyment  from 
life ;  the  deaf  and  dumb  are  taught  to  articu 
late,  so  as  apparently  to  be  able  to  join  in 
the  business  of  the  community,  or  they  are 
so  highly  instructed  in  sign -language  that 
they  can  form  a  social  community  of  their 
own  of  culture,  and  capable  of  much  social 
enjoyment. 

The  greatest  practical  advance  in  humane 
methods  during  the  century  has  undoubted 
ly  been  in  the  care  of  the  neglected,  exposed, 
and  criminal  youth,  as  seen  in  the  founda 
tion  of  so  many  reformatories  for  youth  in 
the  various  States,  in  the  opening  of  innu 
merable  mission  -  schools  for  poor  and  ig 
norant  children  through  every  part  of  the 
Union,  and  in  such  extended,  original,  and 
successful  labors  for  the  prevention  of  child 
ish  misery  and  crime  as  those  of  the  Chil 
dren's  Aid  Society  of  New  York.  Nothing 
surpassing  these  efforts,  in  their  spirit,  their 
organization,  and  their  success,  can  be  found 
in  any  part  of  the  world. 

Did  space  permit,  much  should  also  be 
said  of  the  astonishing  labors  in  behalf  of 
the  sick  and  wounded  during  the  civil  war 


of  the  various  State  Soldiers'  Aid  Associa 
tions,  and  of  the  National  Sanitary  Asso 
ciation —  efforts  on  a  prodigious  scale,  and 
introducing  into  modern  warfare  a  new  el 
ement  of  individual  care  and  watchfulness 
over  the  health  of  the  soldier,  aud  of  in 
dividual  supply  of  the  wants  of  the  wound 
ed  aud  sick  in  the  armies  and  hospitals,  in 
combination  with  official  aud  government 
care  aud  management. 

These  remarkable  labors  have,  however, 
been  sufficiently  described  elsewhere.  They 
are  a  striking  evidence  of  the  humanitari 
an  progress  of  the  country,  and  are  destined 
to  affect  the  practice  and  feeling  of  all  na 
tions  in  future  wars,  and  to  bring  a  new  in 
fluence  of  humanity  to  soften  the  passions, 
and  lessen  the  sufferings  of  these  bitter 
struggles. 

The  great  event  of  this  century  in  the 
United  States,  the  emancipation  of  the 
slaves,  is  undoubtedly,  in  large  part,  a  result 
of  the  spirit  of  humanity,  which,  under  the 
silent  influence  of  Christianity,  has  gradual 
ly  permeated  all  nations.  But  this  event  is 
so  connected  with  political  complications, 
and  wras  so  hastened  finally  by  military  ne 
cessities,  that  it  must  be  regarded  as  a  part 
of  the  political  history  of  this  country,  and 
be  treated  of  in  that  connection. 

This,  however,  can  be  said,  that  but  for 
the  profound  sense  of  human  rights  aud  of 
the  brotherhood  of  humanity  which  has  pen 
etrated  our  people,  they  would  never  have 
carried  their  hostility  to  slavery  and  its  ex 
tension  so  far  as  to  risk  civil  war.  It  does 
not  lessen  our  respect  for  their  humanity, 
that  their  wise  instinct  and  foresight  saw 
that  the  future  of  the  republic  and  the  suc 
cess  of  this  political  experiment  depended  on 
its  freedom  from  this  great  organized  injus 
tice.  Patriotism  and  humanity  impelled  to 
gether;  and  being  in  the  struggle,  humane 
feeling,  as  well  as  sound  policy,  bid  them 
go  to  the  extreme  point  of  entire  and  forci 
ble  and  immediate  emancipation. 

The  freedom  of  four  millions  of  human 
beings  from  slavery,  after  enormous  cost  of 
blood  and  treasure,  is  the  crowning  fruit  of 
humanitarian  development  in  the  United 
States  during  the  past  century. 


XVII. 


RELIGIOUS  DEVELOPMENT. 


OF  the  many  forces  which  have  entered 
into  the  development  of  the  United 
States,  religion  must  be  regarded  as  one  of 
the  first  iu  time,  the  steadiest  iu  mode,  and 
the  most  potent  in  quality.  If  it  were  pos 
sible  iu  imagination  to  eliminate  this  factor 
from  our  growth,  we  should  find  not  only 
that  the  colonization  of  the  Atlantic  and 
Gulf  belt  would  have  been  delayed  many 
decades,  but  that  the  entire  complexion  of 
that  colonization  would  have  been  different, 
the  final  protest  in  speech  and  deed  against 
foreign  rule  would  have  been  later  and  oth 
erwise  made,  and  our  civilization  have  re 
sulted  in  a  poor  copy  of  that  of  the  Western 
tier  of  European  states,  and  our  govern 
ment  in  a  servile  imitation  of  either  the 
British  monarchy  or  of  the  Bourbon  rule  in 
France.  "  Let  processions  be  made,"  wrote 
Columbus  to  the  treasurer  of  Spain,  on  re 
turning  from  the  New  World,  to  lay  a  new 
continent  at  the  feet  of  his  sovereign  ;  "  let 
festivals  be  celebrated ;  let  temples  be 
adorned  with  branches  and  flowers!  For 
Christ  rejoices  on  earth  as  iu  heaven,  in 
view  of  the  future  redemption  of  souls.  Let 
us  rejoice,  also,  for  the  temporal  benefit 
which  will  result  from  the  discovery,  not 
merely  to  Spain,  but  to  all  Christendom." 
Chains  and  darkness  and  hunger  were  the 
ironical  reward  which  crowned  these  pious 
aspirations;  while,  so  far  as  his  own  part  of 
"all  Christendom"  was  concerned,  Spain's 
chief  care  was  far  less  to  enlarge  the  house 
hold  of  heaven  than  to  replenish  her  treas 
ury  from  mines  in  her  new  continent,  and 
yet  to  sanctify  her  lust  by  presenting  to 
Pope  Alexander  VI.,  as  the  firstlings  of  her 
far-off  El  Dorado,  enough  gold  to  furnish  a 
solid  plating  of  that  metal  for  the  entire 
ceiling  of  the  Roman  basilica,  Santa  Maria 
Maggiore.  It  is  most  interesting  to  ob 
serve,  in  oiir  whole  colonial  development, 
the  unfailing  presence  of  the  religious  in 
stinct,  which,  for  the  first  time  freed  from 
its  European  shackles,  could  choose  at  will 
its  own  fields,  mark  out  for  itself  a  new 


mission,  and  proceed  upon  a  higher  destiny 
than  its  previous  vision  had  ever  ventured 
to  picture  as  a  reasonable  possibility  for 
what  Bunsen  calls  "  the  Church  of  the  Fu 
ture." 

In  order  to  appreciate  fully  the  religious 
element  in  our  first  century  of  national  life, 
it  will  be  necessary  to  take  careful  note  of 
its  existence  in  our  colonial  life.  There  is 
no  such  thing  as  isolation  iu  history,  and 
particularly  iu  American  history.1  Our  co 
lonial  and  national  history  are  two  depart 
ments  of  the  same  organism.  They  are  re 
lated  as  foundation  and  superstructure.  The 
Revolution  of  1776,  far  from  being  an  anom 
aly  in  the  current  of  American  history,  or 
an  unexpected  turn  in  the  affairs  of  the  col 
onies,  was  the  natural  consummation  of  the 
colonial  planting  and  training,  and  long 
foreseen  by  the  best  statesmen  of  Europe. 
The  tedious  ordeal,  lasting  from  Lexington 
to  Yorktown,  was  the  natural  product  of  the 
genius  and  daring  of  the  James  River  and 
Plymouth  colonies.  Nothing  but  a  narrow 
oppression  could  have  been  expected  from 
the  house  of  Hanover,  whose  sixty-one  years 
on  the  English  throne — whither  a  happy 
accident  had  translated  it  from  the  obscuri 
ty  of  the  humble  palace  and  trim  little  gar 
den  of  Herreuhausen — had  not  proved  long 
and  punitive  enough  to  reveal  to  it  the  spir 
it  of  The  colonists,  while  only  the  most  stub 
born  and  successful  resistance  could  have 
been  anticipated  from  those  who  suffered 
most  from  the  oppressive  policy.  The  Co 
lonial,  the  Revolutionary,  a.nd  the  National 
eras  were  cast  in  the  same  mold,  and  to 
gether  constitute  a  beautifully  rounded  uni 
ty.  They  all  prove  the  same  great  fact  of 
the  world's  readiness  for  the  free  conscience 
and  free  citizenship.  When  independence 
finally  came,  there  was  the  opportunity  for 
monarchy ;  but  it  was  rejected  as  an  un 
worthy  prize.  It  is  the  lesson  which  Tal- 
fourd  puts  on  the  lips  of  Ctesiphon : 

»  Shedd,  Philosophy  of  History,  p.  14. 


474 


RELIGIOUS  DEVELOPMENT. 


"Go  teach  the  eagle  when  in  azure  heaven 
He  upward  darts  to  seize  his  maddened  prey, 
Shivering  through  the  death-circle  of  its  fear, 
To  pause  and  let  it  'scape,  and  thou  mayst  win 
Man  to  forego  the  sparkling  round  of  power, 
When  it  floats  airily  within  his  grasp  J"1 

If  we  would  learn  the  true  character  of 
the  religious  life  of  the  colonies,  we  must  in 
quire,  first  of  all,  into  its  European  anteced 
ents. 

The  period  of  the  settlement  of  this  coun 
try  was  singularly  identical  with  that  of 
the  breaking-iip  of  the  old  religious  life  of 
Europe.  Indeed,  since  the  Crusades  the  Old 
World  had  passed  through  no  such  convul 
sions  as  shook  her  whole  religious,  political, 
intellectual,  and  social  frame-work  at  the 
time  when  every  nation  was  sending  forth 
her  sons — albeit  many  exiles  in  the  number 
— to  establish  themselves  on  the  Atlantic 
coast  of  this  continent.  It  was  not  from 
any  stagnant  nation  that  immigrants  came 
to  our  wooded  shores,  but  from  stirred  and 
aroused  peoples.  The  political  questions 
that  arose  as  a  necessary  consequence  of  the 
great  Reformation  were  not  adjusted  until 
the  close  of  the  Thirty  Years'  War,  in  1648, 
or  only  twenty-eight  years  after  the  lauding 
of  Plymouth  colony.  Europe's  best  blood 
was  hot  with  new  aspirations  —  we  might 
better  call  them  inspirations  —  at  the  very 
moment  when  this  new  field  was  opened  for 
the  greatest  fulfillment  in  modern  history. 
The  Pilgrims  who  stepped  ashore  at  Plym 
outh  Rock  were  men  who  had  been  bearing 
no  small  share  of  Britain's  burdens ;  and 
while  they  still  retained  vivid  recollection 
of  the  disabilities  and  sufferings  consequent 
upon  the  enforcement  of  the  Act  of  Uniform 
ity,  theirs  was  not  the  regret  of  idleness  and 
despair,  but  of  great  unattained  privileges. 
And  hence  those  who  survived  the  first  win 
ter,  with  the  new  colonists  who  re-enforced 
their  strength,  addressed  themselves  to  the 
work  before  them  with  all  the  vigor  and  ag 
gressive  spirit  which  have  ever  since  char 
acterized  the  sous  of  New  England.  They 
possessed  the  true  Roman  power  of  adap 
tation  to  every  circumstance  without  com 
plaint,  as  expressed  by  Cicero:  "  Edi  quse 
potui,  non  Tit  volni,  sed  lit  me  temporis  au- 
gustia?  coegerunt."  The  Dutch  brought  with 
them  both  the  discipline  and  the  iudigna- 


»  Ion,  p.  58. 


tion  that  grew  naturally  from  the  cold  hate 
of  Philip  II.,  the  barbarous  cruelty  of  Alva, 
and  the  final  triumph  of  the  national  spirit 
over  both.  The  Huguenots,  whose  land  had 
been  any  thing  to  them  but  "  Fair  France," 
came  with  the  great  fresh  sorrow  over  friends 
and  co-believers  who  had  gone  to  their  cor 
onation  by  way  of  the  fagot-pile  and  the  ex 
ecutioner's  block. 

Is  it  surprising  that  these  fugitives  from 
the  dragonnades  of  swift-footed  persecution 
should  form  an  important  element  in  this 
new  life  ?  "  Such  an  element,"  says  Storrs, 
"  of  population  was  powerful  here,  beyond 
its  numbers.  Its  trained  vitality  made  it 
efficient.  It  is  a  familiar  fact  that  of  the 
seven  presidents  of  the  Continental  Con 
gress,  three  were  of  this  Huguenot  lineage — 
Boudiuot,  Laurens,  and  John  Jay.  Of  the 
four  commissioners  who  signed  the  provis 
ional  treaty  at  Paris  which  assured  our  in 
dependence,  two  were  of  the  same  number 
— Laurens  and  Jay.  Faueuil,  whose  hall  in 
Boston  has  been  for  more  than  a  hundred 
years  the  rallying-place  of  patriotic  enthu 
siasm,  was  the  son  of  a  Huguenot.  Marion, 
the  swamp  -  fox  of  Carolina,  was  another ; 
Horry,  another ;  Huger,  another.  It  was  a 
Huguenot  voice — that  of  Duche"  —  which 
opened  with  prayer  the  Continental  Cou- 
gi'ess.  It  was  a  Huguenot  hand — that  of 
John  Laurens — which  drew  the  articles  of 
capitulation  at  Yorktown.  Between  these 
two  terminal  acts,  the  brilliant  and  faithful 
bravery  of  the  soldier  had  found  wider  imi 
tation  among  those  of  his  lineage  than  had 
the  cowardly  weakness  of  the  preacher;  and 
two  of  those  who,  thirty  years  after  (in  1814), 
signed  the  treaty  of  peace  at  Ghent  were 
still  of  this  remarkable  stock — James  Bay 
ard  and  Albert  Gallatin."1 

The  Germans  who  came  hither  had  set  out 
from  the  hearth-stone  of  the  Reformation, 
and  knew  as  well  all  the  distinctions  be 
tween  Augsburg  and  Geneva  as  the  differ 
ences  between  Wittenberg  and  Rome.  The 
Swedish  colony  started  from  a  land  fervid 
enough  and  just  ready  to  send  its  king, 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  to  take  charge  of  the 
Protestant  forces  in  their  long  conflict  with 
the  troops  of  Wallenstein  and  Tilly.  In 
deed,  of  the  eighteen  languages  spoken  by 

1  The  Early  American  Spirit,  p.  52, 53. 


EARLY  RELIGIOUS  SENTIMENT. 


475 


the  colonists,  representing  at  least  ten  dif 
ferent  nationalities  in  the  Old  World,  there 
was  not  one  which  had  not  of  late  been  used 
beyond  the  Atlantic  as  the  vehicle  for  the 
discussion  of  religious  and  theological  ques 
tions,  for  scientific  investigation,  for  the 
highest  fields  of  literature,  and  for  national 
and  international  jurisprudence.  The  cent 
ury  which  produced  the  colonists  of  our 
country  could  count  among  its  sons  Richard 
Hooker,  Chilliugworth,  Usher,  Laud,  and 
Whitgift ;  Arminius,  Episcopius,  Grotius, 
and  Vossius ;  Hutterus,  Gerhard,  Osiauder, 
and  Calixtus  ;  Buxtorf  and  Casaubon ;  Lord 
Bacon,  Descartes,  and  Jacob  Bb'hme ;  Ru 
bens,  Rembrandt,  and  Murillo ;  Galileo,  Kep 
ler,  and  Tycho  Brahe ;  and  those  two  great 
est  names  in  the  British  literary  pantheon — 
Shakspeare  and  Milton.1  It  was  a  century 
of  prodigies,  and  not  least  among  them  were 
those  cosmopolitan  and  heroic  bauds  of  col 
onists  which  it  sent  to  people  and  develop 
the  Western  hemisphere.  There  was  an  ele 
ment  of  high  moral  purpose  in  them  for 
which  we  search  in  vain  in  the  colonial 
plantings  of  Phoenicia,  Carthage,  and  Rome. 
In  fact,  the  nations  themselves,  which  in  the 
seventeenth  century  furnished  scions  for  the 
new  life  here,  were  never,  either  before  or 
since,  permitted  to  produce  for  distant  lauds 
men  of  equally  elevated  motives,  fine  intel 
lect,  and  far-reaching  destiny. 

What  Green  says  of  the  great  character 
of  the  eight  hundred  emigrants  under  John 
Wiuthrop  might  really  be  said  of  the  colo 
nists  as  a  body:  "They  were  not  'broken 
men/  adventurers,  bankrupts,  criminals ;  or 
simply  poor  men  and  artisans.  They  were 
in  great  part  men  of  the  professional  and 
middle  classes ;  some  of  them  men  of  large 
lauded  estate  ;  some  zealous  clergymen,  like 
Cotton,  Hooker,  and  Roger  Williams;  some 
shrewd  London  lawyers,  or  young  schol 
ars  from  Oxford They  desired,  in  fact, 

'only  the  best'  as  sharers  in  their  enter 
prise  ;  were  driven  forth  from  their  father 
land,  not  by  earthly  want,  or  by  the  greed 
of  gold,  or  by  the  lust  of  adventure,  but  by 
the  fear  of  God,  and  the  zeal  for  a  godly 
worship."3 

Of  Hooker,  Stone,  and  Cotton,  and  their 
reception  by  the  Massachusetts  Colony,  Pal- 

1  Cf.  Storrs,  The  Early  American  Spirit,  p.  42  ff. 
8  Short  History  of  the  English  People,  Am.  ed.,  p.  498. 


frey  says :  "  They  were  men  of  eminent  ca 
pacity  and  sterling  character,  fit  to  be  con 
cerned  in  the  founding  a  state.  In  all  its 
generations  of  worth  and  refinement,  Boston 
has  never  seen  an  assembly  more  illustrious 
for  generous  qualities,  or  for  manly  culture, 
than  when  the  magistrates  of  the  young  col 
ony  welcomed  Cotton  and  his  fellow-voy 
agers  at  Wiuthrop's  table."  The  most  of 
the  clergymen  who  came  to  New  England 
had  gained  celebrity  at  home,  and  a  large 
number  had  studied  at  Cambridge,  and  par 
ticularly  in  Emanuel  College.1 

But  while  the  element  of  religion  was 
dominant  in  the  initial  idea  and  impulse,  it 
was  not  less  mighty  and  pervasive  through 
the  whole  colonial  period  of  one  hundred 
and  seventy  years.  The  colonial  territory 
fell  into  three  distinct  sections :  1.  The  New 
England,  or  Northern  District ;  2.  The  New 
York,  or  Central  District ;  and  3.  The  Vir 
ginia,  or  Southern  District.  In  eacli  of  these, 
though  there  was  difference  in  the  time  and 
source  of  the  colony,  there  was  the  same 
general  recognition  of  religion.  The  char 
ter  of  the  James  River  Colony  established  re 
ligion  according  to  the  doctrines  and  usages 
of  the  Church  of  England.  The  religious 
fermentation  was  very  decided,  and  even  our 
present  multiplicity  is  a  legacy  from  the 
mother  country.  It  provokes  a  smile  to 
read  an  act  of  the  Maryland  Assembly,  pass 
ed  in  1664,  against  blasphemy  and  profan 
ity,  which  pronounces  against  the  following 
"motley  brood,"  as  Waylen  calls  them  with 
a  degree  of  relish :  "  Schismatic,  Idolater, 
Puritan,  Lutheran,  Calviuist,  Anabaptist, 
Brownist,  Autiuomian,  Barrowist,  Round 
head,"2  etc. 

With  all  our  national  religious  develop 
ment,  we  have  not  yet  reached  the  great  alti 
tude  of  the  humane  spirit  of  one  of  the  pro 
visions  of  the  first  charter  of  the  Virginia 
Colony  toward  the  Indians:  "All  persons 
shall  kindly  treat  the  savage  and  heathen 
people  in  those  parts,  and  use  all  proper 
means  to  draw  them  to  the  true  service  and 
knowledge  of  God."3  As  late  as  1705  the 
Virginia  Assembly  decreed  three  years'  im 
prisonment  and  many  political  disabilities 

J  Bibliotheca  Sacra,  vol.  xviii.,  p.  191. 
a  Ecclesiastical  Reminiscences  of  the   United  States, 
p.  414. 
3  Stith,  History  of  Virginia,  bk.  i.,  p.  40. 


476 


RELIGIOUS  DEVELOPMENT. 


upon  any  one  who  should  a  second  time  as 
sert  disbelief  in  the  Trinity  and  the  Script 
ures.  The  West  India  Company,  which  in 
1640  controlled  the  settlement  of  New  Am 
sterdam,  was  required  "  to  provide  good  and 
suitable  preachers,  school-masters,  and  com 
forters  of  the  sick ;"  and  later,  after  1664, 
when  the  English  became  masters,  they  en 
acted  that  "  no  person  shall  be  molested, 
fined,  or  imprisoned,  for  differing  in  judgment 
in  matters  of  religion  who  professes  Chris 
tianity."1  Of  the  Dutch,  who  furnished  the 
basis  of  the  settlement,  Storrs  says:  "An 
energetic  Christian  faith  came  with  them, 
with  its  Bibles,  its  ministers,  its  interpret 
ing  books."2  The  New  England  Colony  was 
grounded  in  religion,  and  the  administra 
tion  partook  largely  of  that  character.  The 
people  who  established  it  remembered  too 
keenly  the  fires  through  which  they  had 
passed  to  run  any  unnecessary  risks.  Hence 
they  enacted  that  no  man  should  have  the 
freedom  of  the  colony  who  was  not  a  mem 
ber  of  some  church  within  its  limits ;  and 
the  New  Haven  Colony  said  plainly :  "  Church 
members  only  should  be  free  burgesses."3 
The  "  Blue  Laws  of  Connecticut,"  however, 
are  a  wretched  imposture.  The  time  has 
come  when  not  a  child  in  the  land  ought  to 
be  without  the  information  that  there  never 
did  exist  such  a  code.  It  is  a  fabrication  of 
one  Peters,  author  of  a  History  of  Connecticut, 
who  fled  to  London  at  the  beginning  of  the 
Revolution,  and  employed  his  time  in  as 
persing  the  character  of  the  struggling  col 
onists.4 

The  colonization  of  the  Southern  terri 
tory  partook  of  the  same  general  religious 
character  with  the  Central  and  Northern. 
This  may  be  seen,  for  example,  in  the  es 
tablishment  of  Carolina.  In  1662  certain 
noblemen  applied  to  Charles  II.  for  a  grant 
on  the  express  ground  of  "  zeal  for  the  prop 
agation  of  the  Christian  faith  in  a  country 
not  yet  cultivated  or  planted,  and  only  in 
habited  by  some  barbarous  people,  who 

1  Thompson,  Church  and  State  in  the  United  States, 
p.  32^10 ;    Documents  of  Colonial  History   (Holland), 
vol.  i.,  p.  123;  Historical  Society's  Collection,  vol.  i., 
p.  332. 

2  Early  American  Spirit,  p.  47. 

3  Thompson,  Church  and  State  in  the  United  States, 
p.  57,  58. 

4  Compare  Kinjjsley,  Historical  Discourse,  and  Hall, 
Puritans  and  their  Principles,  p.  IT  and  note. 


have  no  knowledge  of  God."  And  in  1665, 
when  there  was  a  new  charter,  and  the  for 
mer  guarantees  were  confirmed,  the  relig 
ious  element  was  brought  out  still  more 
into  the  foreground.  It  declared  that  "  no 
man  shall  be  permitted  to  be  a  freeman  of 
Carolina,  or  to  have  any  estate  or  habita 
tion  within  it,  who  doth  not  acknowledge 
God."  Still,  freedom  was  granted  all  faiths : 
"  Jews,  heathens,  and  other  dissenters  from 
the  purity  of  Christian  religion  may  not  be 
scared  and  kept  at  a  distance  from  it,  but 
by  having  an  opportunity  of  acquainting 
themselves  with  the  truth  and  reasonable 
ness  of  its  doctrines,  and  the  peaceableuess 
and  iuoffeusiveness  of  its  professors,  may,  by 
good  usage  and  persuasion,  and  all  those 
convincing  methods  of  gentleness  and  meek 
ness  suitable  to  the  rules  and  design  of  the 
Gospel,  be  won  over  to  embrace  and  un- 
feignedly  receive  the  truth ;  therefore,  any 
seven  or  more  persons  agreeing  in  any  re 
ligion  shall  constitute  a  church  or  profes 
sion,  to  which  they  shall  give  some  name  to 
distinguish  it  from  others."1 

As  the  Revolutionary  struggle  approached 
there  was  a  quickening  of  the  free  religions 
impulses  of  the  people.  The  fear  that  the 
Church  of  England  would  be  supported  by 
the  crown  in  its  effort  to  absorb  the  New 
England  churches,  and  establish  a  Protest 
ant  episcopate  over  all  the  colonies,  "con 
tributed  as  much  as  any  other  cause,"  says 
John  Adams,  "  to  arouse  the  attention,  not 
only  of  the  inquiring  mind,  but  of  the  com 
mon  people,  and  urge  them  to  close  think 
ing  on  the  constitutional  authority  of  Par 
liament  over  the  colonies."2  How  keenly 
the  colonists  felt  on  this  subject  may  be 
seen  in  the  special  instruction  of  the  Assem 
bly  of  Massachusetts  to  its  agent  in  Lon 
don,  in  1768  :  "The  establishment  of  a  Prot 
estant  episcopate  in  America  is  very  zeal 
ously  contended  for  "  (i.  e.,  by  the  arbitrary 
party  in  the  British  Parliament) ;  "  and  it 
is  very  alarming  to  a  people  whose  fathers, 
from  the  hardships  they  suffered  under  such 
an  establishment,  were  obliged  to  fly  their 
native  country  into  a  wilderness  in  order 

1  Dalcho,  Historical  Account  of  the  Protestant  Epis 
copal  Church  of  South  Carolina,  p.  5.  In  Appendix  I. 
to  Dalcho,  see  "  The  Church  Act  for  Establishment 
of  Religious  Worship  in  the  Province  of  Carolina," 

a  Works,  vol.  x.,  p.  185. 


RELIGION  AND   POLITICS  IN  THE   REVOLUTION. 


477 


peaceably  to  enjoy  their  privileges  —  civil 
and  religious.  We  hope  in  God  that  such 
an  establishment  will  never  take  place  in 
America ;  and  we  desire  you  would  strenu 
ously  oppose  it."1 

It  is  not  without  significance  that  the 
troops  of  Great  Britain  were  first  fired  upon 
by  the  colonists  from  a  church  just  forsaken 
of  its  royalist  rector,  on  the  shore  of  Massa 
chusetts  Bay.  "  Paul  Revere,"  says  Loriug, 
"  filled  with  patriotic  daring,  proposed  to 
use  a  church,  just  abandoned  by  a  loyal  rec 
tor,  as  a  beacon-light  for  the  patriots  just 
about  to  strike  their  first  blow  for  freedom. 
How  sudden  and  complete  the  change!  As 
the  representative  of  royal  power  in  church 
aud  state  steps  down,  in  obedience  to  the 
dictates  of  his  conscience,  the  representa 
tive  of  a  struggling  people  takes  his  place, 
and  at  once,  as  by  a  decree  of  Providence, 
the  destiny  of  this  church  is  changed,  and 
its  history  is  immortal.  For  more  than 
half  a  century  it  had  stood,  the  emblem  of 
a  great  religious  faith ;  in  an  iustaut  it  rose 
to  a  still  higher  duty,  aud  became  the  sig 
nal  of  an  heroic  effort  to  preserve  a  free  con 
science  to  the  believers,  and  free  citizenship, 
with  all  its  opportunities,  to  the  masses  of 
mankind." 

It  was  natural  that  the  clergy  of  the 
Church  of  England  should  be  mostly  parti 
sans  of  the  royal  cause ;  and  yet  many  of 
them  distinguished  themselves  for  fidelity 
to  the  defeuse  of  the  Colonies.  Of  this 
number  were  Bishop  Madison,  and  Brack 
en,  Belmaine,  Buchanan,  Jarratt,  Griffith, 
Davis,  and  many  others ;  while  Mnhlenburg, 
of  Virginia,  relinquished  his  rectorate,  be 
came  colonel  iu  the  American  army,  raised 
a  regiment  from  among  his  own  parishion 
ers,  aud  served  through  the  whole  war,  re 
tiring  at  its  close  as  brigadier  -  general.2 
What  was  done  by  the  clergy  of  the  Church 
of  England,  in  spite  of  their  special  and  nat 
ural  attachments  to  the  mother  country,  was 
performed  by  the  clergy  of  other  churches 
on  a  grander  scale,  and  with  more  magnifi 
cent  results. 

For  ten  years  previously  to  the  outbreak 
of  hostilities,  the  preachers  in  a  great  num 
ber  of  the  churches  spoke  from  the  pul- 

1  Thompson,  Church  and  State  in  the  United  States, 
p.  42, 43. 
5  Thatcher,  Military  Journal,  p.  152. 


pit  and  the  platform,  in  the  most  positive 
language,  concerning  the  necessity  of  de 
fense.  Some  of  the  fast  -  day  and  thanks 
giving  discourses  of  the  New  England  cler 
gy,  during  the  whole  struggle,  have  passed 
into  literature  as  among  the  strongest  spec 
imens  kuown  to  men  of  how  thoroughly  the 
clerical  mind  can  be  identified  with  a  na 
tional  cause.  Some  of  the  favorite  psalms 
of  those  days  were  no  poor  paraphrases  of 
David's  metrical  imprecations  on  his  foes, 
while  the  prayers  might  well  be  placed  iu 
the  same  category  with  that  of  the  Suabian 
chief  who  prayed  that  the  God  of  battles,  if 
he  did  not  see  that  it  would  be  for  his  glory 
to  grant  victory  to  his  forces,  would  at  least 
remain  neutral  for  one  day. 

The  religious  condition  of  the  country  at 
the  beginning  of  the  national  era  was  one 
of  great  prostration.  What  with  the  want 
of  pastoral  care,  decay,  and  destruction  of 
the  church  edifices,  the  separation  of  fami 
lies,  aud  the  absorbing  character  of  the  po 
litical  issues,  the  spiritual  interests  were  neg 
lected  to  a  degree  without  approach  in  the 
history  of  the  country  from  1735  to  the  pres 
ent  time.  The  sufferings  of  the  Church  of 
England  may  be  regarded  as  an  index  of 
those  of  all  professions.  In  Virginia,  where 
this  body  was  strongest,  it  was  almost  oblit 
erated.  At  the  beginning  of  the  war  there 
were  ninety-five  parishes,  one  hundred  and 
sixty-four  churches  and  chapels,  ninety-one 
clergymen  ;  but  at  the  close  of  the  war  a 
large  number  of  the  churches  had  been  de 
stroyed;  twenty -three  parishes  were  ex 
tinct  or  forsaken,  thirty-four  were  destitute 
of  ministerial  supply ;  and  only  twenty-eight 
of  the  clergy  were  found  at  their  post.1 

The  Presbyterians,  Baptists,  and  Congre- 
gationalists,  almost  without  exception  sup 
porters  of  the  cause  of  the  colonies,  were 
treated  without  compassion  by  the  British 
troops.  The  Methodists,  who  had  been  in 
the  country  only  since  1766,  were  treated  in 
humanly  by  petty  colonial  officers,  on  the 
alleged  ground  that  Bishop  Asbury  and  his 
coadjutors  were  disloyal;  until  the  Mary 
land  Assembly,  convinced  of  the  loyalty  of 
the  itinerants,  permitted  them  "  to  exercise 
their  functions  without  taking  the  oath  of 
allegiance."  Many  churches  were  burned; 


1  Hawks,  Contributions  to  the  Ecclesiastical  History 
of  Virginia,  p.  153, 154. 


478 


EELIGIOUS  DEVELOPMENT. 


seats  of  others  were  torn  up  for  fuel.  A 
large  number  of  the  churches,  such  as  those 
at  Elizabethtown  and  Morristowu,  were  used 
for  hospitals.  During  the  British  occupa 
tion  of  New  York  many  of  the  churches 
were  used  as  stables.  The  schools  were  dis 
continued  in  most  parts  of  the  colonies. 
Many  of  the  colleges,  like  that  of  New  Jer 
sey,  closed  their  doors  for  a  time.  "  Kelig- 
ious  institutions,"  says  Gillett,  "  were  para 
lyzed  in  their  influence,  even  where  they 
were  still  sustained.  Sabbath  -  desecration 
prevailed  to  an  alarming  extent.  Infidelity, 
in  many  quarters,  soon  acquired  a  foot-hold. 
The  civil  character  of  the  war,  especially  in 
the  Southern  States,  gave  it  a  peculiar  feroc 
ity,  and  produced  a  licentiousness  of  morals 
of  which  there  is  scarce  a  parallel  at  the 
present  day.  Municipal  laws  could  not  be 
enforced.  Civil  government  was  prostrated, 
and  society  was  well-nigh  resolved  to  its 
original  elements.1 

Intemperance  increased  to  an  alarming 
degree  in  consequence  of  the  war.  During 
the  colonial  period  the  country  had  been 
comparatively  free  from  it.  In  the  account 
which  Belkuap  gives  of  an  early  expedition 
against  the  Indians,  in  New  Hampshire,  he 
says  the  American  forces  had  only  one  pint 
of  "  strong  waters  "  among  them ;  a  state 
ment  which  could  hardly  be  made  of  any 
subsequent  expedition  of  equal  size  in  Amer 
ican  history.  From  1750,  the  West -India 
trade  had  introduced  increasing  quantities 
of  rum,  which  was  supposed  to  furnish  spe 
cial  strength  in  the  French  and  Indian  wars 
in  the  North ;  but  after  the  war  the  use  of 
intoxicating  liquors  steadily  increased  far 
beyond  the  ratio  of  population.  In  1792, 
there  were  2579  distilleries  in  the  United 
States,  and  by  1810  these  had  multiplied  to 
14,141,  or  an  increase  of  sixfold,  while  the 
population  had  increased  less  than  twofold. 
From  September,  1791,  to  the  same  month, 
1792,  there  were  consumed  11,008,447  gallons 
of  wines  and  distilled  spirits,  which  would 
be  two  and  a  half  gallons  for  every  human 
being  in  the  young  republic.11 

To  all  the  moral  and  material  decadence 
of  domestic  origin  must  be  added  the  influ 
ence  of  the  French  spirit,  which  was  very 


1  History  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  vol.  i.,  p.  196. 

2  Dorchester,  in  Zion's  Herald,  vol.  liii.,  No.  5.    ' 


great,  and  threatened  to  overspread  the 
country.  To  France  the  colonies  had  been 
indebted  for  nearly  all  the  European  sympa 
thy  which  came  to  their  aid.  Some  of  her 
best  sons  came  over  to  help  them  tight  their 
battles.  Paris,  where  .  the  Encyclopedist 
school  was  powerful,  was  the  first  place 
whither  young  Americans  of  culture  resort 
ed  after  the  declaration  of  peace,  and  they 
were  cordially  welcomed  to  the  salons  of  the 
leaders  of  society  and  advanced  thought. 
The  newspaper  press  and  the  higher  schools 
in  America  were  the  first  to  exhibit  traces 
of  the  incoming  of  this  new  element.  The 
effect,  however,  was  transient.  The  urgent 
demand  for  evangelization  and  education  in 
the  West ;  the  excitement  of  the  political 
campaigns ;  the  unsettled  relations  with 
Great  Britain  which  culminated  in  the  war 
of  1812 ;  and  especially  the  great  revival 
at  the  close  of  the  eighteenth  century,  with 
the  whole  train  of  benevolent  movements 
which  came  from  it,  so  diverted  public  at 
tention  from  the  French  skepticism,  that  not 
even  the  conspicuous  example  of  Franklin 
and  Jefferson,  who  had  represented  the  Gov 
ernment  at  the  French  court,  had  any  endur 
ing  force. 

How  thoroughly  religion  entered  into  the 
new  national  life,  and  re-asserted  its  divine 
prerogatives  at  every  stage  of  our  history, 
may  be  seen  primarily  in  the  religious-civil 
relations.  As  the  colonial  period  had  been 
marked  so  distinctly,  from  its  beginning  to 
its  close,  by  the  presence  of  religious  mo 
tives;  and  as  the  provincial  government 
constantly  legislated,  sometimes  even  to 
pettiness,  on  the  relations  of  religion  to  the 
civil  life,  it  followed  as  a  necessity  that  one 
of  the  problems  for  the  country  to  solve 
would  be  the  attitude  of  the  state  toward 
the  church.  Here  was  a  realm  where 
America  was  without  teachers.  In  educa 
tion,  government,  literature,  nay,  in  every 
thing  else,  the  Old  World  furnished  abun 
dant  lessons;  but  when  the  question  of  re 
ligion  in  relation  to  the  civil  law  confront 
ed  the  people,  they  looked  in  vain  for  ex 
ample  and  instruction.  Was  not  "  the  his 
tory  of  the  colonization  of  the  country,"  as 
Bancroft  says,  "  the  history  of  the  crimes  of 
Europe  ?'n  The  state  churches  of  the  Old 

1  History  of  the  United  States,  vol.  ii.,  p.  251. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  INDEPENDENCE. 


479 


World  bad  been  the  growtb  of  over  four 
teen  centuries,  and  not  since  tbe  reign  of 
Constantine  had  the  history  of  civilized  na 
tions  furnished  a  positive  example  of  how  a 
great  people  can  have  religion  without  mak 
ing  it  the  foster-child,  if  not  the  bondmaid, 
of  the  government.  But  the  lessons  learn 
ed  by  the  colonists  in  the  lauds  of  their  na 
tivity  had  struck  too  deeply  to  be  without 
avail  when  their  children  should  begin  the 
sublime  work  of  rearing  a  government  for 
themselves. 

To  these  memories,  frequently  rehearsed 
and  still  fresh,  must  be  attributed  the  avoid 
ance  of  all  mention  of  religious  preference 
in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States: 
"  Congress  shall  make  no  law  respecting  an 
establishment  of  religion,  or  prohibiting  the 
free  exercise  thereof."  There  must  be  noth 
ing — so  said  the  great  framers  of  our  writ 
ten  law — which  shall  remind  us  of  the  pit 
whence  we  were  dug,  or  make  it  possi 
ble  that  another  be  dug  into  which  any 
portion  of  our  posterity  shall  be  thrown. 
Hence,  in  the  national  legislation  there  was 
left  large  liberty  for  the  conscience  and 
faith  of  the  private  citizen.  But  the  traces 
of  the  rigid  colonial  legislation  remained  a 
long  time,  and  in  some  cases  still  continue, 
on  the  statute  -  books  of  the  individual 
States.  While  the  government  recognized 
no  union  of  church  and  state,  the  State 
constitutions  had  to  submit  to  a  gradual 
process  of  independence  in  the  relations  of 
the  church  to  the  state.  Virginia,  the 
stronghold  of  the  Established  Church,  was 
the  first  State  to  declare  absolute  religious 
freedom.  The  Legislature  of  1784  consider 
ed  two  important  measures :  one  to  "  incor 
porate  all  societies  of  the  Christian  religion 
which  may  apply  for  the  same,"  and  the 
other  to  make  a  general  assessment  for  the 
support  of  religion.  Although  warmly  de 
fended  by  Patrick  Henry,  both  projects  fail 
ed  in  the  end,  and  not  through  the  influence 
of  Thomas  Jefferson,  but  because  of  the  un 
wearied  protests  and  petitions  of  the  Pres 
byterians,  Baptists,  and  Quakers.1 

In  1785  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  adopt 
ed  an  act  drawn  up  by  Jefferson  "  for  estab 
lishing  religious  freedom."  The  triumph  of 
this  measure  was  most  gratifying  to  its  au- 


1  Baird,  Religion  in  America,  p.  221-223. 


thor,  not  so  much  because  of  the  liberty  of 
growth  to  Christianity,  but  because  of  its 
total  indifference  to  any  faith ;  or,  in  Jeffer 
son's  own  words,  it  comprehended  "  within 
the  mantle  of  protection  the  Jew  and  the 
Gentile,  the  Christian  and  the  Mohammed 
an,  the  Hindoo  and  the  infidel  of  every  de 
nomination."1  Virginia  taking  the  lead  in 
the  severance  of  church  and  state,  other 
States  followed  in  prompt  succession.  Ma 
ryland,  New  York,  South  Carolina,  and  the 
New  England  and  other  States,  erased  the 
provisions  for  the  support  of  the  clergy  from 
their  constitutions. 

With  the  total  abandonment  of  all  civil 
provision  for  the  salary  of  the  clergy  began 
the  real  or  positive  development  of  the  re 
ligions  life  of  the  people ;  and  the  whole  sub 
sequent  history  has  shown  that  however 
much  of  a  prophet  Cotton  Mather  may  have 
been  in  some  respects,  he  was  a  very  poor 
one  in  his  vaticination  of  the  straits  to  which 
preachers  would  be  reduced  who  might  have 
to  depend  upon  voluntary  support.  "  Miuis- 
ters  of  the  Gospel  would  have  a  poor  time 
of  it  if  they  must  rely  on  a  free  contribution 
of  the  people  for  their  maintenance."  But 
while  there  is  not  state  provision  for  the 
support  of  churches  or  their  pastors,  the 
religious  element  is  nevertheless  positively 
recognized.  The  constitution  of  Massachu 
setts  still  says,  "It  is  the  right  as  well  as 
the  duty  of  all  men  in  society  publicly  and 
at  stated  seasons  to  worship  the  Supreme 
Being,  the  great  Creator  and  Preserver  of 
the  universe All  the  people  of  the  com 
monwealth  have  also  a  right  to,  and  do,  in 
vest  their  Legislature  with  authority  to  en 
join  upon  all  the  subjects  an  attendance 
upon  the  instructions  of  the  public  teachers, 
as  aforesaid,  at  stated  times  and  seasons,  if 
there  be  any  whose  instructions  they  can 
conscientiously  and  conveniently  attend ;" 
that  of  New  Hampshire,  "The  people  of  this 
State  have  a  right  to  empower,  and  do  here 
by  fully  empower,  the  Legislature  to  author 
ize  from  time  to  time  the  several  towns,  par 
ishes,  bodies  corporate,  or  religious  socie 
ties  within  this  State  to  make  adequate  pro 
vision,  at  their  own  expense,  for  the  support 
and  maintenance  of  public  Protestant  teach 
ers  of  piety,  religion,  and  morality ;"  that  of 

1  Cf.  Baird,  Religion  in  America,  p.  224,  225. 


480 


EELIGIOUS  DEVELOPMENT. 


Vermont,  "Every  sect  or  denomination  of 
Christians  ought  to  observe  the  Sabbath  or 
Lord's  day,  and  keep  some  sort  of  religions 
worship  which  to  them  shall  seem  most 
agreeable  to  the  revealed  will  of  God ;"  that 
of  Delaware,  "  It  is  the  duty  of  all  men  fre 
quently  to  assemble  together  for  the  public 
worship  of  the  Author  of  the  universe,  and 
piety  and  morality,  on  which  the  pros 
perity  of  communities  depends,  are  thereby 
promoted;"  and  that  of  Ohio,  "Religion, 
morality,  and  knowledge  being  essential  to 
good  government,  it  shall  be  the  duty  of  the 
General  Assembly  to  pass  suitable  laws  to 
protect  every  religious  denomination  in  the 
peaceable  enjoyment  of  its  own  mode  of 
public  worship  and  encouraging  schools  and 
the  means  of  instruction."  The  constitution 
of  Mississippi  declares,  "No  person  who  de 
nies  the  being  of  a  God  or  a  future  state  of 
rewards  and  punishments  shall  hold  any  of 
fice  in  the  civil  department  of  this  State 

Eeligion,  morality,  and  knowledge  being 
necessary  to  good  government,  the  preser 
vation  of  liberty,  and  the  happiness  of  man 
kind,  schools,  and  the  means  of  education 
shall  forever  be  encouraged  in  this  State ;" 
that  of  Maryland,  "  No  religious  test  ought 
ever  to  be  regarded  as  a  qualification  for 
any  office  of  profit  or  trust  iu  this  State  oth 
er  than  a  declaration  of  belief  in  the  exist 
ence  of  God ;  nor  shall  the  Legislature  pre 
scribe  any  other  oath  of  office  than  the  oath 
prescribed  by  this  constitution;"  and  that 
of  Tennessee,  "  No  person  who  denies  the 
being  of  a  God  or  a  future  state  of  rewards 
and  punishments  shall  hold  any  office  in  the 
civil  department  of  this  State."1  Similar 
expressions  can  be  found  in  the  constitu 
tions  of  the  several  States.  With  time,  what 
ever  is  objectionable  in  such  language  will 
be  rescinded.  Thus  far  in  our  national  his 
tory,  however,  such  civil  sanctions  of  the 
obligations  of  religion  upon  the  citizen  have 
wrought  no  evil. 

Our  denominational  life  is  almost  as  much 
outside  the  ordinary  confessional  examples 
of  the  Old  World  as  the  relation  of  the  Amer 
ican  Church  to  the  State.  In  all  countries 
where  a  state  church  exists  there  can  be  no 
such  thing  as  a  perfect  independence  of  the 
denominations.  One  is  supreme,  while  the 

1  Bierbower,  "Religion  in  the  State  Constitutions," 
New  York  Independent,  January  6, 18T6. 


rest  must  constantly  suffer  disabilities  and 
annoyances.  One  is  called  "the  church," 
while  the  rest  are  "  dissenters,"  or  "  sects." 
"  The  '  sects'  of  the  Old  World,"  says  Dr.  H. 
B.  Smith,  "  are  the  leading  churches  of  the 
New  World.  Most  of  our  sects  came  to  us 
from  Europe,  to  get  rid  of  state  coercion,  and 
they  have  here  had  free  scope.  Our  Chris 
tian  history  is  not  that  of  the  conversion  of 
a  new  and  civilized  nation  to  the  Gospel; 
but  of  the  transplanting  of  the  Christianity 
of  Europe,  freed  from  its  local  restrictions, 
to  a  new  theatre.  It  is  Europe  itself  devel 
oped  on  a  new  continent.  Our  leading  de 
nominations  still  stand  on  the  substantial 
basis  of  the  confessions  of  the  Protestant 
Reformation,  many  of  them  adhering  to  the 
old  symbols  with  a  tenacity  which  is  now 
rare  in  the  lauds  from  which  they  caine."1 
The  variety  of  healthy  and  vigorous  relig 
ious  life  in  the  United  States  is  greater  than 
anywhere  else  in  the  world.  It  has  grown 
with  the  nation,  and  is  to-day  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  and  hopeful  features  of  our 
national  development. 

We  may  take  seven  of  the  great  Ameri 
can  Protestant  bodies,  and  the  Roman  Cath 
olic  Church,  the  foundations  of  all  of  which 
were  laid  in  the  colonial  era,  as  indicative 
of  the  variety  and  power  of  the  religious 
life  in  the  United  States.  The  Protestant 
Episcopal  Church  dates  from  the  founding 
of  the  Virginia  Colony,  in  1607,  on  James 
River,  by  Captain  John  Smith  and  other 
members  of  the  Church  of  England.  One 
of  the  petitioners  of  the  charter  granted  the 
London  Company,  on  April  10, 1606,  was  the 
Rev.  John  Hunt,  a  clergyman  of  the  estab 
lishment  ;  and  this  man  became  a  member 
of  the  colony,  and  most  probably  the  one 
who  saved  it  from  threatening  ruin.2  By 
the  year  1619  there  had  grown  up  eleven 
•parishes.  This  church  extended  in  the 
South  and  throughout  the  Middle  colonies, 
and  became  by  far  the  most  important  relig 
ious  body  south  of  New  England.  It  was 
governed  during  the  colonial  period  by  the 
Bishop  of  London,  and  its  clergy  received 
orders  only  by  crossing  to  London. 

The  first  step  toward  the  union  of  the 
churches  was  taken  at  a  meeting  of  a  few 

I  Theological  Review,  vol.  v.  (new  series),  p.  572. 

II  Hawks,  Contributions  to  the  Ecclesiastical  History 
of  Virginia,  p.  17, 18. 


PROTESTANT  BODIES. 


481 


clergymen  at  New  Brunswick,  New  Jersey, 
in  May,  1784.  Though  the  immediate  object 
was  to  revive  a  society  which  had  formerly 
existed  iu  the  colonies  for  the  support  of  the 
widows  and  orphans  of  deceased  clergymen, 
provision  was  made  for  a  later  meeting, 
looking  toward  union  of  the  churches.1  In 
1785  the  first  general  convention  assembled. 
The  first  American  bishops  ordaiued  were 
Seabury,  in  Scotland,  in  1784,  and  White 
and  Provoost,  in  Lambeth  Palace,  London, 
in  1787.2  The  Thirty -nine  Articles  were 
ratified  in  1832.  The  Eeformed  Episcopal 
Church  is  a  secession  from  the  Protestant 
Episcopal  in  1873,  under  the  leadership  of 
Bishop  Cummins. 

The  Congregationalists  are  the  direct  ec 
clesiastical  posterity  of  the  Puritan  Church. 
The  original  colony  came  over  from  En 
gland,  after  a  stay  of  some  time  iu  Holland, 
in  1620  —  "a  church  without  a  bishop,  and 
a  state  without  a  king."  Their  spiritual 
guide  iu  Holland,  and  even  in  England  be 
fore  leaving  for  Holland,  was  John  Robin- 
sou.  He  gained  great  renown  in  Ley  den 
among  his  co-believers  by  publicly  contend 
ing  against  the  Armiuian  Episcopius.  Rob 
inson  failed,  because  of  death,  to  carry  out 
his  purpose  of  joining  the  Pilgrims  in  Amer 
ica.3  Though  the  Plymouth  colonists  were 
reduced  to  one -half  their  original  number 
during  the  first  wiuter,  they  were  soon  re- 

1  Butler,  Ecclesiastical  History,  vol.  ii.,  p.  5S4.  The 
Society  for  the  Relief  of  the  Widows  and  Children  of 
the  Clergy  of  the  Church  of  England  was  first  formed 
in  South  Carolina  in  1762,  and  later  had  auxiliaries 
in  each  province.  Compare  Dalcho,  Historical  Ac 
count  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  South  Car 
olina,  p.  190  ff. 

8  For  interesting  details  of  the  visit  and  ordination 
of  White  and  Provoost,  compare  White,  Memoirs  of 
the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church  in  the  United  States 
of  America,  Philadelphia,  1820.  This  is  a  singularly 
prepared  hook,  the  work  proper  comprising  only  for 
ty-five  pages,  while  the  appendix  (additional  state 
ments  and  remarks)  consists  of  four  hundred  and 
twenty -nine  pages.  Bat  it  is  in  just  this  appendix 
that  the  rare  value  of  the  work  consists,  for  it  era- 
braces  matters  relating  to  the  early  history  of  the 
Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  and  its  relations  to  the 
Church  of  England  to  be  found  nowhere  else. 

3  While  in  Leyden,  Robinson  connected  himself 
with  the  university,  where,  as  an  evidence  of  the 
public  favor  he  enjoyed,  he  was  so  far  exempted 
from  taxation  that  he  might  have,  free  of  town  and 
state  duties,  half  a  tun  of  beer  every  mouth,  and 
about  ten  gallons  of  wine  every  three  months.— Ba 
con,  Genesis  of  the  New  England  Churches,  p.  242,  and 
note ;  Sumner,  Memoirs  of  the  Pilgrims  at  Leyden,  p. 
18, 19. 

31 


enforced  by  men  of  similar  spirit  and  mo 
tive,  and  the  church  grew  rapidly  through 
out  the  New  England  colonies.  This  Puri- 
tau  element  has  been  the  most  aggressive  in 
our  American  national  life,  and  has  exerted 
the  chief  influence  iu  the  settlement  and 
building-up  of  the  Great  West.  The  chief 
conventions  have  been  those  of  Cambridge 
(1648),  Saybrook  (1708),  Albany  (1852),  Bos 
ton  (1865),  aud  Oberliu  (1871).  At  this  last 
a  permanent  organization  was  formed,  to 
meet  trieunially,  under  the  name  of  "  The 
National  Council  of  the  Congregational 
Churches  of  the  United  States." 

The  Reformed  Church  in  America,  former 
ly  the  Reformed  Protestant  Dutch  Church, 
was  planted  in  the  colony  of  the  New  Neth 
erlands  by  the  first  Dutch  immigrants  in 
1623.  Five  years  later  a  permanent  organ 
ization  was  effected,  and  the  Rev.  Jonas 
Michaelius  became  the  first  pastor  of  the 
church  on  Manhattan  Island.  In  the  latter 
half  of  the  eighteenth  century  great  embar 
rassment  arose  from  the  use  of  the  Dutch 
language  instead  of  the  English,  and  the 
connection  of  the  American  with  the  home 
church ;  but  an  independent  organization 
was  brought  about  in  1771,  through  the  la 
bors  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  J.  H.  Livingston.  The 
convention  held  in  that  year  established 
the  new  church  on  a  firm  basis.  In  1822  a 
feeble  secession  (the  True  Reformed  Dutch 
Church),  through  Froeligh,  took  place,  on 
the  ground  of  a  return  to  the  original  life 
and  doctrines  of  the  church. 

The  Baptists  were  among  the  earliest  and 
worthiest  settlers  iu  this  country.  Their 
first  church  was  founded  by  Roger  Williams 
at  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  in  1639.  No 
sect  was  treated  with  more  bitterness  dur 
ing  the  colonial  period  than  the  Baptists.1 
They  were  persecuted  in  nearly  all  the 
States,  and  enjoyed  no  freedom  except  in 
Rhode  Island,  Pennsylvania,  and  Delaware. 
They  were  among  the  foremost  supporters 

1  Bailey,  in  Trials  and  Victories  of  Religious  Liberty 
in  America,  gives  some  notable  instances,  p.  14-52. 
Anderson,  in  his  Baptists  in  the  United  States,  traces 
with  great  candor  and  care  the  remarkable  develop 
ment  of  the  denomination.  Curry  pays  minute  atten 
tion  to  the  early  struggles  of  the  Virginia  Baptists ;  see 
his  Struggles  and  Triumphs  of  Virginia  Baptists,  Phil 
adelphia,  1873.  One  of  the  best  denominational  histo 
ries  published  in  this  country  is  Backus,  Church  His 
tory  of  New  England  from  1620  to  1S04.  It  is  of  broad 
er  scope  than  its  title  would  indicate. 


482 


RELIGIOUS  DEVELOPMENT. 


of  the  Revolution,  and  after  the  national 
independence,  the  church  commenced  a 
career  of  remarkable  progress  and  honor. 
They  are  fully  entitled  to  Judge  Story's  high 
encomium:  "The  Baptists  were  early  dis 
tinguished  for  their  advocacy  of  freedom 
of  conscience.  In  the  code  of  laws  estab 
lished  by  them  in  Rhode  Island  we  read,  for 
the  first  time  since  Christianity  ascended 
the  throne  of  the  Csesars,  the  declaration 
that,  conscience  should  be  free,  and  men 
should  not  be  punished  for  worshiping  God 
in  the  way  they  were  persuaded  he  requires." 
They  are  not  only  numerous,  but  worthy 
alike  of  their  numbers  and  influence.  They 
have  been  distinguished  for  their  evangelist 
ic  and  missionary  zeal,  and  are  among  the 
foremost  advocates  of  education.1 

The  first  Lutherans  in  this  country  were 
in  New  York,  and  their  first  pastor  was  the 
Rev.  Jacob  Fabricius,  in  1669.  In  1671  their 
first  church,  a  log-hut,  was  built.  A  second 
settlement  was  in  Delaware  in  1676.  The 
first  synod  was  held  in  1748.  The  Luther 
ans  are  a  vigorous  and  aggressive  religious 
body.  They  derive  their  models  chiefly  from 
the  great  historical  Lutheran  Church  of  Ger 
many.  Unfortunately,  the  American  Lu 
therans  have  great  diversity  in  worship. 
They  early  abandoned  some  of  the  distinct 
ive  features  of  the  maternal  church  in  Ger 
many,  such  as  exorcism,  private  confession 
and  clerical  absolution,  consubstantiation, 
baptismal  regeneration,  and  the  imputation 
of  Adam's  transgression.2  Of  their  diversi 
ties  here,  Krauth  says  :  "  In  the  United  States 
wider  extremes  in  the  mode  of  worship  in 
the  Lutheran  Church  sometimes  existed  in 
a  single  locality  than  could  be  found  in  her 
whole  communion  in  other  parts  of  the 
world.  This  diversity  has  been  deeply  la 
mented,  and  earnest  efforts  are  making,  with 
marked  success,  to  introduce  greater  uni 
formity  of  usage." 

The  Presbyterians  owe  their  origin  in 
this  country  to  the  persecutions  in  Scotland. 
From  1660  to  1685  three  thousand  persons  of 
Presbyterian  faith  were  transported  as  slaves 
to  the  colonies.  In  1688  there  were  many 


1  The  proceedings  of  the  National  Baptist  Educa 
tional  Convention  (New  York,  1870  and  1872)  present 
the  best  discussions  on  educational  topics  furnished 
by  any  denomination  in  the  present  century. 

3  Schmucker,  American  Lutheran  Church,  p.  168  ff.  ; 
237  ff. 


immigrants,  especially  in  Eastern  Pennsyl 
vania.  The  first  General  Assembly,  with 
John  Rodgers  as  moderator,  was  in  1789. 
There  was  a  division  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church  in  1838.  In  1866  an  attempt  was 
made  to  initiate  the  reunion  of  the  church 
(Old  and  New  schools).  The  reunion,  which 
was  finally  consummated  in  1870,  was  re 
garded  as  a  victory  of  the  New  School,  but 
the  prevalent  theological  tendency  of  the 
church  is  that  of  the  Old  School.  With  the 
reverend  and  revered  Dr.  Hodge,  our  great 
theological  Nestor,  at  Princeton,  and  the  pol 
ished  and  learned  Dr.  Shedd  in  New  York, 
no  immediate  fears  need  be  entertained  for 
the  crystalline  purity  of  the  Calvinistic 
fountains  in  the  United  States.1  The  his 
tory  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  is  a  fair  re 
flex  of  the  progress,  the  stability,  aud  the 
culture  of  the  nation  itself.  Efforts  are  now 
being  made  to  unite  the  Presbyterians  of  all 
countries  into  more  intimate  relations. 

The  Reformed  Church  in  the  United  States, 
formerly  the  German  Reformed  Church,  arose 
from  a  body  of  four  hundred  German  emi 
grants  from  the  Palatinate,  who  came  to 
Pennsylvania  in  1727.  The  first  synod  was 
held  in  Philadelphia  in  1747,  and  consisted 
of  thirty-one  members,  representing  a  pop 
ulation  of  thirty  thousand.  Its  growth  has 
been  greatly  retarded  because  of  the  inter 
nal  conflict  between  the  conservative  .and 
progressive,  or  High  and  Low  Church,  parties 
of  the  church.  An  attempt  to  unite  this 
church  and  the  Reformed  (Dutch)  Church 
in  1872  failed,  because  the  former  does  not 
regard  the  Belgic  confession  and  the  decrees 
of  Dort  as  standards  of  faith. 

The  first  Methodist  society  in  this  conn- 
try  was  formed  in  New  York,  in  1766,  and 
the  first  edifice  erected  in  1768.  The  period 
of  development  began  with  the  national  in 
dependence,  through  the  labors  of  Bishop 
Asbury,  who  had  been  sent  out  from  En 
gland  by  John  Wesley  in  1771.  The  first 
conference  was  held  in  1773,  at  which  time 
there  were  ten  preachers  and  eleven  hundred 
and  sixty  members  in  the  whole  country. 
In  1844  the  church  divided  on  the  question 


1  On  the  relation  of  the  Old  and  New  schools,  pre 
viously  to  reunion,  see  article  on  Presbyterian  Re 
union,  in  American  Presbyterian  and  Theological  Re 
view,  p.  624-665.  Probably  written  by  Prof.  II.  B.  Smith, 
D.D. 


ROMAN  CATHOLICISM. 


483 


of  slavery,  the  Northern  portion  bearing 
the  original  name  (the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church);  and  the  Southern,  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  Church,  South.  In  1866  the  cen 
tenary  of  the  church  was  celebrated,  when 
contributions  amounting  to  about  $8,000.000 
were  made,  chiefly  for  educational  purposes.  • 

Of  the  minor  Methodist  bodies  there  are 
two  classes :  Episcopal  and  Non-Episcopal. 
1.  Episcopal — Colored  Methodist  Episcopal, 
African  Methodist  Episcopal,  African  Meth 
odist  Episcopal  Ziou,  and  Evangelical  As 
sociation.  2.  Non-Episcopal — the  Method 
ist  Church,  Methodist  Protestant,  American 
Wesleyan,  Free  Methodist,  and  Primitive 
Methodist. 

The  first  Roman  Catholic  settlement  in 
this  country  was  the  colony  of  Maryland, 
which  had  been  guaranteed  by  special  char 
ter  to  Lord  Baltimore  (Ca3cilius  Calvert). 
The  first  emigration  was  in  1632,  and  in 
1634  two  hundred  emigrants  settled  at  St. 
Mary's.  In  Louisiana  and  other  Southern 
States,  there  were  important  accessions 
through  emigration  from  France.  The  Jes 
uit  missions  along  the  St.  Lawrence  and  up 
the  Mississippi  were  very  important  in  at 
tracting  people  of  the  same  faith.  The 
episcopal  see  of  Baltimore  was  founded  in 
1789.  The  Roman  Catholic  opposition  to 
the  Bible  in  the  public  schools  began  in 
1840.  Since  the  war  of  the  Union  there  has 
been  a  careful  and  extensive  system  of 
proselytism  in  force  throughout  the  South. 
The  first  American  cardinal  (M'Closkey)  was 
consecrated  in  1875. 

The  chief  concern  of  the  Roman  Catholics 
in  America  has  been  to  provide  for  the  pre 
vention  of  their  members  from  lapsing  into 
Protestantism,  to  indoctrinate  the  young  and 
neglected  into  their  faith,  and  to  preserve 
the  balance  of  political  power.  The  spirit 
of  the  leaders  is  in  sympathy  with  the  ex 
treme  decrees  of  the  Vatican  Council.  This 
church  has  made  no  important  impression  on 
the  literature  or  thought  of  the  nation,  and 
produced  no  great  public  benefactors  in  edu 
cational  or  humanitarian  life.  The  follow 
ing  jeremiad,  which  has  just  appeared  from 
a  Roman  Catholic  source,  can  hardly  be  read 
without  sympathy ;  though  as  to  the  causes 
of  the  fearful  failures  of  this  body,  there 
will  be  no  difference  of  opinion  among  Prot 
estants  : 


"  The  Catholic  influence  on  the  country  at 
large,  then,  and  even  now,  is  slight.  The 
tactics  of  parties  exclude  Catholics  almost 
entirely  from  all  higher  offices  in  the  coun 
try.  We  have  had  one  Catholic  among  the 
chief -justices  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States ;  a  few,  very  few,  members  of 
the  United  States  Senate ;  scarcely  a  single 
Cabinet  officer;  here  and  there  a  Catholic 
reaches  the  position  of  governor  of  a  State, 
but  too  rarely  to  be  noted.  The  army  and 
the  navy  show  many  Catholic  officers,  whose 
record  is  of  the  noblest.  In  literature,  science, 
and  the  arts  we  have  made  little  mark,  and 
are  behind  even  the  modest  position  of  the 
country  at  large.  At  the  earliest  period, 
Mathew  Carey  and  Robert  Walsh  occupied 
a  higher  position  in  general  literature  than 
any  Catholic  does  at  the  present  day.  Even 
the  wonderful  ability  and  depth  of  Dr. 
Brownson  in  his  Review,  in  his  "American 
Republic,"  that  should  be  a  classic,  and  in 
his  minor  works,  have  failed  to  take  their 
place  among  far  inferior  works,  and  are  sel 
dom  noticed  in  writing  or  speech  in  such  a 
way  as  to  show  their  influence. 

"Archbishop  Hughes  left  no  great  work 
to  take  its  place  in  the  literature  of  the  coun 
try,  great  as  was  his  influence  in  life ;  and 
the  same  may  be  said  of  Bishop  England. 
Archbishop  Keurick,  in  his  varied  learning, 
enriched  our  Catholic  rather  than  the  na 
tional  literature  by  his  Theology,  his  essay 
on  the  Primacy  of  the  Apostolic  See,  and  his 
version  of  the  Bible.  Archbishop  Spalding 
took  a  more  popular  tone ;  and  in  lighter 
paths  for  Catholic  readers  there  are  names 
of  merit,  but  few  that  will  make  an  enduring 
reputation.  In  the  field  of  history,  O'Cal- 
laghan,  M'Sherry,  Meline,  and  others  have 
indeed  won  a  place  by  critical  research, 
sound  judgment,  and  eloquent  narration. 
In  poetry,  Shea  and  M'Gee  will  be  remem 
bered  by  some  of  their  minor  poems  which 
found  their  way  to  collections ;  but  we  have 
no  poet  to  rank  with  Longfellow,  Bryant, 
and  Whittier.  Thebaud,  in  his  Irish  Eace, 
and  still  more  in  his  GentiUsm,  lays  claim  to 
a  higher  position  in  the  more  serious  school 
of  general  literature.  Still  it  must  be  con 
fessed  that,  on  the  whole,  we  are  behind 
hand.  Our  college  course  is,  perhaps,  too 
elementary ;  and  Catholics  even  more  than 
their  neighbors,  perhaps,  underrate  literary 


484 


KELIGIOUS  DEVELOPMENT. 


culture,  and,  in  their  anxiety  to  throw  their 
sons  into  the  world  of  business  and  care, 
deprive  some  of  that  learned  leisure  that  is 
needed  for  great  and  enduring  work.  Among 
the  clergy  the  science,  learning,  and  ability 
that  might  add  laurels  to  the  body  are  oft 
en  kept  unused  by  the  severe  toils  of  mis 
sionary  life  or  by  modest  diffidence  ;  and  an 
occasional  article  in  some  magazine  unno 
ticed,  and  hence  unappreciated,  alone  re 
veals  what  might  be. 

"  It  must  be  admitted,  too,  that  although 
industry,  talent,  and  probity  have  brought 
to  many  Catholics,  in  professional  and  mer 
cantile  life,  great  earthly  rewards  in  wealth 
and  means,  these  successful  men  have  pro 
duced  few  men  of  such  public  spirit  as  we 
behold  in  the  various  Protestant  denomina 
tions.  While  every  college  under  Protestant 
influence  shows  its  scholarships^  professor 
ships,  special  schools,  and  libraries  estab 
lished  and  endowed  by  individuals,  there  is 
scarcely  a  case  to  be  met  with  of  similar 
Catholic  liberality.  It  is  still  more  rare  to 
find  a  church  or  institution  of  any  kind 
among  us  built  or  endowed  by  a  wealthy 
Catholic.  What  has  been  accomplished 
hitherto  has  been  mainly  the  work  of  the 
poor ;  but  the  wealthy  Catholics  seem  sadly 
lacking  in  public  spirit.  Yet  the  noblest 
monument  a  man  could  erect  would  be  a 
church  or  an  institution.  There  are  monu 
ments  in  our  cemeteries,  mere  ornamental 
structures,  evidences  of  family  pride,  which 
have  cost  more  than  would  have  built  a  beau 
tiful  church  to  stand  for  a  century,  where 
mass  would  be  said  constantly  for  the  found 
er.  Better  a  hospital  for  the  sick  or  afflict 
ed  than  a  palace  for  the  dead;  better  some 
thing  Christian  than  any  thing  so  essential 
ly  pagan." 

The  following  table  presents  an  approxi 
mate  view  of  the  ecclesiastical  strength  of 
the  country  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution  : 


Denominations. 

Ministers. 

Churches. 

Episcopalians  

250 

300 

Baptists  

350 

380 

575 

700 

Presbyterians  

140 

300 

Lutherans  

25 

60 

25 

60 

25 

60 

13 

20 

Moravians  

12 

8 

26 

52 

Methodists  

20 

II1 

Total  

1461 

1951 

1  Circuits. 


With  a  total  population  of  the  country  at 
the  time  of  the  Revolution  of  3,000,000,  of 
which  one -sixth  consisted  of  slaves,  and 
1461  ministers  and  1951  church  organiza 
tions,  there  was  one  minister  of  the  Gospel 
for  every  2053  souls,  and  one  church  for  ev 
ery  1538  souls.  With  our  present  popula 
tion  of  38,558,371,  we  have  one  church  for 
every  535  souls,  and  one  minister  for  every 
757  souls.  The  rapid  increase  of  church 
property  can  be  seen  by  a  comparison  of  the 
years  1850  and  1870.  In  1850  it  amounted 
to  $87,328,801 ;  but  in  1870  it  had  increased 
to  $354,483,581,  or  an  increase  in  twenty 
years  of  $267,154,780. 

The  order  of  growth  of  the  denomina 
tions  was  not  anticipated  by  any  of  the 
seers,  of  whom  the  number  was  large,  at  the 
beginning  of  our  national  history.  Dr.  Stiles, 
President  of  Yale  College,  grandly  prophe 
sied  in  1783  as  follows  :  "When  we  look  for 
ward  and  see  this  country  increased  to  forty 
or  fifty  millions,  while  we  see  all  the  relig 
ious  sects  increased  into  respectable  bodies, 
we  shall  doubtless  find  the  united  body  of 
the  Congregational  and  Presbyterian  church 
es  making  an  equal  figure  with  any  two  of 
them."  The  Methodists  were  not  enumer 
ated  in  any  of  the  religious  statistics  as 
worthy  of  note,  and  even  Baird  does  not  in 
clude  them  in  his  table.  But  the  presaging 
Dr.  Stiles  knew  of  them,  though  not  enough 
to  escape  two  blunders  in  his  orthography, 
and  says,  "  There  are  Westleians,  Mennon- 
ists,  and  others,  all  of  which  will  make  a 
very  inconsiderable  amount  in  comparison 
with  those  who  will  give  the  religious  com 
plexion  to  America."  The  numerical  order 
was  as  follows,  at  the  beginning  of  the  na 
tion's  first  century  :  "  Congregational,  Bap 
tist,  Church  of  England,  Presbyterian,  Lu 
theran,  German  Reformed,  Dutch  Reformed, 
Roman  Catholic."  At  present  it  is,  "Meth 
odist,  Baptist,  Presbyterian,  Roman  Cath 
olic,  Christian,  Lutheran,  Congregational, 
Protestant  Episcopal."1  According  to  sit 
tings,  the  order  is :  Methodist,  6,428,209 ;  Bap 
tist,  3,997,116 ;  Presbyterian,  2,198,900;  Ro 
man  Catholic,  1,990,514 ;  Congregational, 
1,117,212 ;  Protestant  Episcopal,  991,051 ;  Lu 
theran,  977,332 ;  Christian,  865,602.  The  or 
der  in  church  property  is:  Methodist,  Ro- 

1  Diman,  Xorth  American  Review,  January,  1876,  p. 
22,  23. 


DENOMINATIONAL  STATISTICS. 


485 


man  Catholic,  Presbyterian,  Baptist,  Prot 
estant  Episcopal,  Congregational,  Lutheran, 
and  Reformed  Church  in  America. 


The  following  is  a  table  of  the  respective 
denominations,  according  to  the  census  of 
1870: 


Denomination.. 

Orpnniza- 

Edifices. 

Sittings. 

Property. 

14,474 

12,857 

3  997,116 

$39,229  221 

1  355 

1,105 

303  019 

2  378  977 

3,573 

2,822 

865,602 

6  495  137 

2,887 

2,715 

1,117,212 

25  069  698 

2,835 

2,601 

991,051 

36,514  549 

815 

641 

193  796 

2  3(11  650 

692 

662 

224,664 

3  939  560 

189 

152 

73,265 

5,155,234 

3.032 

2,776 

977  332 

14  917  747 

Methodist                  

25,278 

21,337 

6,528  °09 

69  854  121 

27 

17 

6,935 

135  650 

72 

67 

25  700 

709  100 

189 

171 

87  838 

65(i  750 

New  Jerusalem  (Svvedeuborgian)  

90 

61 

IS  755 

809  700 

6  262 

5  683 

2  19$  000 

47  S''8  732 

1,562 

1,388 

499  344 

5  436  5'>4 

Reformed  Church  in  America  (late  Dutch  Reformed) 
Reformed  Church  in  the  United  States  (late  German) 
Reformed)                  ...        / 

471 
1,256 

468 
1,145 

227,228 
431,700 

10,359,255 
5,775,215 

4  127 

3,806 

1  990  514 

60  985  566 

Secon  d  Advent  

225 

140 

34  555 

306  240 

Shaker                 

18 

'    18 

8  850 

86  900 

95 

22 

6  970 

100  150 

Unitarian  

331 

310 

155  471 

6  282  675 

United  Brethren  in  Christ  

1,445 

937 

265  025 

1  819  810 

719 

602 

210  8S4 

5  692  S25 

Unknown  (Local  Missions)  

26 

27 

11  995 

687  800 

Unknown  (Union)  

409 

552 

153,202 

965,295 

Total  

72,459 

«3,os2 

21,665,002 

$864,483,581 

Among  the  causes  of  the  remarkable  out 
ward  growth  of  the  American  Church,  we 
must  give  evangelization  the  first  rank. 
The  country  being  new  and  unsettled,  ex 
cept  along  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  the  popu 
lation  drifting  westward  constantly,  the  re 
ligious  demands  of  the  people  seemed  never 
to  admit  of  satisfaction.  As  fast  as  a  new 
region  invited  the  settler,  a  great  spiritual 
need  was  perceived  by  the  strong  churches 
in  the  East,  and  every  effort  was  made  to 
relieve  it. 

The  zeal  of  the  pioneer  preachers  in  this 
country  in  dealing  with  the  elements  of 
nature  and  hostilities  of  the  aborigines  has 
not  been  surpassed  in  the  history  of  evan 
gelization,  and  takes  equal  rank  with  that 
of  Boniface,  Columban,  Gallus,  and  Ansgar 
in  supplanting  Teutonic  and  Scandinavian 
idolatry  with  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 

The  strain  which  the  emigration  from 
the  Old  World  has  made  upon  the  New  has 
been  nowhere  felt  as  in  the  religious  sphere. 
How  to  assimilate  a  foreign  and  varied 
adult  population,  with  its  foreign  training 
and  tastes,  was  a  problem  which  might  well 
tax  the  energies  of  the  strongest  and  most 
powerful  church  in  Christendom.  This  em 
igrant  tide  has  never  ceased.  The  uniform 
annual  rate  from  1784  to  1794  was  small  — 
only  about  4000.  In  1794  it  suddenly  in 


creased  to  10,000;  but  declined  again,  and 
never  recovered  until  1817,  when  the  Euro 
pean  wars  were  over.1  From  1820  to  1874 
Great  Britain  and  Ireland  alone  have  sent 
to  this  country  4,319,048  emigrants,  or  near 
ly  a  million  and  a  half  more  than  the  entire 
population  of  the  country  at  the  beginning 
of  the  national  century.  The  aggregate  of 
immigrants  from  1783  to  1874  was  9,058,141, 
and  at  the  last  census  (1870)  one -sixth  of 
our  entire  population  was  of  foreign  birth. 
To  provide  religious  instruction  and  schools 
for  this  vast  number  of  new  citizens  has 
been  a  burden  of  great  magnitude.  Yet  it 
has  been  borne  with  calmness  and  resolu 
tion  ;  and  while  there  has  been  some  rest- 
iveness  on  the  part  of  certain  fractions  of 
the  foreign  population  against  the  Sunday 
laws  and  other  traditional  regulations,  it 
has  never  been  strong  enough  to  change  a 
single  important  feature  of  the  religious  life 
of  the  United  States. 

The  mining  regions  in  the  Far  West  and 
on  the  Pacific  coast  have  been  visited  by 
the  missionaries  of  the  leading  churches, 
and  organizations  have  been  established 
wherever  secular  interests  have  drawn  peo 
ple  together.  The  most  neglected  portions 
of  the  population  of  the  great  cities,  both  in 

1  Draper,  Civil  Policy  of  America.,  p.  101-103. 


486 


RELIGIOUS  DEVELOPMENT. 


the  East  and  West,  have  attracted  atten 
tion,  and  every  care  is  bestowed  upon  the 
erring  and  the  young  among  the  lowest 
poor.  The  colored  population  of  the  South, 
declared  free  by  the  proclamation  of  Presi 
dent  Lincoln,  January  1,  1863,  were  desti 
tute  of  all  material  and  spiritual  care  at  the 
close  of  the  civil  war. 

An  act  of  Congress  of  March  3,  1865,  es 
tablished  the  Freedmen's  Bureau,  which 
provided  for  the  wants  of  the  emancipa 
ted  negroes,  and  continued  in  operation  un 
til  1869,  when  the  educational  department 
alone  remained.  This  latter  continued  in 
force  until  1870.  The  total  amount  con 
tributed  for  the  education  and  support  "of 
freedmen,  down  to  1871,  was  $14,996,480. 
The  Indians  have  likewise,  come  in  for  their 
share  of  attention  from  the  churches.  They 
number  about  350,000.  They  occupy  nine 
ty  reservations,  in  eight  States  and  eleven 
Territories,  and  compose  one  hundred  and 
thirty  tribes,  speaking  as  many  as  fifty  dif 
ferent  languages.  They  have  been  so  far 
placed  by  President  Grant  under  the  super 
vision  of  the  leading  churches  as  to  leave  to 
the  latter  the  nomination  of  agents  for  the 
tribes.  All  the  chief  denominations,  with 
the  Friends  and  Moravians,  have  missions 
among  the  Indians. 

A  difference  must  be  observed  between 
the  case  of  the  freedmen  and  Indians  and 
the  remaining  needy  portions  of  our  popu 
lation.  In  those  two  cases  there  have  been 
material  wants  of  an  aggravated  character, 
and  the  government  has  taken  upon  itself 
the  burdeu  of  their  provision  ;  but  in  strict 
ly  spiritual  need  it  has  never  expended  one 
dollar  on  any  class,  from  the  beginning  of 
our  national  era  until  the  present  day.  And 
it  can  not  do  it.  Should  a  single  dime  be 
taken  out  of  the  United  States  Treasury  to 
aid  in  payment  of  the  salary  of  the  hum 
blest  missionary  in  the  land,  it  would  pro 
voke  a  protest  from  one  side  of  the  conti 
nent  to  the  othei\ 

The  revivals  that  have  at  various  times 
visited  the  American  Church  have  been  at 
tended  by  such  phenomena,  and  have  pro 
duced  such  lasting  results,  that  they  must 
be  regarded  a  leading  factor  in  the  religious 
life  of  the  people.  There  has  been  no  peri 
od  of  long  duration  during  the  entire  histo 
ry  of  the  church,  whether  Christian  or  pre- 


Christian,  which  has  not  been  marked  by 
an  occasional  return  to  spiritual  vitality 
and  power.  No  two  seasons  of  quickening 
have  been  distinguished  by  the  same  feat 
ures,  or  brought  to  pass  through  precisely 
similar  agencies.  The  use  of  the  mendicant 
orders ;  the  preaching  of  Peter  the  Hermit 
in  behalf  of  the  first  Crusade;  the  eloquence 
of  Tauler  and  his  brother  Mystics  in  Ger 
many  ;  the  denunciations  of  Savonarola  in 
Florence  ;  the  sermons  of  Wycliffe  in  En 
gland,  Huss  in  Bohemia,  and  Luther  in  Sax 
ony  ;  the  meditations  of  the  Quietists  iu 
France,  and  the  restless  labors  of  the  Wes- 
leyau  itinerants  iu  Britain — were  all  diverse 
manifestations  of  the  same  spirit.  No  year 
of  darkness,  even  in  the  depth  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  was  without  its  bold  voice  here  and 
there,  demanding  a  return  to  Pentecost  and 
the  warm,  new  life  of  the  first  disciples  in 
Jerusalem  and  Antioch. 

The  absence  of  wealth  and  social  com 
forts,  and  the  inability  to  lean  on  the  civil 
treasury  for  support,  early  accustomed  the 
American  Church  to  look  to  its  religious  life 
as  the  great  basis  of  its  strength.  Outpour 
ings  of  the  Divine  Spirit  were  expected  and 
experienced  even  iu  the  early  colonial  time, 
and  many  of  the  churches  multiplied  through 
success  in  revivals. 

There  have  been  four  periods  of  revival  in 
the  history  of  the  American  Church.  The 
first  was  in  the  colonial  era,  and  began  in 
New  Jersey  iu  1731.  Even  as  early  as  1630, 
and  continuing  down  to  1660,  there  had  been 
an  active  and  steady  religious  life  in  New 
England,  which  was  quickened  still  more 
by  special  visitations.  In  1680  there  was  a 
revival  in  Massachusetts,  and  one  in  Con 
necticut  in  1721.  But  the  revival  which  be 
gan  in  1731  was  the  first  in  American  histo 
ry  which  assumed  a  general  character.  By 
the  year  1734  it  had  reached  Northampton, 
Massachusetts,  and  continued  down  to  1742, 
overspreading  all  New  England,  and  reach 
ing  through  the  Middle  States  down  to 
Southern  Virginia.  The  year  of  its  climax 
was  1740.  Hence,  in  religious  history,  that 
revival  is  called  the  "  Great  Awakening  of 
1740."  Jonathan  Edwards,  then  pastor  in 
Northampton,  preached  a  series  of  sermons 
on  Justification  by  Faith,  and  the  immedi 
ate  result  was  a  powerful  spiritual  awaken 
ing.  Many  of  the  members  of  the  church 


GREAT  REVIVALS. 


487 


over  which  Edwards  was  pastor  did  not  pro 
fess  regeneration  of  heart ;  for  by  this  time 
the  doctrine  of  "  the  venerable  Stoddard," 
who  had  been  pastor  in  Northampton,  had 
not  only  affected  that  single  church,  but 
many  others  throughout  Massachusetts  and 
other  New  England  States.  In  1707  Stod 
dard  published  a  sermou  iu  which  he  held 
that  "  sanctificatiou  is  not  a  necessary  qual 
ification  to  partaking  the  Lord's  -  supper  ;" 
and  that  "  the  Lord's-supper  is  a  converting 
ordinance."1  This  view  had  brought  into 
the  church  many  persons  who  led  irreligious 
lives  and  were  destructive  of  its  best  in 
terests.  Hence  Edwards,  seeing  this,  laid 
stress  on  justification  by  faith  —  the  one 
great  cure  for  all  spiritual  decline.  His 
preaching  had  the  immediate  effect  of  a  re 
vival  within  the  pale  of  the  church  ;  but  the 
influence  soon  extended  to  the  more  indif 
ferent  circles.  Whitefield  arrived  in  this 
country  in  1740,  and  immediately  preached 
to  vast  audiences.  He  became  a  powerful 
promoter  of  the  revival,  and  made  a  tour 
through  New  England  and  the  central  col 
onies. 

While  there  was  a  certain  degree  of  lib 
erty  in  the  evangelistic  labors  of  certain 
preachers,  the  practice  of  ministers  travel 
ing  from  one  parish  to  another,  as  evangel 
ists  for  the  promotion  of  revivals,  aroused 
very  bitter  oppositiou  in  some  sections.  In 
1741  the  Consociation  of  Guilford,  Connecti 
cut,  declared  against  it,  and  in  1742  the 
Legislature  of  the  same  State  enacted  laws 
against  it,  with  heavy  penalties  in  case  of 
violation.  No  less  a  character  than  Sam 
uel  Finley,  afterward  President  of  Princeton 
College,  was  dealt  with  as  a  vagrant,  and 
sent  from  one  constable  to  another,  out  of 
the  bounds  of  the  colony.2  With  Edwards 
and  Whitefield,  as  leading  agents  in  the  re 
vival,  must  be  mentioned  the  Tenneuts  (Gil 
bert  and  William),  Bellamy,  Griswold,  Cros- 
well,  Parsons,  Wheelock,  Robinson,  Blair, 
and  Roan.3  As  results  of  the  revival,  from 

1  Tracy,  The  Great  Awakening,  p.  4,  5. 

a  TJhden,  New  England  Theocracy,  p.  275. 

8  The  literature  of  this  first  great  religious  awaken 
ing  in  American  history  is  abundant.  The  best  source 
is  Prince,  The  Christian  History;  containing  Accounts 
of  the  Revival  and  Propagation  in  Great  Britain  and 
America.  This  work  first  nppeared  us  a  weekly  serial, 
in  small  octavo,  eight  pages,  the  first  number  being 
issued  March  5, 1743.  It  continued  two  years.  Thom 
as  Prince,  Juu.,  who  conducted  it,  was  the  son  of  one 


twenty -five  thousand  to  thirty  thousand 
converts  were  added  to  the  New  England 
churches ;  twenty  ministers,  near  Boston 
alone,  ascribed  their  conversion  to  White- 
field  ;  and  from  1740  to  17GO  not  less  than 
one  hundred  and  fifty  new  churches  were 
organized.1  After  the  year  1750  there  was 
a  gradual  disappearance  of  revival  influ 
ences,  and  the  churches  returned  to  their 
wonted  condition.  It  wras  not  long  before 
there  appeared  proofs  of  spiritual  declension 
owing  to  many  causes,  but  chiefly  to  the 
churches  that  arose  in  opposition  to  the  re 
vival  tendencies,  to  the  civil  troubles  occa 
sioned  by  the  old  French  wars  from  1756  to 
1763,  to  the  threatening  Revolution,  then  to 
the  long  conflict  itself  with  England,  and, 
last,  to  the  absorbing  political  questions  in 
cidental  to  the  establishment  of  independ 
ence  and  our  relations  to  foreign  powers.8 

There  now  began  the  second  revival  peri 
od,  1792-1808.  New  England  was  the  prin 
cipal  scene.  All  classes  of  people  were  per 
vaded  by  it.  Dr.  Griffin,  of  Connection  t,  says : 
"From  that  date  [1792]  I  saw  a  continued 
succession  of  heavenly  sprinklings,  until  I 
could  stand  at  my  door  in  New  Hartford, 
and  number  fifty  or  sixty  congregations  laid 
down  in  one  field  of  divine  wonders."  This 
revival,  like  that  in  which  Edwards  and  his 
coadjutors  were  the  principal  agents,  result 
ed  from  the  vigorous  preaching  of  the  great 
doctrines  of  Christianity,  such  as  repent 
ance,  faith,  the  judgment -day,  and  eternal 
rewards  and  punishments.  The  day  of 

of  the  pastors  of  the  Old  South  Church,  Boston,  and 
his  facilities  for  information  were  very  abundant. 
Gillies,  Historical  Collections  (Bonar's  edition,  Kelso, 
1845,  is  the  best),  furnishes,  besides  copious  extracts 
from  Prince,  very  valuable  details.  The  work  of  Gil 
lies  is  the  finest  in  theological  literature  on  revivals 
of  religion  in  all  periods.  Edwards  wrote  a  book  on 
the  revival  in  which  he  took  part:  Thoughts  on  the 
Revival  of  Religion  in  New  England.  It  was  the  latter 
part  of  this  work  that  suggested  to  Prince  his  now  in 
valuable  Christian  History.  Tracy,  The  Great  Awaken 
ing,  (Boston,  1842),  gives  a  very  full  and  impartial  ac 
count  of  the  whole  movement.  The  effect  of  this  re 
vival  on  the  Presbyterian  Church  is  given  by  many 
authors.  Hodge,  Constitutional  History  of  the  Pres 
byterian  Church,  and  Hall,  History  of  the  Presbijteri' 
an  Church  in  Trenton,  New  Jersey,  may  be  consulted 
to  advantage.  Marvin,  Three  Eras  of  Revival  in  the 
United  States  (Bibliotheca  Sacra,  vol.  xvi.,  p.  279  ff.)  is 
disappointing. 

1  Smith,  Chronological   Tables  of  Church  History, 
p.  71. 

2  Contributions  to  the  Ecclesiastical  History  of  Con 
necticut,  p.  198, 199. 


488 


RELIGIOUS  DEVELOPMENT. 


evangelists  had  not  arrived.  Even  Nettle- 
ton  had  not  as  yet  begun  his  zealous  and 
loving  labors.  But  the  sermons  of  such 
clear  and  honest  preachers  as  Backus,  Small- 
ey,  Hooker,  Griffin,  Hullock,  Mills,  and  Gil- 
lett  produced  a  powerful  effect,  and  many 
thousands  were  aroused  from  their  spiritual 
lethargy.  Subsequently  to  this  revival  there 
were  seasons  of  unusual  life  in  the  church, 
and  now  and  then  great  awakenings  in  iso 
lated  sections.  For  example,  in  1813,  1821, 
1826-27,  and  1831,  there  were  very  many 
awakenings,  but  there  was  no  general  re 
vival  of  religion  in  any  of  these  years. 

In  1858,  however,  there  occurred  the  third 
general  revival  in  the  history  of  the  coun 
try.  This  visitation  was  very  different  from 
the  two  which  had  preceded  it.  In  the  preach 
ing  there  was  no  new  stress  on  the  lead 
ing  doctrines  of  revelation.  There  were  no 
prominent  evangelists  who  seemed  to  be  the 
chief  agents  in  bringing  about  the  extraor 
dinary  displays  of  divine  power.  But  there 
•was  a  singular  union,  never  before  approach 
ed  in  the  history  of  American  Christianity, 
of  the  principal  religious  bodies  in  prayer 
and  conference. 

The  daily  prayer-meeting  in  Fulton  Street, 
New  York,  was  a  new  feature  in  the  relig 
ious  life  of  the  people;  but  such  was  the  iu- 
terest  in  it  that  it  has  not  yet  been  aban 
doned,  and  the  anniversaries  of  its  inaugu 
ration  are  seasons  of  special  religious  exer 
cises.  Daily  prayer -meetings  were  estab 
lished  in  many  cities  and  larger  towns. 
Christian  conversation,  singing,  and  the  dis 
tribution  of  practical  religious  literature 
were  powerful  agencies  in  promoting  the 
movement.  The  revival  extended  to  Great 
Britain,  and  when  it  began  to  subside  here 
it  increased  in  interest  throughout  the  Brit 
ish  Islands. 

The  permanent  effect  of  the  revival  of 
1858  has  been  chiefly  in  the  increased  fra 
ternity  of  the  great  religious  bodies.  Cler 
gymen  and  Christian  laymen  who  had  al 
ways  stood  aloof  were  brought  together,  for 
the  first  time,  as  participants  in  a  great  work 
of  common  interest  and  enjoyment.  These 
beautiful  relations  have  never  been  inter 
rupted,  and  the  fraternity  and  cordiality  of 
the  evangelical  churches  of  America  during 
the  last  eighteen  years  have  brought  in  a 
new  era  in  modern  ecclesiastical  history. 


The  fourth  national  revival  began  in  the 
winter  of  1875-76.  There  had  been  during 
the  preceding  year  more  than  the  ordina 
ry  evidences  of  popular  religious  interest. 
Messrs.  Moody  and  Saukey  went  to  England 
during  1873,  and  labored  with  remarkable 
success.  Their  success,  in  Scotland  espe 
cially,  was  such  as  to  silence  all  objections. 
They  continued  their  work  southward,  and 
in  London  were  heard  by  people  of  every 
class.  They  returned  to  this  country  in  the 
summer  of  1875,  and  began  their  evangel 
istic  work  in  New  England,  but  early  trans 
ferred  the  scene  of  their  labors  to  Brooklyn, 
thence  to  Philadelphia,  and  then  to  New 
York.  The  directness,  simplicity,  and  strict 
ly  Biblical  character  of  Mr.  Moody's  sermons, 
and  the  manly  pathos  of  Mr.  Saukey's  sing 
ing,  have  reached  every  stratum  of  socie 
ty,  and,  besides  leading  thousands  to  the 
profession  of  faith,  have  quickened  many 
churches  in  all  the  chief  denominations. 

The  fraternity,  which  assumed  a  positive 
and  aggressive  character  for  the  first  time, 
through  the  unifying  power  of  the  revival 
of  1858,  has  exhibited  itself  in  various  prac 
tical  and  decisive  forms  even  in  the  brief 
time  which  has  since  elapsed.  When  the 
civil  war  began,  in  1861,  there  was  suddenly 
thrown  upon  the  religious  life  of  the  people 
a  burden  hardly  less  important  than  that 
which  was  placed  upon  the  government. 
No  American  war  has  ever  been  without 
the  great  advantage  which  comes  from  an 
aroused  religious  sentiment ;  and  when  the 
last  strife  came,  the  clergy  and  the  laity 
united  in  special  services,  apart  from  the 
days  of  thanksgiving,  fasting,  and  prayer 
appointed  by  the  civil  authorities,  for  the 
divine  blessing  on  the  national  arms.  Cler 
gymen  of  established  position  willingly  gave 
up  their  parishes  to  become  chaplains,  and 
others  to  become  officers  in  the  army ;  while 
those  who  remained  at  home  united  with 
the  government  in  sustaining  the  popular 
enthusiasm. 

The  Christian  Commission  was  an  organ 
ization  which  arose  directly  from  the  relig 
ious  impulse  of  the  people  to  provide  spir 
itual  and  temporal  care  for  the  soldiers  in 
camp,  on  the  march,  and  in  hospital.  It 
was  an  important  arm  of  the  government, 
and  furnished  such  voluntary  and  unpaid 
aid  as  would  have  been  impossible  for  the 


PKACTICAL  CHARACTER  OF  OUR  RELIGIOUS  DEVELOPMENT. 


489 


government  to  secure  in  any  other  way. 
The  total  receipts  of  the  Christian  Commis 
sion,  in  money  and  other  directions,  were 
$6,264,607  ;  its  delegates  numbered  4859  ;  it 
distributed  $3,700,000  in  stores,  and  over 
one  million  of  dollars'  worth  of  Bibles,  Tes 
taments,  books,  religious  journals,  aud  other 
publications. 

The  Sanitary  Commission,  which  in  no 
wise  dealt  with  the  spiritual  interests  of  the 
soldiers,  had  at  its  head  a  clergyman,  the 
Rev.  H.  W.  Bellows,  D.D. 

Another  evidence  of  the  developing  fra 
ternal  spirit  of  the  Church  may  be  seen  in 
the  session  in  New  York,  in  the  autumn  of 
1873,  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance.  The  Alli 
ance  was  organized  in  London  in  the  year 
1846,  and  important  sessions  were  held  in 
London,  Paris,  Berlin,  Geneva,  and  Amster 
dam  ;  but  the  one  held  in  New  York  far 
excelled  in  interest  any  previous  session. 
Delegates  from  all  parts  of  the  Protestant 
field  of  Europe  were  in  attendance,  and,  be 
sides  the  important  service  which  they  ren 
dered  in  furnishing  reports  of  the  condition 
of  the  countries  which  they  represented, 
they  enjoyed  the  experience  of  finding  in 
this  country  what  they  never  saw  before — 
a  church  which  had  grown  great  through  no 
nurture  from  the  fatness  of  a  civil  support, 
but  through  the  spontaneous  aid  of  its  own 
members.  The  scenes  which  they  here  be 
held  produced  a  lasting  impression  upon 
them,  and  books  are  still  appearing  from 
their  hands,  in  the  Continental  languages, 
recounting  the  new  experiences  through 
which  they  here  passed.  Never  has  an  ec 
clesiastical  body  been  so  characterized  by 
unity  of  feeling,  scope  of  investigation,  and 
universality  of  representation,  and  no  sin 
gle  event  in  American  ecclesiastical  deliber 
ation  has,  even  in  this  brief  interval,  been 
followed  by  such  salutary  results. 

The  theology  of  American  Protestantism 
has  grown  out  of  the  active  religious  life  of 
the  people.  It  is  singularly  devoid  of  the 
contemplative  element.  For  the  develop 
ment  of  that,  the  day  has  not  yet  arrived. 
The  great  material  problems  to  be  solved  by 
the  people,  aud  the  immediate  spiritual  ne 
cessities  of  a  new  population  and  a  vast  un 
occupied  territory,  have  left  no  leisure  for 
speculation.  What  to  be  Done  was  more  a 
question  than  What  to  be  Thought.  The  ro 


bust  theology  of  England  at  the  time  of  the 
most  rapid  emigration  gave  tone  to  the  en 
tire  religious  life  of  the  colonial  time.  The 
fundamentals  of  faith,  such  as  they  are  con 
strued  and  maintained  by  people  with  the 
gibbet  and  stake  and  block  in  sight,  were 
brought  over  to  New  England  during  the 
Stuart  persecution,  and  became  the  control 
ling  theology  of  the  colonies,  and  even  of 
the  United  States.  The  Cambridge  Synod 
of  1648,  the  Boston  Synod  of  1680,  and  the 
Saybrook  Platform  of  1708,  substantially 
moulded  the  religious  thought  of  the  New 
World.  The  preachers  and  house  -  fathers 
of  the  time  drew  their  opinions  from  siich 
theology  as  wTas  furnished  by  Ames's  Medul 
la,  Wolleb's  Compendium,  and  Willard's  Body 
of  Divinity.  At  the  time  of  the  great  reviv 
al  under  Edwards  and  his  coadjutors,  there 
was  a  strong  party  in  the  New  England 
Church  which  opposed  the  special  meas 
ures,  though  more  by  reserve  than  by  active 
antagonism : 

"  Those  gentle  theolognes  of  calmer  kind, 
Whose  constitution  dictates  to  their  pens ; 
Who,  cold  themselves,  think  ardor  comes  from  hell." 

President  Clap  and  Drs.  Stiles  and  Chaim- 
cey  did  not  sympathize  with  the  earnest 
preaching  and  numerous  awakenings.  The 
great  body  of  the  Calvinistic  clergy  were 
divided  into  formal  and  revival,  or  Old 
Lights  and  New  Lights.  Even  the  Con 
necticut  Legislature  went  so  far  as,  in  1742, 
to  inflict  penalties  on  enthusiasts.1  Hop- 
kinsianism,  which  makes  all  virtue  a  disin 
terested  benevolence,  and  infers  man's  readi 
ness  to  be  damned  for  the  glory  of  God,  had 
gained  such  favor  by  the  close  of  the  eight 
eenth  century  that  in  New  England  not  less 
than  one  hundred  preachers  had  accepted  it. 
The  protest  against  the  prevalence  of  this 
bold  type  of  Calviuistic  theology  had  been 
for  some  time  gathering  strength  before  its 
culmination  in  1805.  In  that  year  two 
events  took  place  which,  however  small  in 
themselves,  had  a  profound  influence  upon 
the  religious  thought  of  New  England,  if 
not  of  the  entire  country.  We  refer  to  the 
election  of  the  Unitarian,  Dr.  Ware,  to  the 
Hollis  professorship  in  Harvard  University, 
and  to  the  publication  of  the  essential  infe 
riority  of  Christ,  by  Hosea  Ballon,  in  his  work 

1  Smith,  Chronological  Tables  of  Church  History,  p. 
73. 


490 


RELIGIOUS   DEVELOPMENT. 


on  The  Atonement.  The  gauntlet  was  thus 
thrown  down  to  the  orthodox  Church  of 
New  England,  and  a  period  of  controversy 
began  which,  in  spite  of  the  occasionally  ex 
cessive  ardor  of  the  contestants,  has  been 
one  of  the  most  productive  periods  in  mod 
ern  theological  thought.  Channing  was 
leader  of  the  protesting  party,  while  Stuart 
and  Woods  took  the  most  active  part  on  the 
evangelical  side.  The  contest  was  well  sus 
tained,  and  the  literary  fertility  of  the  time 
was  very  great ;  some  works  being  publish 
ed  which  have  found  a  permanent  place  in 
the  theology  of  the  country. 

Among  the  names  which  appeared  during 
the  crisis  for  the  first  time,  may  be  mention 
ed  Worcester,  Sparks,  Miller,  Ripley,  Norton, 
Dewey,  Ellis,  and  Browuson.  The  chasm 
between  the  Unitarians  and  the  Evangel 
ical  Church  constantly  widened.  Unitarian 
churches  increased  with  great  rapidity,  and 
the  defection  from  the  old  standards  threat 
ened  to  be  very  serious.  By  the  year  1843 
there  existed  no  less  than  one  hundred  and 
thirty  Unitarian  congregations  in  Massa 
chusetts  alone — "  hardly  twenty  of  which," 
says  the  late  Bishop  Burgess,  "  were  Unita 
rian  in  their  origin."1  The  extreme  of  the 
protest  may  be  seen  in  Ralph  Waldo  Emer 
son  and  Theodore  Parker.  For  a  time  Em 
erson  was  connected  with  the  Unitarians, 
and  in  1826  was  "  approbated  to  preach." 
In  1829  he  became  colleague  of  Henry  Ware, 
pastor  of  the  Second  Unitarian  Church  of 
Boston.  He  preached  but  three  years,  hav 
ing  asked  for  his  dismission  on  account  of 
differences  with  the  members  on  the  Lord's- 
supper.  His  entire  subsequent  life  has  been 
occupied  in  arduous  literary  labors.  There 
is  no  department  of  our  higher  general  lit 
erature  which  has  not  been  enriched  by  his 
careful  and  chaste  pen  ;  but  his  poetry  and 
essays  every  where  give  abundant  evidence 
of  his  early  theological  tastes,  and,  after  a 
careful  reading  of  him,  it  occasions  no  sur 
prise  when  informed  that  for  six  successive 
generations  his  family  had  not  been  without 
a  preacher,  on  the  paternal  or  maternal  side. 
He  has  never  constructed  a  system.  Per 
haps  Professor  H.  B.  Smith's  definition  of 
his  views  is  as  near  an  approach  as  can  be 


1  Pages  from  the  Ecclesiastical  History  of  New  En 
gland,  p.  121, 122. 


expected :  "  He  apparently  adopts  a  panthe 
istic  idealism." 

Parker  never  forsook  the  ministry,  but, 
having  left  the  Unitarians,  he  became  pas 
tor  of  the  Twenty-eighth  Congregational  So 
ciety  in  Boston.  He  denied  miracle  and  the 
supernatural,  and  preached  with  great  elo 
quence  the  gospel  of  humanity  and  nature. 
Parker  espoused  the  cause  of  the  slave  when 
slavery  was  popular,  and  had  its  apologists 
in  every  part  of  the  country.  His  great  sym 
pathies  were  so  aroused  that  the  wrongs  of 
the  negro  occupied  an  important  place  in  his 
sermons,  lectures,  and  writings.  He  strug 
gled  heroically  against  disease,  and  finally 
died  in  Florence,  Italy,  while  on  a  tour  for 
the  restoration  of  his  health.  He  left  no 
school.  His  humane  spirit,  however,  which 
possessed  the  courage  of  the  real  reformer, 
served  immensely  to  mature  the  sentiment 
which  culminated  in  the  downfall  of  slav 
ery  and  the  assertion  of  equal  rights  for  all 
inhabitants  of  the  land.  His  glowing  style 
was  a  distinguishing  feature  of  his  author 
ship,  and  his  warmth  of  diction  never  left 
him.  Such  periods  as  the  following,  from 
his  last  monograph,  distinguish  all  stages 
of  his  career :  "  History  shows  that  the  Her 
cules'  Pillars  of  one  age  are  sailed  through 
iu  the  next,  and  a  wide  ocean  entered  on, 
which  in  due  time  is  found  rich  with  islands 
of  its  own,  and  washing  a  vast  continent 
not  dreamed  of  by  such  as  slept  within 
their  temples  old,  while  it  sent  to  their 
very  coasts  its  curious  joints  of  unwonted 
cane,  its  seeds  of  many  an  unknown  tree, 
and  even  elaborate  boats,  wherein  lay  the 
starved  bodies  of  strange  -  featured  men, 
with  golden  jewels  in  their  ears."1  It  ia 
but  just  to  say  that  he  never  lost  his  dis 
taste  for  the  evangelical  doctrines.  We 
have  Miss  Cobbe's  authority  for  saying  that 
when,  on  his  last  Sunday  morning  in  Flor 
ence,  and  on  earth,  he  was  told,  "  It  is  Sun 
day  ;  a  blessed  day,  is  it  not,  dear  friend  ?" 
the  dying  consumptive  replied,  "  Yes,  when 
one  has  got  over  the  superstition  of  it,  a 
most  blessed  day."2 

Another  form  of  conflict  in  religious  ideas, 
though  iu  a  very  different  department,  is  to 

1  Experience  as  a  Minister,  p.  89. 

5  Reunions  Demands  of  the  Age,  p.  60.  This  little 
volume  (American  edition)  is  a  reprint  of  the  Preface 
to  the  Loudou  edition  of  Parker's  Collected  Wurks. 


REACTIONARY   ELEMENTS. 


491 


be  found  in  the  relation  of  Roman  Catholi 
cism  to  Protestantism  on  the  subject  of  the 
use  of  the  Bible  in  the  public  schools.  In 
1840  the  Roman  Catholics  of  New  York 
made  their  first  attempt  in  this  couutry  to 
prevent  the  use  of  the  Bible  in  the  common 
schools.  From  that  time  to  the  present,  the 
controversy  has  been  uninterrupted,  though 
changing  form  with  the  revolutions  and  re 
lations  of  the  political  parties.  The  policy 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  has  been  to 
control  alike  the  parties  and  the  education 
of  the  entire  laud.  With  what  interest  it 
watches  the  training  of  the  young,  and  how 
desirous  it  is  of  taking  the  rudimentary  in 
struction  in  its  own  hand,  may  be  seen  in 
the  following  bold  language  of  The  Catho 
lic  World  of  September  last:  "The  superin 
tendence  and  direction  of  the  public  schools, 
as  well  as  those  wherein  the  mass  of  the 
people  are  instructed  in  the  rudiments  of 
human  knowledge,  as  of  those  where  sec 
ondary  and  higher  instruction  are  given, 
belong  of  right  to  the  Catholic  Church. 
She  alone  has  the  right  of  watching  over 
the  moral  character  of  those  schools ;  of  ap 
pointing  the  masters  who  instruct  the  youth 
therein  ;  of  controlling  their  teaching ;  and 
dismissing,  without  appeal  to  any  other  au 
thority,  those  whose  doctrines  or  manners 
should  be  contrary  to  the  purity  of  Chris 
tian  doctrine." 

Where  this  Church  can  not  prevent  the 
use  of  the  Bible  in  the  public  schools,  it 
withdraws  the  children  of  its  fold,  and  then 
demands  special  appropriations  from  the 
public  treasury  for  the  support  of  its  insti 
tutions.  From  the  city  treasury  of  New 
York  alone,  in  the  year  18(59,  the  Roman 
Catholics  obtained  the  sum  of  $651,191;  in 
1870,  $711,436  ;  in  1871,  $552,818— an  aggre 
gate,  in  three  years,  of  $1,915,445.  There 
was  a  just  interruption,  after  1872,  to  these 
receipts,  owing  to  the  loss  of  sympathy  in 
consequence  of  the  overthrow  of  Tweed  and 
the  other  thieves  who  had  fattened  on  the 
public  treasure.  But  two  institutions  alone 
(the  Roman  Catholic  Protectory  and  the 
Foundling  Asylum  of  the  Sisters  of  Char 
ity)  received  from  the  treasury  of  the  city, 
in  1872,  the  sum  of  $276,836 ;  in  1873,  $290,- 
000;  in  1874,  $370,410;  in  1875,  $398,355, 
with  $47,000  yet  to  be  paid — making  in  all, 
for  1875,  $445,355.  The  amount  proposed  in 


the  tax  levy  of  1876  for  these  two  Romanist 
institutions  is  $428,050. 

The  Roman  Catholics  do  not  care  so 
much  that  religion  is  taught  in  the  common 
schools.  But  it  is  not  their  religion  which 
they  can  hope  to  see  taught  in  them.  "  Had 
this  controversy,"  says  Diman,  "  turned  sim 
ply  on  the  reading  of  a  few  verses  of  King 
James's  version  at  the  opening  of  the  daily 
exercises,  it  need  have  caused  no  intelligent 
Protestant  embarrassment.  Simple  justice 
would  have  dictated  a  concession  involving 
neither  disrespect  to  the  Almighty  nor  peril 
to  the  spiritual  welfare  of  the  child.  But 
the  difficulty  lay  deeper;  the  real  grievance 
of  the  Catholic  was,  not  that  too  much,  but 
that  too  little,  religious  instruction  was  giv 
en  in  the  schools;  he  dreaded  an  education 
from  which  all  positive  religious  influence 
had  been  eliminated ;  he  rejected,  in  other 
words,  the  whole  theory  on  which  the  pub 
lic-school  system  had  been  based."1 

In  looking  at  the  aggregate  of  the  relig 
ious  life  and  opinions  of  the  American  peo 
ple  during  the  first  century,  we  find  a  prog 
ress  fully  equal  to  the  expectation  of  those 
seers  who  stood  at  the  threshold  of  our  na 
tional  history  and  looked  into  the  future 
with  hopeful  anticipations.  With  obstacles 
such  as  no  modern  nation  has  had  to  contend 
with,  the  people  have  been  supplied  with  a 
religious  literature  that  has  been  at  once 
quickening  and  elevating.  The  religious 
journals,  theological  quarterlies,  popular  re 
ligious  works,  and  theological  treatises  de 
serve  to  stand  beside  those  of  the  British 
and  Prussian  nations.  The  schools  for  the 
education  of  the  clergy  have  grown  with  the 
religious  wants  of  the  people.  The  religious 
life  has  been  earnest  and  evangelistic,  and 
yet  not  without  aspirations  and  efforts  for 
the  highest  culture.  The  churches  have 
come  out  of  the  dim  twilight  of  mutual  mis 
apprehension,  and  have  seen  the  great  Amer 
ican  fulfillment  of  the  diversity  of  gifts  and 
the  sameness  of  the  Spirit.  The  great  bod 
ies  have  developed  from  feeble  beginnings 
to  vast  organizations,  whose  operations  are 
felt  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific,  and  in 
many  heathen  countries.  The  American 
churches  are  now  making  gigantic  attempts, 
not  merely  to  preach  the  Gospel  in  pagan 

1  Religion  in  America,  1776-1S7C,  A'orth  American  lie- 
view,  January,  1S76,  p.  39. 


492 


EELIGIOUS  DEVELOPMENT. 


lands,  but  in  those  European  nations  where 
Eornauisin  and  skepticism  have  long  held 
sway. 

It  is  one  of  the  ironies  of  history  that 
American  missionaries  are  to-day  preaching 
in  Berlin,  old  Upsala,  Frankfort,  and  Rome, 
while  the  capital  of  Constantiue,  and  Beirut, 
the  seat  of  the  celebrated  school  of  Roman 
law,  are  powerful  centres  for  the  distribu 
tion  of  religious  knowledge  to  the  people 
of  many  languages.  The  religious  care  of 
childhood  has  grown  in  this  country  to  such 
proportions  as  have  led  the  leading  denomi 
nations  to  adopt  uniform  subjects  of  study 
in  Sunday- schools,  and  some  of  the  best 
minds  of  the  country  have  made  it  a  chosen 
task  to  provide  an  elevated  juvenile  litera 
ture  for  the  country.  The  Sabbath,  not 
withstanding  the  strong  Continental  preju 
dices  of  some  of  the  people,  has  had  among 
its  warm  defenders  even  organized  associa 
tions.1 

The  great  temperance  reform,  which  has 
frequently  leaned  for  support  on  the  politic 
al  arm,  has  learned  at  last  to  take  high  mor 
al  grounds,  and  look  to  the  conscience  as  its 
strongest  stay.  The  American  pulpit  has 
been,  and  will  still  be,  one  of  the  most  pow 
erful  agencies  for  the  promotion  of  the  great 
vital  interests  of  American  civilization. 
Thompson's  words  are  amply  justified  by  the 
facts  of  the  century,  "  The  pulpit  in  the 
United  States,"  says  he,  "  has  ever  been 
among  the  foremost  of  social  forces,  stimu 
lating  the  people  to  intellectual  life,  en 
couraging  culture  and  science,  and  creating 
a  public  sentiment  outside  of  the  church 
itself  for  all  that  is  true  and  noble  and 
good."2 

While  our  theology  has  been  largely  de 
rived  from  Continental  and  British  sources, 
there  has  grown  up  of  late  a  disposition  for 
original  theological  investigation  which 
could  not  have  appeared  at  an  earlier  peri 
od  in  our  history.  The  absence  of  great  li 
braries  has  been  severely  felt,  but  this  in- 


1  Probably  the  first  attempt  made  to  protect  the 
sanctity  of  the  Sabbath  was  in  the  forms  of  popular 
protests  against  the  Congressional  act  of  1810,  which 
required  the  carrying  of  mails  on  that  day.— Davis, 
Half-century,  p.  184, 185. 

a  Church  and  State  in  the  United  States,  p.  123, 124. 


convenience  is  now  in  process  of  removal — 
first,  by  the  judicious  purchase  of  libraries 
in  Europe ;  and,  second,  by  the  now  fre 
quent  completion  of  professional  studies  in 
the  German  universities,  and  in  contact 
with  foreign  masters  in  every  science. 
There  is  less  dependence  now  than  ever  be 
fore  on  foreign  sources,  and  yet  a  more 
healthful  and  appreciative  utilization  of  ev 
ery  aid  that  can  come  from  any  quarter. 

The  discriminating  spirit  with  which  the 
American  mind  and  conscience  have  select 
ed  the  better  fruits  of  European  culture  and 
religion,  and  rejected  the  unworthy  and  ill- 
grown,  has  been  too  great  to  be  appreci 
ated  at  this  early  date.  But  this  virtue 
will  still  be  exercised,  and  the  future  Amer 
ican  Christian  will  accept  and  discard  as 
right  requires,  and  will  say  : 

"The  leaves,  wherewith  embowered  is  all  the  garden 
Of  the  Eternal  Gardener,  do  I  love 
As  much  as  He  has  granted  them  of  good." 

The  interchange  of  evangelistic  efforts  is 
constantly  increasing.  Pearsall  Smith  went 
from  Philadelphia,  and  made  the  tour  of 
France  and  Germany ;  Varley  came  from 
London,  and  made  the  tour  of  the  United 
States  and  Canadas ;  and  Moody  aud  San- 
key,  Americans,  were  not  familiar  to  Ameri 
can  ears  until  they  achieved  their  wonder 
ful  success  in  Great  Britain.  To  the  relig 
ious  bond  between  America  and  England 
we  must  look  as  an  important  agent  for  the 
preservation  of  fraternal  relations.  Alston's 
glowing  tribute  to  Anglo-Saxon  unity  is 
more  a  fact  in  religious  than  political  life : 

"  While  the  manners,  while  the  arts, 

That  mould  a  nation's  soul 
Still  cling  around  our  hearts, 

Between  let  ocean  roll, 

One  joint  communion  breaking  with  the  sun: 
Yet  still  from  either  beach 
The  voice  of  blood  shall  reach, 
More  audible  than  speech, 
'We  are  one!'" 

Good  Bishop  Howley  said,  many  years 
ago,  in  plain  prose  :  "  The  surest  pledge  of 
perpetual  peace  between  the  two  countries 
is  to  be  found  in  their  community  of  faith, 
and  in  the  closeness  of  their  ecclesiastical 
intercourse."  Have  not  all  the  events  of 
the  first  American  national  century  proved 
the  truth  of  these  wise  words? 


INDEX. 


The  subjects  in  this  Index  indicated  by  an  asterisk  (*)  are  illustrated. 


Abbe,  C.,  314-316. 

Acoustics,  316-318. 

Adams,  Charles  F.,  381. 

Adams,  John,  32,  36. 

"Adams"  Press,  *131. 

Adams,  Samuel,  35,  37. 

Addressing-machines,  *135, 136. 

Admiralty  Jurisdiction,  441-443. 

Agricultural  Implements  :— Hoe  and  Plow,  *43 ;  vari 
ous  kinds  of  Plows,  *44-^6  ;  Reaping-machines,  *46- 
49  ;  Threshing-machines,  *49,  50. 

Agricultural  Progress,  23, 174-184 :— The  Climate,  Em 
igration,  Agricultural  Chemistry  and  Implements, 
175  ;  Drilling-machines,  Grain,  and  Labor,  176, 177  ; 
California  Farms  and  the  Condition  of  the  Soils, 
178 ;  Manuring,  179, 180  ;  Tobacco  and  Cottou  Culti 
vation,  Drainage  and  Irrigation,  180 ;  Importation 
of  Live  Stock,  181-183 ;  Horses,  183  ;  The  Cheese-fac 
tory  System,  183,184  ;  Journalism,  Schools,  aiid  Col 
leges,  184. 

Albany,  Dutch  at,  '20. 

Alcott,  A.  Bronson,  389. 

Alcott,  Louisa  M.,  394. 

Aldine  Classics,  The,  120. 

Aldrich,  Thomas  Bailey,  391. 

Alexander,  Cosmo,  407, 403. 

Alexander,  S.,  307,  308. 

Alexandria,  Pharos  of,  80. 

Alger,  William  R.,  386. 

Allen,  Ethan,  358,  359. 

Allen,  Horatio,  40. 

Alliboue,  S.  A.,  396. 

Allston,  Washington,  Portrait  of,  405 ;  Biography  of, 
362, 411. 

America,  Adam  Smith's  Opinion  of,  156. 

American  Plows  of  1776,  "44 ;  of  1785-1874,  '46. 

Ames,  Fisher,  355,  357. 

Amherst,  General,  265. 

Anaesthesia,  425,  426. 

Anaesthetics,  115. 

Anderson,  Alexander,  Portrait  of,  404 ;  Sketch  of,  414. 

Aneurism,  Popliteal,  423. 

Animal  Painting,  413. 

Animals,  Protection  of,  450. 

Apple-paring  Machines,  96. 

Arkwright,  Richard,  and  Cotton  Machinery,  40-42. 

Arkwright's  Spinning-machine,  "64. 

Arnold,  Benedict,  35. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  291. 

Art  Culture,  Growth  of,  415 ;  Public  Galleries,  401 ; 
Union,  National,  402. 


Artificial  Limbs.  *115. 

Arts,  Fine,  Progress  of  the,  399-415: —John  Watson, 
Portrait-painter  at  Perth  Amboy,  399;  John  Smy- 
bert,  Bishop  Berkeley,  and  Benjamin  Franklin's 
Prophesy  of  a  successful  Future  to  Art  among 
his  own  Countrymen,  400 ;  Public  Art  Galleries, 
401 ;  Commotion  caused  by  the  Appearance  of 
Power's  "Greek  Slave"  in  this  Country,  Founding 
of  the  American  Art  Union  and  its  Influence  on 
Art  Culture,  Worthless  Copies  of  the  Old  Masters 
palmed  on  the  Country,  and  Organization  of  the 
New  York  Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  402 ;  National 
Academy  of  Design,  with  Professor  Morse  as  Presi 
dent,  Established  in  New  York,  403;  An  Academy 
of  Art  formed  in  Philadelphia,  under  the  Presiden 
cy  of  George  Clyiner,  403,  404 ;  Water-color  Paint 
ing,  and  the  Formation  of  the  "American  Socie 
ty  of  Painters  in  Water-colors,"  405,  406 ;  Portrait 
Painting— Benjamin  West,  401,  406,  407;  John  Sin 
gleton  Copley  and  Wollaston,  407 ;  Cosmo  Alex 
ander,  Robert  E.  Pine,  and  Charles  Wilson  Peale, 
408 ;  Rembrandt  Peale,  405,  409 ;  William  Dunlap, 
Robert  Fulton,  John  Wesley  Jarvis,  Chester  Har 
ding,  Gilbert  Stuart  Newton,  and  C.  C.  Ingham, 
409;  Gilbert  Charles  Stuart,  401,  409;  Professor 
Morse,  408,  409  ;  John  Vanderlyu,  410  ;  Thomas  Sul 
ly,  407,  410 ;  Henry  Inman,  409,  410 ;  William  Page, 
Charles  Loring  Elliot,  Daniel  Huntington,  Oliver 
Stone,  Thomas  Le  Clear,  Richard  M.  Staigg,  and 
George  A.  Baker,  410;  Historical  Painting— Col.  Jno. 
Trumbull,  403,  410;  Washington  Allston,  405,  411; 
Emanuel  Leutze,  411 ;  Landscape  Painting — Daniel 
Huntingdon,  Asher  Brown  Durnud,  and  Robert  Gif- 
ford,  412;  Thomas  Cole,  409,  412;  George  Inuess, 
Frederick  Edwin  Church,  Albert  Bierstadt,  412; 
John  Frederick  Keusett,  412-414 ;  Jervis  M'Entee, 
Washington  Whittredge,  Samuel  Colman,  Richard 
W.  Hubbard,  412,  413  ;  F.  H.  De  Haas,  Charles  Tem 
ple  Dix,  413;  Figure  and  Genre  Painting — Eastman 
Johnson,  Edwin  White,  E.  W.  Perry,  J.  Matteson,  S. 
Mount,  J.  Wood,  J.  G.  Brown,  John  W.  Ehninger, 
Elihu  Vedder,  George  H.  Boughton.  W.  J.  Heunessy, 
and  R.  C.  Woodville,  413;  Animal  Painting— W.  H. 
Beard,  James  Beard,  and  William  Hays,  413  ;  Sculpt 
ure—Horatio  Greenongh,  Thomas  Crawford,  Hi 
ram  Powers,  J.  Q.  A.  Ward,  W.  W.  Story,  E.  D.  Palm 
er,  Thomas  Ball,  Henry  Kirke  Brown,  Randolph 
Rogers,  Joel  T.  Hart,  Launt  Thompson,  John  Rog 
ers,  Harriet  Hosmer,  Margaret  Foley,  and  Emma 
Stebbins,  413,  414;  Engraving— Paul  Revere,  399, 
414 ;  Alexander  Anderson,  404,  414 ;  Drawing  on 
Wood— F.  O.  C.  Darley,  Augustus Hoppiu,  A.  L.  Fred- 


494 


INDEX. 


cricks,  Thomas  Nnst,  Thomas  Moran,  Peter  Moran, 
and  Sol  Eytinge,  414;  Caricature  —  Thomas  Nast 
and  Sol  Ey tinge,  414;  Frank  Bellew,  Michael 
Woolf,  Charles  S.  Reinhart,  A.  B.  Frost,  T.  Wust, 
Thomas  Worth,  aud  L.  Hopkins,  415 ;  Growth  of  Art 
Culture,  415;  Portrait  of  Hiram  Powers,  411. 

Asbury,  Bishop,  47T,  4S2. 

Asteroids,  Discovery  of,  300. 

Astronomy,  297-314. 

Asylum,  Willard,  The,  470. 

Atlantic  Hurricanes,  315;  Telegraph,  326. 

Atmospheric  Railways,  105,  106. 

Auroras,  310,  311. 

Auscultation,  Discovery  of,  421. 

B. 

Bacon,  Leonard,  397. 

Baker,  George  A.,  410. 

Bakewell,  Robert,  182. 

Ball,  Thomas,  414. 

Ballhorn's  Grammatography,  statistics  from,  122. 

Balloons,  106. 107. 

Baltimore,  Lord  (Csecilins  Calvert),  483. 

Bancroft,  George,  3S1,  382. 

Bank,  National,  Established,  241;  Statements,  Com 
parative,  1S20-1848,  252. 

Bank-note  Engraving,  77. 

Bankruptcy  Law,  1800.  242. 

Bankruptcy,  445^447. 

Banks,  Suspension  of,  in  1839,  251 ;  Suspension  of  Pa 
per  Payments  by  the,  259. 

Baptists,  The,  481,  482. 

Barlow,  Joel,  356,  357. 

Barnard,  Henry,  285. 

Barograph,  The,  *114. 

Barter  Currency,  238. 

Bartlett,  Elisha,  428. 

Bartol,  Cyrus  A.,397. 

Beard,  James  H.,  413. 

Beard,  W.  H.,  413. 

Beaumont,  William,  424. 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  397. 

Bellew,  Prank,  415. 

Bellows  Camera,  The,  *141. 

Bellows,  Rev.  H.  W.,  489. 

Bell's  Reaping-machine,  *47, 43 ;  Steamboat  Comet,  *54. 

Belvoir,  the  Mansion  of  Lord  Fairfax,  21. 

Berkeley,  Bishop,  400. 

Berkeley,  Governor,  apostrophizes  ignorance,  20. 

Bermuda  Floating  Dock,  *82,  83. 

Bessemer  Casting  Process,  "72-74. 

Beverly,  Massachusetts,  first  Cotton  Mill  at,  40. 

Biddle,  C.  C.,  246,  250. 

Bigelow,  Henry  I.,  427. 

Bigelow,  Jacob,  428. 

Bierstadt,  Albert,  412. 

Billings,  Josh  (II.  W.  Shaw),  390. 

Bills  of  Exchange,  240  ;  "  Receivable,"  260. 

"  Black  Friday,"  258. 

Black-leading  Machine,  27. 

Blanchard's  Spoke-lathe,  *92. 

Blenkinsop's  Locomotive,  *56. 

Blind,  Treatment  of  the,  472. 

Blowers  and  Blowing-engines,  106. 

Blow-pipe,  Compound,  332. 

Boker,  George  II.,  396. 

Bond,  W.  C.,  298-300. 
Boone,  Daniel,  30,  219. 
Boring  and  Drilling,  85. 
Boston  in  1774, 33. 
Botany,  342, 343. 


Bonghton,  George  H.,  413. 

Boutwell,  Mr.,257. 

Bowditch,  H.  I.,  427. 

Bowditch,  Nathaniel,  297. 

Brackeuridge,  Hugh  Henry,  357. 

Bradford,  William,  36. 

Braimird,  Daniel,  427. 

Brandt,  Joseph,  31. 

Bridges,  Iron,  *S6-8S. 

British  Immigrants,  233. 

Brooks,  Charles  T.,  397. 

Brooks,  Maria,  395. 

Brown,  C.  B.,  357,  358. 

Brown,  Henry  Kirke,  414. 

Brown,  J.  G.,413. 

Browne,  Charles  F.  (Artemus  Ward),  390. 

Brownson,  Dr.,  483. 

Bruce's  Type-casting  Machine,  *123. 

Bryant,  William  Cullen,  359-361. 

Buck,  Gurdon,  427. 

Bullock,  William,  133. 

Burgoyne,  John,  31-35. 

Burr,  A.,  Rev.,  31. 

Burr,  Aaron,  354. 

Bushuell,  Horace,  397. 

C. 

Caissons,  80-82;  at  Copenhagen,  *S1 ;  at  East  River 

Bridge,  New  York,  *81. 
Calhoun,  J.  C.,  244,  386. 
California  Land  Claims,  447,  448. 
Calvert,  Csecilius  (Lord  Baltimore),  483. 
Calvert,  Leonard,  214. 
Calvinistic  Doctrine,  358,  359. 
Camera,  The  Bellows,  «141. 
Campbell's  Cylinder  Press,  *13t. 
Canals,  Sesostris,  80 ;  Suez,  80. 
Carbon  in  Graphite,  Method  of  determining,  333. 
Carey,  Mathew,  483. 
Carmichael,  William,  221. 
Carolina,  Formation  of  the  Colony  of,  216 ;  Exemption 

from  Caste  in  North,  22 ;  Aversion  to  Slavery  in 

South,  22. 
Cary,  Alice,  396. 
Cary,  Phoebe,  396. 
Cassini,  J.,  299. 

Catholics,  Danger  from  the  growing  Influence  of,  275. 
Census  in  the  United  States  ordered,  147-150;  The 

First,  221. 

Chain  Pumps,  Perronet's  Chapelets,  *84. 
Chambers's  Folding-machines,  *135. 
"  Champion  "  Reaping-machine,  *49. 
Channing,  William  Ellery,  367,  389. 
Cheese  Factories,  183, 184. 
Cheever,  Ezekiel,  the  Founder  of  Schools,  280. 
Cheves,  Langdon,  246. 
Chemistry,  331-336  ;  Agricultural,  175. 
Child's,  Sir  Josiah,  Reasons  why  the  Dutch  were  more 

prosperous  than  the  English,  201,  202. 
Childhood,  Early,  Ode  on,  361. 
Children,  Criminal   Treatment   of  Unfortunate,  464, 

405;   Prevention    of  Children's    Crimes,  465,  466: 

Children's  Aid  Society,  466-468. 
Chloroform  and  its  Uses,  115, 333,  428. 
Chromosphere,  The,  309. 
Chronograph,  Printing,  300,  301. 
Chronometers,  Nautical,  Transportation  of,  301. 
Church,  Frederick  Edwin,  412, 413. 
Cities,  American,  in  1775,  34. 
Cities,  Population  and  Growth  of,  224,  225. 
City  of  Peking,  Steamship,  *54. 


INDEX. 


495 


Clark,  Alonzo,  423. 

Clark,  Alvan,  299. 

Clayborne,  Captain  William,  214. 

Clemens,  S.  L.  (Mark  Twain),  390. 

Clergy,  Characteristics  of  the,  iii  the  Colonies,  31. 

Clinch,  Joseph  II.,  395. 

Clinton,  De  Witt,  2S2,  2S3. 

Clinton,  George,  and  the  Common  Schools,  282. 

Cloth,  Manufacture  of,  154. 

Coal,  Discovery  of,  28 ;  Utilization  of,  in  Industry,  41 ; 
Deposits  of,  185-189. 

Coddington,  William,  215. 

Codes  and  Revised  Statutes,  451. 

Coffee  and  Tea  Duties  repealed,  25T. 

Coinage,  238,  241,  248 ;  "  Pine-tree,"  70. 

Cole,  Thomas,  Portrait  of,  409 ;  Sketch  of,  412. 

Colleges,  36,  37  ;  Princeton,  23,  37;  Harvard,  36;  Dart 
mouth,  37;  Yale,  37;  Columbia,  37;  William  and 
Mary's,  37;  Agricultural,  184;  Medical,  416. 

Colman,  Samuel,  412,  413. 

Colonial  Preparations  for  the  Union,  264-207  ;  Juris 
prudence,  436,  437. 

Colonial  Progress,  16-38: — Congress  of  1776,  17;  Ex 
tent  of  Territory  at  the  Formation  of  the  Republic, 
18;  Growth  of  the  Southern  Colonies,  and  Igno 
rance  of  the  Country  beyond  the  Mississippi,  19; 
Religious  Creeds  in  the  North  and  South,  and  Ig 
norance  of  Virginia,  in  1671,20;  Slavery  first  institu 
ted  in  Virginia,  21 ;  Feeling  in  the  Colonies  toward 
England  in  1775,  22,  23;  Agriculture,  23;  Cotton, 
24;  Ship-building,  25;  Manufactures,  26;  Iron  and 
Coal,  27;  Indians,  29;  Pioneers,  30;  the  Clergy,  31, 
32 ;  Religion  and  Politics  in  the  Revolution,  32  ;  Cit 
ies,  34  ;  The  Press  and  Education,  36 ;  Literature,  37. 

Colonies,  Religious  Sentiment  in  the,  474,  475;  Segre 
gation  of  the,  222,  223. 

Colonists,  General  Character  of  the,  in  1775,  35  ;  their 
fortunate  Condition,  262,  263. 

Columbia  College,  37. 

"Columbian"  Printing-press,  "128. 

Commerce,  Interstate,  203. 

Commercial  Development,  200-210: — Adam  Smith's 
Treatise  on  the  "Wealth  of  Nations,"  200;  Sir  Jo- 
siah  Child's  Reasons  why  the  Dutch  were  more 
prosperous  than  the  English,  201,  202;  Exchanges 
of  Products,  205;  Prairie  Produce,  ^06;  General 
Consumption  the  Cause  of  the  Country's  Prosperi 
ty,  200,  207;  Machinery  a  Saving  of  Labor  to  the 
Artisan,  208;  Restrictions  upon  Exchange,  209,  210. 

Comets,  299,  300,  309-314. 

Common-school  System,  Success  of  the,  285. 

Comstock,  Adam,  282,  283. 

Condell's  Artificial  Arm,  *115. 

Congregationalism,  481. 

Congress,  July,  1776, 17 ;  Washington's  First  Message 
and  Hamilton's  Famous  Report  to,  161 ;  First  Con 
tinental,  1774,  239  ;  Greater  Personal  Integrity  need 
ed  in,  276. 

Connecticut  in  1775,  22  ;  First  Settlements  in,  215. 

Consolidation,  Danger  of,  273. 

Constitutions,  Written,  437,  438. 

Consumption,  General,  Essential  to  Material  Prosper 
ity  of  the  Country,  207. 

Contact  Level,  The,  73. 

Contraband  Traders,  158. 

Cooke,  Jay,  and  Co.,  Suspension  of,  258. 

Cooper,  J.  F.,  37,  364,  365. 

Cooper,  Sir  Astley,  423. 

Copenhagen,  Caisson  at,  *S1. 

Copley,  John  Singleton,  Portrait  of,  400  ;  Biography 
of,  407. 


Copper  and  Copper  Mines,  195-19T. 

Copyrights,  443,  444. 

Cornish  Pumping-engine,  *51. 

Cotton,  Production  of,  24;  The  First  Mill  in  America, 
40 ;  Spinning,  Weaving,  and  Dyeing,  61-08  ;  Cultiva 
tion  of,  180. 

Courts,  Twofold  System  of,  438-141. 

Crunch,  C.  P.,  395. 

Crawford,  Thomas,  Portrait  and  Sketch  of,  413,  414. 

Creeds.    See  Denominations. 

Crime  and  Education,  289. 

Criminals,  Extradition  of,  444,  445 ;  Management  of, 
454,  455. 

Crompton's  Fancy  Loom,  *66. 

Cummins,  Maria  S.,  394. 

Currency,  Fractional,  256  ;  Congressional  Restrictions 
on  the,  257. 

Curtis,  George  William,  220,  380,  331. 

Cutter,  Rev.  Dr.,  428. 

D. 

Daguerre's  Scientific  Researches,  321-323. 

Dallas,  A.  J.,  244. 

Dalton,  John  C.,  428,  429. 

Dana,  Richard  Henry,  and  his  Works,  362, 

Dana,  Richard  Henry,  Jan.,  397. 

Danks's  Mechanical  Furnace,  *71. 

Darley,  Felix  O.  C.,  414. 

Dartmouth  College,  37. 

Davy,  Sir  Humphry,  178. 

Dawes's  Scientific  Discoveries,  299. 

Deaf  and  Dumb,  Treatment  of  the,  472. 

Debtors,  Imprisonment  of,  458-460. 

Declaration  of  Independence,  Signers  of  the,  17. 

De  Forest,  J.  W.,  394. 

De  Haas,  F.  H.,  413. 

Delaware,  Settlement  formed  in,  216. 

De  La  Rue,  T.,  308,  309. 

Denominations,  Religious:  —  Methodism,  477,  482; 
Episcopal,  480,  481 ;  Cougregatioualist,  481 ;  Dutch 
Reformed,  481 ;  Baptists,  481,  482;  Lutherans,  482  : 
Presbyterians,  482  ;  German  Reformed,  482  ;  Roman 
Catholics,  483,  484;  Statistics  of,  484,  485;  Unitari 
ans,  489,  490,  491. 

Dentistry,  426. 

Derby,  George  H.  (or  John  Phoenix),  390. 

Derrick,  Floating,  *82. 

Design,  National  Academy  of,  403. 

Dewey,  Orville,  368. 

Dickerson,  Mr.^New  Jersey,  228. 

Disease,  Prevention  of,  432,  433. 

Dix,  Charles  Temple,  413. 

Dock,  Floating,  *83. 

Dodge,  Mary  A.,  397. 

Dodd's  and  Stepbenson's  Locomotive,  *57. 

Dover,  New  England,  215. 

Drainage,  Improvement  in,  84, 180. 

Drake,  Daniel,  428. 

Drake,  J.  R.,  37,  365. 

Draper,  Dr.  Henry,  303,  304. 

Draper,  John  W.,  384. 

Drilling  and  Boring,  85. 

Drinker,  Mrs.  (Edith  May),  395. 

Duane,  W.,247. 

Duel  between  A.  Hamilton  and  Aaron  Burr,  354. 

Dnnlap,  William,  409. 

Dunstan  Pillar,  179. 

Dnrand,  Asher  Brown,  412. 

Dutch,  Sir  Josiah  Child's  Reasons  why  they  were 
more  prosperous  than  the  English,  201,  202;  Re 
formed  Church,  481. 


496 


INDEX. 


Duyckinck,  E.  A.,  396. 
Duyckinck,  G.  L.,  396. 
Dwight,  Timothy,  356. 
Dyeing-machinery,  67,  68. 

E. 

Early  Childhood,  Ode  on,  361. 

Ecclesiastical  Independence  in  the  Colonies,  478,  479. 

Eddystone  Light-house,  SO. 

Education  and  Free  Schools,  36  ;  Introduction  of,  279  ; 
in  the  South  and  Northwest,  287,  288 ;  and  Crime, 
289  ;  Industrial,  291 ;  Our  Prospects  in,  292,  293. 

Educational  Progress,  279-293 :— Introduction  of  Edu 
cation,  279;  Arrangement  of  Schools,  and  Ezekiel 
Cheever,  the  Founder  of  Scholastic  Establishments, 
280  ;  The  Schools  of  New  England  and  New  York, 
281 ;  George  Clinton  and  the  Common  Schools  of 
New  York,  Jede  Peck,  Adam  Comstock,  De  Witt 
Clinton,  and  Gideon  Hawley,  282-284;  Sectarian 
Contest  in  Public  Education,  284;  Establishment  of 
Normal  Schools,  and  Success  of  the  Common-school 
System,  285,  286;  Education  in  the  Southern  and 
Northwestern  States,  287,  288  ;  Education  and  Crime, 
289 ;  Physical  Progress  of  the  Country  produced 
by  the  Schools  and  the  Press,  290 ;  Industrial  Edu 
cation  and  the  Schools  of  Germany,  291 ;  Our  Ed 
ucational  Prospects,  292,  293. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  31,  349-351,  486. 

Egypt,  Glass-making  in,  *111. 

Egyptian  and  Cuneiform,  Ideographic  and  Syllabic 
Writing,  *118, 119. 

Ehninger,  John  W.,  413. 

Electric  Light,  «103, 104. 

Electricity,  324-328 ;  Voltaic  Induction  and  Magneto- 
electricity,  328,  329 ;  Induction  Coils,  329,  330  ;  Static 
Electricity,  330  ;  Thermo-electricity,  331. 

Electro-magnetism,  300,  301. 

Electroplating,  102,  *103  ,-  Dome  of  a  Cathedial  at  St. 
Petersburg  gilded,  *103. 

Electrotyping,  126-128  ;  Black-leading  Machine,  Press, 
Bath,  and  Battery,  *127. 

Elevators,  92,  93. 

Elliot,  Charles  Loring,  410. 

Emerson,  G.  B.,  285. 

Emerson,  Ralph  Waldo,  368-371. 

Emigration,  Westward,  219,  220. 

Emmons,  Nathaniel,  358,  359. 

English  Machinery,  Exportation  of,  prohibited,  40 ; 
Reaping-machines,  *50 ;  Locomotives,  *58. 

Engraving,  136, 137. 

Episcopal  Tyranny,  Opposition  to,  31 ;  Church,  480, 
481. 

Episcopacy,  established  in  the  South,  20,  21. 

Equatorial,  The  Great,  "78. 

Ericsson's  Screw-propeller,  54. 

Espy,  J.  P.,  314-316. 

Ether  brought  into  notice  by  Drs.  Morton  and  Jack 
son,  115. 

Evans,  Oliver,  40. 

Evans's  Locomotive,  *56. 

Everett,  Edward,  388,  389. 

Excavations  at  Hallett's  Point  Reef,  "85. 

Exchange,  Restrictions  upon,  209,  210. 

Executive,  Strength  of  the,  270-272. 

Exemption  Laws,  449. 

Explorations,  Government,  Wilkes'g  Expedition,  The 
Lynch  Dead  Sea  Exploration,  Gillis's  Solar  Parallax 
Expedition,  The  Polaris  Expedition,  and  the  Tran 
sit  of  Venus,  295. 

Extradition  of  Criminals,  444,445. 

Eytinge,  Sol.,  414,415. 


F. 

Fabricius,  Rev.  Jacob,  482. 
Factory  System,  Origin  and  Growth  of,  42. 
Fairfax,  Lord,  Patron  of  Washington,  21. 
Faueuil,  Peter,  474,  475. 
Faraday,  Michael,  324-331. 
Faye's  Scientific  Researches,  308,  309. 
Federal  Governments,  E.  A.  Freeman  on,  266. 
"  Federalist,"  The,  the  Political  Classic  of  the  United 

States,  353. 

Ferdinand's  Ice-making  Machine,  *109. 
Ferguson,  James,  300. 
Fiction,  Early  Writers  of,  357,  358. 
Field,  Cyrus  W.,  326. 
Fields,  James  T.,  398. 
Figure  and  Genre  Printing,  413. 
Filter,  Centrifugal,  *110. 

Financial  Crisis  in  1836, 249;  1861,255:  Perils,  275, 276. 
Fiuley,  Samuel,  487. 
Fire-arms,  76,  97-100. 
Fire-engines  and  Fire-alarms,  *103, 104. 
Fisher,  A.  M.,  297. 
Fiske,  John,  398. 
Flint,  Austin,  429. 
Folding-machines,  *135. 
Foley,  Margaret,  414. 

Foreign  Elements  in  our  Population,  231-236. 
Forster,  W.  E.,  203. 
Franklin,  B.,  35,  36,  349-351. 
Franklin,  Dr.,  Postmaster-general,  229. 
Franklin,  James,  36. 
"Franklin  "  Press,  The,  *128. 
Fredricks,  Alfred  L.,  414. 
Free  Schools,  285. 
Freedmen's  Bureau,  The,  486. 
Freeman,  E.  A.,  on  Federal  Governments,  266. 
Freueau,  Philip,  356. 
Frost,  A.  B.,  415. 

Fulton,  Robert,  53,  409 ;  Steamboat  built  by,  *53. 
Fulton  Street  Prayer-meeting,  New  York,  488. 
Furnaces,  Blasting,  69-72 ;  Stetefeldt's  Roasting,  *108. 

G. 

Gadsdeu,  Christopher,  35. 

Galle's  Scientific  Discoveries,  299. 

Gas,  Works  of,  Diagram  of,  *107  ;  Inventions  in,  109. 

Gates,  Horatio,  35. 

Gauge,  Whitworth's  Millionth  Measuring,  *79. 

Gaul,  Reaping  in,  *47. 

Genre  Painting,  413. 

Geographical  Extensions,  226,  227. 

Geology,  347,  348. 

Georgia,  Settlement  in,  217. 

German  Reformed  Church,  The,  482. 

Germany,  Industrial  Education  in,  291. 

Gettysburg,  Abraham  Lincoln's  Oration  at,  3SS,  389. 

Gibbs,  Dr.,  319-321. 

Gibbs's  Plow,  *45. 

Gifford,  Robert,  412,  413. 

Giles,  Henry,  396. 

Gladstone's  Reaping-machine,  *47,  48. 

Glass,  111,  112 ;  Making  in  Egypt,  "111. 

Goddard,  William,  230. 

Godwin,  Parke,  384. 

Gold,  197-199 ;  Discovery  of,  in  California,  253. 

Golden,  C.  D.,  33. 

"  Gordon  "  Press,  The,  *132. 

Government,  Financial  Situation  of,  under  Andrew 
Jackson,  246;  Federal,  266;  Republican  and  Dem 
ocratic  form  of,  266. 


INDEX. 


497 


Graphite,  Method  of  determining  Carbon  in,  333. 
Gravitation,  Application  of  the  Principle  of,  in  As 
tronomy,  with  reference  to  Inequalities,  306,  307. 
"Greek  Slave,"  Power's,  402. 
Greene,  A.  G.,  395. 
Greene,  George  W.,  384 
Greene,  Nathaniel,  3S4. 
Gieenough,  Horatio,  413,  414. 
Greenwood,  Grace  (Mrs.  Lippincott),  396. 
Griffin,  Dr.,  48T. 
Griswold,  R.  W.,  396. 
Guauo,  179, 180. 
Guns  aud  Artillery,  97-100 ;  Taylor's  Machine  Gun, 

•99. 

II. 

Haine's  Reaping-machine,  47,  48. 

Hale,  Edward  Everett,  394. 

Halleck,  Pitz-Greene,  37,  365,  366. 

llallett's  Point  Reef,  Excavations  at,  *85. 

Halley's  Discoveries,  '299. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  37, 161,  353;  killed  in  a  Duel  with 

Aaron  Burr,  354. 

Hamilton's  Famous  Report  to  Congress,  161. 
Hamilton,  Gail  (Mary  A.  Dodge),  398. 
Hargreaves's  Spinning-jenny,  *63. 
Harland,  Marian  (Mrs.  Terhune),  394. 
Hart,  Joel  T.,  414. 
Hart,  John  S.,  396. 
Harte,  F.  Bret,  390. 
Harvard  College,  36. 
Hawley,  Gideon,  283. 
Hawthorne,  Nathaniel,  391-393. 
Hay,  John,  391. 
Hayne,  Paul  H.,  396. 
Hays,  William,  413. 
Hay  ward,  George,  427. 

Heat,  Study  of  the  Laws  of  the  Distribution  of,  309. 
Hedge,  Frederick  II.,  397. 
Hedley's  Locomotive,  *56. 
Helmholtz,  Professor,  316-318. 
Hennessy,  W.J.,413. 

Heury,  Patrick,  declaiming  against  the  Episcopacy,  33. 
Hepworth  v.  Griswold  (Jase  decided,  258. 
Herman,  A.,  26. 
Herrick,  E.  C.,  310. 

Herschel's,  Sir  William,  Discoveries,  298. 
Hewitt,  A.  S.,  195. 
Higgiuson,  Thomas  W.,  394. 
Hildreth,  Richard,  382. 
Hilliard,  George  S.,397. 
Hindostan,  Iron  Furnace  at,  *68. 
Historical  Painting,  410,  411. 
Hoe  and  Plow,  Origin  of  the,  *43. 
Hoffman,  Charles  Fenuo,  393. 

Holland  furnishing  Stone  for  Building  Purposes,  34. 
Holland,  J.  G.,  394. 
Holmes,  Mary  J.,  394. 
Holmes,  Obadiah,  232. 
Holmes,  Oliver  Wendell,  374,  375. 
Homestead  Laws,  449. 
Hopkins,  L.,  415. 
Hopkins,  Samnel,  358,  359. 
Hopkinson,  Francis,  356,  35T. 
Hoppin,  Augustus,  414. 
Hosmer,  Harriet,  414. 
Hough,  George  W.,  300,  301. 
Howard's  Plow,  *45. 
Howe,  Julia  Ward,  376. 
Howe,  William,  35. 
Howe's  Sewing-machine,  94. 
Ilowell,  Elizabeth  Lloyd,  395. 


Howells,  William  D.,  391. 

Howley,  Bishop,  492. 

Hoyt,  J.  W.,  291. 

Hubbard,  Richard  W.,  412. 

Hughes,  Archbishop,  2S4,  483. 

Humanitarian  Progress,  454-472:—  The  Prisons  and 
Management  of  Criminals,  454,  455  ;  Edward  Liv 
ingston,  455 ;  Overcrowded  Prisons,  45C-458 ;  Impris 
onment  of  Debtors,  458-460  ;  Severity  of  Penalties, 
460, 401 ;  County  Prisons,  461 ;  Reform  of  the  Prison 
System.  461-463 ;  Religious  Instruction  in  Prisons, 
463,464;  Secular  Teaching,  Libraries,  and  Treat 
ment  of  Criminal  aud  Unfortunate  Children,  464, 
465  ;  Prevention  of  Children's  Crime,  and  the  Chil 
dren's  Aid  Society,  465-468  ;  Treatment  of  Lunatics, 
Miss  Dix'sand  Dr.  Willard's  Reports,  and  the  "  Wil- 
lard  Asylum,"  468-471;  Review  of  the  Prison  Sys 
tem,  and  Treatment  of  the  Blind,  the  Deaf  and 
Dumb,  and  the  Idiotic,  471,  472. 

Hunt,  Helen,  306. 

Hunt,  Rev.  John,  4SO,  481. 

Hunt's  Scientific  Progress,  308,  309. 

Hunter,  John,  423. 

Huutiugton,  Daniel,  410-412. 

Kurd's  Centrifugal  Filter,*  110. 

Hurricanes,  Atlantic,  315. 

Hussey's  Reaping-machine,  47,  48. 

Huskisson  killed  by  the  famous  "  Rocket  "  Steam-en 
gine,  58. 

Hyperion,  the  Eighth  Satellite  of  Saturn,  298. 

I. 

Ice,  108, 109  ;  Ice-making  Machine,  *109. 

Idiotic,  Treatment  of  the,  472. 

Illiteracy,  287. 

Illinois  aud  St.  Louis  Iron  Bridge,  *86. 

India  Rubber,  113, 114. 

Indiana,  Currency  of,  Description  of,  253. 

Indians,  The,  under  Onoudaga,  28. 

Induction  Coils,  329,  330. 

Industrial  Education,  291. 

Industries,  Colonial,  157;  Relative  Importance  of,  171, 
172. 

Infidelity,  359. 

Inghain.C.  C.,409. 

Inman,  Portrait  of,  409 ;  Sketch  of,  410. 

Inness,  George,  412. 

Insane,  Asylums  for,  and  Treatment  of,  468-471. 

Intemperance  aud  Drunkenness,  478. 

Interstate  Migration,  Map  Illustrating,  235. 

Inventions  and  Inventors:  —  Ship -building,  39;  Ark- 
wright's  Mill  Spinning  System,  40,  *42 ;  Jacob  Per 
kins's  Nail -cutting  Machiue,  Coin -die,  Whitney's 
Cotton-gin,  Whittemore's  Card -sticking  Machine, 
40  ;  Newcomen's  Steam-engine,  40,  *5l ;  Rotherham 
Plow,  44;  Plows,  by  Thomas  Jefferson,  Newbold, 
Peacock,  Ransome,  Jethro  Wood,*  Timothy  Pick 
ering,  Gibb,  Howard, "Small,*  Aaron  Smith,  45;  and 
Fowler,  *46  ;  Reaping  -  machines,  by  Gladstone, 
Mann,  Ogle,  Bell,  Samuel  Lane,  Hussey,  M'Cor- 
mick,  and  Haines,  47,  *48;  Threshing-machines, 
by  Andrew  Meikle,*  Menzies,  Stirling,  aud  the 
American  "Champion,"*  Cornish  Pumping  Steam- 
engine,  *52  ;  Steamboats  —  Symington's  Charlotte 
Dundax,*  Fulton's  Clermont,  *53 ;  Bell's  Comet,* 
Ericsson's  Screw- propeller,  and  Steam -ship  City 
of  Peking,"  54;  Locomotives,  by  Trevethick  and 
Vivian,  *55 ;  Oliver  Evans,  Blenkinsopp,  *56 ;  Wil 
liam  Hedley,*  George  Stephenson,  *57  ;  "  The 
Rocket,"  *58  ;  Horatio  Allen  and  Peter  Cooper,  59  ; 
Cotton-gin,  by  Eli  Whitney,*  Cardiug-machines,  by 


498 


INDEX. 


Lewis  Paul,  Hargreaves,*  Samuel  Slater,  Arkwright, 
and  Peel,*  Card-sticking  Machine,  by  Amos  Whitte- 
more, Cl;  Spinning-wheels,  61-*63;  Spinning-jenny, 
by  James  Hargreaves,  *<53 ;  Mule-spinner,  by  Sam 
uel  Crompton,  "65;  Power -looms,  by  Richard  Ed 
ward  Cartwright,  Fancy  Loom,  by  Samuel  Cromp 
ton,*  Jacquard  Loom,  66;  Dyeing-machine,  by  Rob 
ert  Peele,  67  ;  Ilindostan  Iron  Furnace!?,  *68 ;  "  Pine- 
tree  Coinage,"  70  ;  Henry  Cort's  Puddling  Furnace, 
*71 ;  R.  L.  Stevens's,  of  Hoboken,  Contract  for 
Iron-clad  War-vessel,  Iron-clad  Vessels,  Nasmyth's 
Steam-hammer,  *72;  Bessemer  Process,  *72-74; 
Cast-steel  invented  by  Benjamin  Huntsman,  Watt's 
first  Steam-engine,  Ramsden's  Micrometer  Screw- 
dividing  Eugine,  74;  Bramah's  Lock,  74,  75;  Gener 
al  Sir  S.  Bentham's  Turning-lathe,  75 ;  Joseph  Whit- 
worth's  "Jim  Crow"  Planing-machiue,  Fire-arms, 
by  John  H.  Hall,  Colonel  Colt,  Pratt,  and  Whitney, 
76;  Bank-note  Engraving,  by  Jacob  Perkins,*  Post 
age  and  Revenue  Stamps,  77;  Watch -making,  by 
John  Harrison,  and  the  Waltham  Factory,  77,  73; 
Telescopes,  by  John  Dolloud,  and  at  the  Washing 
ton  Observatory,*  The  Contact  Level,  by  Repsold, 
78  ;  Micrometer  Gauge,  by  Whitworth,  *79 ;  Sesostris 
Canal,  Suez  Canal,  Steam-dredges  of'M.  De  Lesseps, 
The  Pharos  of  Alexandria,  Light-houses,  Smeaton's 
Eddystone,  Stephenson's  Bell  Rock,  Tour  de  Cor- 
duan,  Pile-driving,  Trajan's  Bridge  across  the  Dan 
ube,  Diving-bell,  by  Smeaton,  80;  Caissons,  Pneu 
matic,  by  M.  Triger,  80 ;  at  Copenhagen,*  at  East 
River  Bridge,  New  York,*  Improvements  in,  by 
James  B.  Eads,  Colonel  and  W.  A.  Roebliug,  81 ; 
Floating  Derrick,  at  New  York,  *82;  Bermuda  Float 
ing  Dock,  *82,  83 ;  Steam-pumps  and  Chain-pumps, 
*83,  84;  Tunneling,  Mont  Ceuia  and  Honsac  Tun 
nels,  Hallet's  Drilling  for  Excavations,  *85 ;  Iron 
Structures,  Sir  Joseph  Paxton's  Crystal  Palace, 
New  York  Grand  Central  Railway  Depot,  and  the 
St.  Pancras  Railway  Station,  London,  86;  Iron  and 
Tubular  Bridges,*  Menai  Straits,  Southwark,  Illi 
nois  and  St.  Louis,*  Washington  Aqueduct,  erected 
by  General  Meigs,  Fairmount,  Niagara  Falls,  Cin 
cinnati,  St.  Lawrence,  86-88 ;  Wood-working,  88-92  ; 
Saws,  General  Sir  Samuel  Bentham's  Patents,  *89 ; 
Scroll-and-baud  Saw,*  Planing  and  Moulding  Ma 
chine,*  Joiner,  Brunei's  Shell -mortising  Machine, 
90,  91;  Blanchard's  Spoke- lathes*  and  Wood-turn 
ing  L!ithes,*91, 92;  Elevators,  93  ;  Sewing-machines, 
by  Thomas  Saint,  Thimonnier,  Elias  Howe,  Singer,* 
and  M'Kay,  94-96;  Lamb's  Knitting-machine,*  Ap 
ple-paring,  and  other  domestic  Machines,  96 ;  Safes, 
by  Chubb,  Wilder,  Lillie,  and  Herring,  97 ;  Fire-arms 
and  Ordnance,  The  Tzar  Pooschka,  Woolwich,  Arm 
strong,  Krupp,  Rodman,  Galling,  Taylor,*  Martini, 
and  Henry  Guns,  97-100 ;  Telegraph,  System  of,  by 
Polybius,  Morse,*  Cooke,  Wheatstone,  and  Bain, 
100-102  ;  Electroplating,  Experiments  in,*  by  Volta, 
Cruikshank,  Wollaston,  Spencer,  and  Jacopi,  102, 
103  ;  Electric  Light,*  noticed  by  Greener  and  Staite, 
used  at  Dungenness  Light-house,  in  England,  and  La 
Hove,  France,  103,  104 ;  Fire-engines,  The  "  Wash 
ington  "  No.  1,  and  Inventions  in,  by  Newsham,  Er 
icsson,  Latta,  and  Shawk,  104;  Fire-alarms,  by 
Farmer  and  Channing,  Atmospheric  Railways,  In 
ventions  in,  by  Papin,  Medhurst,  and  Vallance,  105; 
Atmospheric  Brakes  and  Blowers  and  Blowing-en 
gines,  106 ;  Balloons,  Ascensions  in,  by  the  Montgol- 
flers,  Pilatre  de  Roziere,  Marquis  d'Arlandes,  Ro- 
main,  Glaisher,  Green,  Wise,  Donaldson,  M.  Go- 
dard,  and  De  Lome,  106, 107 ;  Weighing-machines, 
by  the  Fairbank  Brothers,  107  ;  Gas,*  Inventions  in, 


by  Clayton,  Murdock,  and  Winsor,  107,  108;  Stete- 
feldt's  Roiisting-furuace,*  108;  Silver,  and  its  Proc 
esses,  108;  Ice,  Ferdinand's  Machine*  for  making, 
109;  Sugar,  Charles  E.  Howard's  Vacuum -pan,* 
and  Hurd's  Centrifugal  Filter,*  109,  110;  Porcelain, 
and  Wedgwood's  Improvements  in,  110 ;  Glass, 
Egyptian  Machines  for  making,*  Chance  and  Co.'s 
Cylinder  Glass,  and  Tilghmau's  Sand-blast  for  cut 
ting,  111,  112;  Paper  and  Paper -making  Machin 
ery,  by  Robert,*  Fourdriuier,  and  Dickinson,  112, 
113 ;  India  Rubber,  Charles  Goodyear's  experiments 
with,  113,  114 ;  Meteorological  Instruments  and  the 
Barograph,  *114, 115;  Anaesthetics;  Ether  and  Chlo 
roform  ;  Artilicial  Limbs,  *115;  Aquaria,  Construc 
tions,  by  R.  Warrington,  N.  B.  Ward,  and  at  Brigh 
ton,  England;  Lucifer- matches,  115,  116;  Musical 
Instruments;  Organs  and  Pianos,  116, 117;  Printing, 
Types,  and  Type -founding;  Egyptian  nnd  Cunei 
form,  Ideographic  and  Syllabic,  *118;  Phoenician 
and  Egyptian  Waiting  on  Stone,  *119;  and  Inven 
tions  by  Peter  Schoeffer,  William  Caxton,  Christo 
pher  Saur,  Benjamin  Franklin,  and  David  Bruce, 
*117-123;  Type  Setting  and  Distributing  Machines, 
Inventions  in,  by  Alden,  Kastenbein,  and  Paige, 
*123,  124;  Stereotyping,*  Inventions  in,  by  William 
Ged,  Carez,  Diclot,  and  David  Bruce,  124-126 ;  Elec- 
trotyping,  by  J.  A.  Adams  and  Silas  P.  Knight, 
*12G-128 ;  Printing-press  Inventions  and  Improve 
ments,  by  B.  Franklin,*  Lord  Stanhope,*  Blaew, 
George  Clymer,*  Peter  Smith,  Samuel  Rust,  Nichol 
son,  Kiinig,  Donkin,*  Bacon,  Applegath,  Cowper, 
Daniel  Treadwell,  Adams,*  Hoe,*  Campbell,*  Gor 
don,*  Walter,*  and  William  Bullock,  M2S-135 ;  Fold 
ing-machines,  by  Chambers,  *135;  Addressing-ma 
chines,  *135,  136;  Printing  for  the  Blind,  136;  En 
graving,  and  Wilson  Lowry's  Ruling -machine,  136, 
137 ;  Lithography,  originated  by  Alois  Senefelder,* 
and  Improvements  by  Hoe,  *137-140  ;  Photography, 
Inventions  in,  by  Wedgwood,  J.  N.  Niepce,  F.  Tal- 
bot,  Daguerre,  Claudet,  Scott  Archer,  Dr.  J.  W.  Dra 
per,  G.  P.  Bond,  Rutherford,  Delarue,  and  Bellows, 
*140-142 ;  Copying  Camera,  by  Osborne,  *142 ;  Pho 
tolithography,  Inventions  in,  by  Joseph  Dixou  and 
J.  W.  Osborne,  142-144;  Miscellaneous  Photo-proc 
esses  and  Discoveries,  by  Mungo  Ponton,  Paul 
Pretsch  ;  the  Albert-type,  the  Autoti/pe,  and  the  Helo- 
tt/pe,  Fox  Talbot's  Photoglyptic  Process,  and  the 
Woodbury  Process,  144, 145 ;  Photo-micrography,  Dr. 
Woodward's,*  W.  Webb's  inventions  in,  145,  146; 
Paper-making,  by  John  Ames,  168;  Cheese-factory 
System,  by  Jesse  Williams,  183  ;  Cambridge  Observ 
atory  Telescope,  298  ;  Mr.  Alvan  Clark's  great  Tele 
scope,  299;  Electro -magnetic  Clock,  by  Professor 
John  Locke,  Telegraph  Registers,  by  Professors 
Morse  and  Mitchell,  Messrs.  Joseph  Saxton,  W.  C., 
and  George  P.  Bond,  300 ;  Printing  Chronograph, 
by  Professor  George  W.  Hough,  300 ;  The  12 J  inch 
Equatorial,  by  Mr.  Henry  Fitz,  301 ;  Telescopes,  and 
Objectives  for  Microscopes  discovered  by  Charles  A. 
Spencer,  301  ;  Optical  Experiments,  by  Alvan  Clark, 
301,  302 ;  Photographic  Apparatus,  by  L.  M.  Ruther 
ford,  302,  303  ;  Telescopes,  by  Dr.  J.  W.  Draper,  303, 
304  ;  Stereoscope,  by  Sir  C.  Wheatstoue,  323 ;  Arti 
ficial  Production  of  Cold,  by  Professor  A.  C.  Turn 
ing,  Mr.  Tellier,  and  Mr.  Carre,  323  ;  Microscope,  by 
J.  J.  Lister,  C.  S.  Spencer,  and  Professor  Bailey, 
323 ;  Magnetic  Telegraph,  by  Professor  S.  B.  Morse, 
and  Atlantic  Telegraph,  completed  under  the  Presi 
dency  of  Cyrus  W.  Field,  326;  Electro -magnetic 
Clock,  by  E.  S.  Ritchie,  327;  Magneto -electric  Ma 
chines,  by  Joseph  Saxton  and  Dr.  Page,  328 ;  In- 


INDEX. 


499 


duction  Coils,  by  Dr.  Page,  Mr.  Rnhmkorff,  and  Mr. 
Ritchie,  329,  330 ;  Compound  Blow-pipe,  by  Robert 
Hare,  332;  Stethoscope,  by  Rene  T.  II.  Laemiec,  421 ; 
Wunderlich'e  Improvements  ill  the  Thermometer, 
421. 

Ireland  forbidden  to  receive  American  Produce,  25. 

Iron,  Discovery  of,  in  large  Quantities,  27 ;  and  its 
Uses,  Furnace  of  the  Kols,  Ilindostau,  *OS ;  Truss 
and  Lattice  Bridge,  68-79,  *8S,  192-195;  Bessemer 
Casting  Process,  72-74  ;  Industries  in,  155. 

Irou-clad  Vessels,  72. 

Irving,  Washington,  37,  363. 

J. 

Jackson,  Andrew,  Reform  in  Finance  under,  246. 

Jackson,  C.T.,  426. 

Jackson,  James,  428. 

James,  Henry,  397. 

James,  Henry,  Jun.,  394. 

Jamestown,  Virginia,  Settlement  at,  150,  214. 

Jandon,  Mr.,  251. 

Jarvis,  Dr.  Edward,  235. 

Jarvis,  John  Wesley,  409. 

Jay,  John,  37,  353,  354. 

Jefferson,  Thomas,  33,  45,  352. 

Jefferson's  Plows,  45. 

Johnson,  E.,  33,  413. 

Johnston,  James  F.  W.,  179. 

Journalism,  36, 120, 184;  Reform  needed  in,  276;  Med 
ical,  418. 

Jndd,  Sylvester,  394. 

Jurisprudence,  American,  434-453: — The  American 
Law  Library,  434-436;  Jurisprudence  in  Colonial 
Times,  436, 437  ;  Written  Constitutions,  437,  438  ;  The 
Twofold  Court  System,  438-441 ;  Our  Admiralty  Ju 
risdiction,  441 -443  ;  Patents  and  Copyrights,  443, 
444  ;  Extradition  of  Criminals,  444.  445  ;  Bankruptcyi 
445-447  ;  California  Land  Claims,  447, 448 ;  Rights  of 
Married  Women,  448,  449  ;  Homestead  and  Exemp 
tion  Laws,  449  ;  Mechanics'  Lieu  Laws,  449,  450  ;  Pro. 
tection  of  Animals,  450;  Reformed  Procedure,  450, 
451;  Codes  and  Revised  Statutes,  451 ;  Brief  Retro 
spect  and  Conclusion,  451,  452. 


Kendall,  Amos,  230. 

Keurick,  Archbishop,  483. 

Kensett,  John  Frederick,  Portrait  of,  414 ;  Sketch  of, 
412,  413. 

Kentucky  and  Tennessee  invaded  by  Indians,  19;  Col 
onized  by  Daniel  Boone,  219. 

Kimball,  R.  B.,  393. 

King,  James  G.,  251. 

King,  Thomas  Starr,  397. 

Kirk,  John  Foster,  383,  384. 

Kirkwood,  D.,  307,  308. 

Klinkerfues's  Scientific  Researches,  311,  314. 

Knight's  Black-lending  Machine,  *127, 128. 

Knitting-machines,  *96. 

Kowalski's  Theory  of  Neptune,  304. 

L. 

Labor  saved  to  the  Artisan  by  Machinery,  208,  209. 

Laborers,  Social  Condition  of,  172, 173;  Wages  of,  173. 

Lacaille's  Hixtoire  Celeste,  304. 

Laennec,  Rene  Theodore  Hyacinthe,  42t. 

Lalande  Medal  presented  to  Mr.  A.  Clark,  299. 

Lamb's  Knitting-machine,  *96. 

Lancaster,  Joseph,  2S3. 

Land  Claims  in  California,  447,448. 

Landscape  Painting,  412, 413. 


Lane's,  Samuel,  Reaping-machine,  47,  48. 

Langley's  Scientific  Researches,  308,  309. 

La  room,  Lucy,  395. 

Lassell's  Discoveries,  298. 

Lathe,  Blanchard's  Spoke,  *92. 

Laurens,  John,  474,  475. 

Law,  Library  of,  434-436. 

Le  Clear,  Thomas,  410. 

Lee,  Henry,  35. 

Lehigh  Valley,  27. 

Lelaud,  Charles  G.,  390. 

Leutze,  Emanuel,  411. 

Liebig,  Justus  von,  179. 

Lien  Laws,  Mechanics',  449, 450. 

Light-houses :  Eddystone,  Bell  Rock,  Tour  de  Cordu- 
an,  South  Forland,  Portland,  and  Luudy  Island,  80 ; 
Dunstan  Pillar,  179. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  Election  of,  255 ;  Oration  of,  at 
Gettysburg,  388,  389. 

Lippincott,  Mrs.  (Grace  Greenwood),  396. 

Liquidation  under  Difficulties,  1819-1823,  245. 

Lister,  J.  J.,  323,  324. 

Literature,  American,  A  Century  of,  349-398:— Jona 
than  Edwards  and  Benjamin  Franklin,  349-351; 
Thomas  Jefferson,  352 ;  The  "  Federalist  "  the  Po 
litical  Classic  of  the  United  States,  Contributions 
to,  by  Hamilton,  Madison,  and  Jay,  353  ;  Alexander 
Hamilton  killed  in  a  duel  with  Aaron  Burr,  John 
Jay  noted  for  his  Personal  Integrity,  and  James 
Madison  for  the  "  Resolutions  of  '98,"  354  ;  Superior 
Abilities  displayed  by  Fisher  Ames,  355;  Early  Po 
ets — Timothy  Dwight,  Philip  Freneau,  John  Trurn- 
bull,  Francis  Hopkinson,  R.  T.  Paine,  Jnn.,  and  Joel 
Barlow,  356,  357  ;  Early  Novelists — Susanna  Rowson, 
H.  H.  Brackenridge,  and  C.  B.  Brown,  357,  358  ;  Ear 
ly  Theological  Writers— Samuel  Hopkins,  Nathaniel 
Emmous,  Erhan  Allen,  and  Calvinistic  Theology, 
358,  359  ;  Thomas  Paine  the  Great  Opponent  of  the 
Orthodox  Faith,  359  ;  William  Cullen  Bryant  and  his 
Works,  359,  360;  Richard  Henry  Dana,  362;  Wash 
ington  Irving  and  his  Writings,  363;  James  Feui- 
more  Cooper  and  the  Characteristics  of  his  Writ 
ings,  364,365;  Joseph  Rodman  Drake,  Fitz-Greene 
Halleck,  and  James  K.  Paulding,  365,  366 ;  Revival 
of  Spiritual  Sentiment  in  New  England,  366,  367; 
Jonathan  Mayhew,  William  Ellery  Channing,  An 
drews  Norton,  and  their  Teachings,  367,  368;  Uui- 
tarianism  and  Orville  Dewey  and  Theodore  Parker, 
368;  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson,  368-371 ;  Theodore  Par 
ker,  371,  372;  Henry  Wadsworth  Longfellow,  372, 
373;  John  Greenleaf  Whittier,  373,  374;  Oliver  Wen 
dell  Holmes,  374,  375;  James  Russell  Lowell,  375; 
Julia  Ward  Howe,  376;  Charles  Sprague,  376,  377; 
Nathaniel  Parker  Willis,  377,  378;  James  G.  Perci- 
val,  378,  379  ;  Edgar  Allan  Poe,  379  ;  Bayard  Taylor, 
379,  380;  George  William  Curtis,  380,  381;  Jared 
Sparks,  C.  F.  Adams,  and  Hamilton's  Works,  381; 
George  F.  Bancroft,  381,  3S2 ;  Richard  Hildreth,  John 
G.  Palfrey,  and  Francis  Parkman,  382  ;  William  H. 
Prescott,  382,  383 ;  John  Lothrop  Motley,  383  ;  John 
Foster  Kirk,  3S3,  384 ;  Life  and  Correspondence  of 
Nathaniel  Greene  by  George  W.  Greene,  Dr.  John 
W.  Draper,  Parke  Godwin,  James  Parton,  Edmund 
Quincy,  and  William  C.  Rives,  3S4;  General  W.  T. 
Sherman,  384,  385 ;  George  Tk-knor,  385  :  William  R. 
Alger,  and  John  C.  Calhoun,  386 ;  Daniel  Webster, 
380,387;  Charles  Sumner,  387,388;  Edward  Everett, 
Abraham  Lincoln's  noted  Oration  at  Gettysburg, 
388,  389 ;  Henry  D.  Thoreau,  A.  Bronson  Alcott,  Walt 
Whitman,  and  Jonquin  Miller,  389  ;  George  H.  Der 
by  ^Johu  Phoenix),  Charles  F.  Browne  (Artemus 


500 


INDEX. 


Ward),  S.  L.  Clemens  (Mark  Twain),  D.  R.  Locke 
(Petroleum  V.  Nasby),  H.  W.  Shaw  (Josh  Billings), 
Charles  G.  Leland,  and  F.  Bret  Harte,  390 ;  John  Hay, 
William  D.  Howells,  Charles  Dudley  Warner,  and 
Thomas  Bailey  Aldrich,  391 ;  Nathaniel  Hawthorne, 
391-393  ;  Harriet  Beecher  Stowe,  Catherine  M.  Sedg- 
wick,  William  Ware,  Charles  Feuuo  Hoffman,  R.  B. 
Kimball,  and  Donald  G.  Mitchell,  393;  Sylvester 
Judd,  Thomas  W.  Higginson,  Harriet  Prescott  Spof- 
ford,  Maria  L.  Cummins,  E.  S.  Phelps,  Henry  James, 
Jun.,  J.  W.  De  Forest,  Edward  Everett  Hale,  Louisa 
M.  Alcott,  A.  D.  T.  Whitney,  William  G.  Simms,  The 
odore  Winthrop,  J.  G.  Holland,  Mary  J.  Holmes, 
Mrs.  Terhune  (Marian  Harland),  and  Augusta  Evans 
Wilson,  394 ;  Maria  Brooks  (Maria  del  Occidente), 
T.  W.  Parsons,  Lucy  Larcom,  A.  B.  Street,  Epes  Sar 
gent,  George  P.  Morris,  Joseph  H.  Clinch,  A.  G. 
Greene,  R.  H.  Wilde,  John  Howard  Payne,  E.  H. 
Sears,  Samuel  Woodworth,  Elizabeth  Lloyd  Howell, 
Robert  Lowell,  Forceythe  Wilson,  J.  T.  Trowbridge, 
C.  P.  Cranch,  Mrs.  Drinker  (Edith  May),  George  H. 
Boker,  Richard  Henry  Stoddard,  T.  Buchanan  Read, 
W.  W.  Story,  and  Frances  S.  Osgood,  395 ;  Mrs.  M.  J. 
Preston,  Henry  Timrod,  Paul  H.  Hayne,  John  G. 
Saxe,  Edmund  Clarence  Stedman,  Helen  Hunt,  Jones 
Very,  Celia  Thaxter,  Mrs.  Lippincott  (Grace  Green 
wood),  Alice  and  Phoebe  Gary,  Mrs.  L.  C.  Moalton, 
R.  W.  Griswold,  E.  A.  and  G.  L.  Duyckinck,  John  S. 
Hart,  F.  H.  Underwood,  Henry  T.  Tuckermau,  Rich 
ard  Grant  White,  Henry  Giles,  S.  A.  Allibone,  and 
George  P.  Marsh,  396 ;  Theological  Literature  and 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  Francis  Wayland,  Leonard 
Bacon,  Edwards  A.  Park,  Frederick  H.  Hedge,  Hor 
ace  Bushnell  and  Cyrus  A.  Bartol,  397 ;  Richard 
Henry  Dana,  Jun.,  George  S.  Billiard,  Charles  E. 
Norton,  Thomas  Starr  King,  Charles  T.  Brooks, 
Horace  Mann,  Henry  James,  Mary  A.  Dodge  (Gail 
Hamilton),  Margaret  Fuller  Ossoli,  James  T.  Fields, 
John  Fiske,  and  Herbert  Spencer,  39T,  398. 

Literature,  Early,  37  ;  Medical,  418,  420 ;  Library  of 
Law,  434-436. 

Lithography,  137-140  ;  Lithographic  Hand-press,  *137 ; 
Hoe's  Lithographic  Press,  *189. 

Livingston,  Edward,  455. 

Livingston,  Rev.  Dr.  J.  H.,  481. 

Lobelia,  The,  4'28. 

Lock,  Bramah's  Patent,  74. 

Locke,  D.  R.  (Petroleum  V.  Nasby),  390. 

Locke,  Professor  J.,  300. 

Locomotives,  *55-60. 

Loewy's  Scientific  Researches,  308,  309. 

London  Bridge,  Water-wheel  at,  in  1731,  *S4. 

Longfellow,  Henry  Wadsworth,  372,  373. 

Long  Island,  the  Garden  of  America,  23 ;  Settlement, 
215. 

Longitudinal  Determinations,  301. 

Loomis,  Professor,  308,  309. 

Looms,  Weaving,  *65,  66. 

Louisiana,  Annexation  of,  213. 

Lovering,  Professor,  310. 

Lowell,  James  Russell,  375. 

Lowell,  Robert,  395. 

Lucifer-matches,  116. 

Lunatics,  Asylums  for,  and  Treatment  of,  468-471. 

Luudy  Island  Light-house,  80. 

Lutherans,  The,  482. 

M. 

Machinery,  Domestic,  93-97;  Saving  of  Labor  to  the 

Artisan,  208,  209. 
Madison,  James,  353,  354. 


Magneto-electricity,  328,  329. 

Maine,  First  Settlement  in,  215. 

Malthus,  T.  R.,  209. 

Maun,  Horace,  285,  397. 

Mauu's  Reaping-machine,  47,  48. 

Mansfield,  W.  M.,  33. 

Manufacture,  Progress  in,  147-173: — What  are  Manu 
factures?  147;  Sources  of  Information,  147-150;  Prog 
ress  from  1007  to  1776,  150-150 ;  True  Cause  of  the 
Revolution,  156-159;  Tench  Coxe's  Address  on  the 
"Encouragement  of  Manufactures,"  160;  Washing- 
toil's  Dress  at  his  First  Congress,  and  Hamilton's 
Famous  Report  on  the  Progress  in  Manufactures, 
161 ;  Samuel  Slater  and  his  Manufactures,  164,  165; 
Statistics  of  Cotton  Goods  Manufactured  in  the 
United  States  in  1873-74,166;  Results  of  the  War 
of  1812,  166,  167 ;  Value  of  Manufactured  Products 
exported,  and  Books  and  Paper-making,  1GS ;  Iron 
and  Steel,  169 ;  Woolen  Goods,  170,  171 ;  Relative 
Importance  of  the  Manufacturing  Industries,  171, 
172;  Number  of  Persons  Employed,  172;  Social  Con 
dition  of  Laborers,  172, 173. 

Manufactures,  Colonial,  forbidden,  26;  Eucourage- 
ment  of,  Address  by  Tench  Coxe,  160. 

Manuring,  179, 180. 

Maps  —  Showing  the  Acquisition  of  Territory,  1776- 
18G8,  212 ;  Showing  the  Progress  of  Settlement  East 
of  the  100th  Meridian,  221 ;  Showing  Progress  West 
ward  of  the  Centre  of  Population  from  Baltimore, 
1800-1S70,  227;  Illustrating  Interstate  Migration, 
235;  Showing  Density  of  Population,  237. 

Married  Women,  Rights  of,  448,  449.  . 

Marsh,  George  P.,  396. 

Maryland  in  1775,  22 ;  Settlement  of,  214 ;  Roman  Ca 
tholicism  first  introduced  into,  483. 

Mason,  Jeremiah,  246. 

Massachusetts,  Class  feeling  in,  17 ;  Prosperity  of,  in 
1775,  22. 

Mather,  Cotton,  36,  37. 

Mattesou,  J.,  413. 

Mauch  Chunk  Mountain,  27. 

Maxwell,  J.  C.,  307,  308. 

May,  Edith  (Mrs.  Drinker),  395. 

Mayer,  A.  M.,  308,  309,  316-318. 

Mayhew,  Jonathan,  Opposition  of,  to  Episcopal  Tyr 
anny,  31,  32;  Opposition  to  Calvinism,  366,  367. 

M'Closkey,  Cardinal,  483. 

M'Cormick's  Reaping-machine,  *47,  48. 

M'Dowell,  Ephraim,  422. 

M'Entee,  Jervis,  412. 

Mechanical  Progress,  36,  39-146: —Printing-press,  36; 
Cotton-mills,  and  Exportation  of  English  Machin 
ery  prohibited,  40;  Newcomen  Engine,  and  Watt's 
Engine,  41;  The  Factory  System,  Richard  Ark- 
wright,  and  Cotton-machinery,  42;  Agricultural  Im 
plements,  43-50;  Steam-engines,  50-60;  Cotton 
Manufacture,  60-68;  Iron,  68-79;  Engineering,  80- 
SS ;  Wood-working,  88-92 ;  Elevators,  92,  93  ;  Do 
mestic  Machinery,  93-97;  Fire-arms  and  Ordnance, 
97-100;  Telegraphs,  100,  102;  Electroplating,  102, 
103  ;  Electric  Light,  103, 104  ;  Fire-engines  and  Fire- 
alarms,  104,  105;  Atmospheric  Railways,  105,  106; 
Balloons,  106,  107;  Weighing-machines,  107;  Gas, 
107,  108;  Silver,  108;  Ice,  108,  109;  Sugar,  109,  110; 
Porcelain,  110  ;  Glass,  111,  112;  Paper,  112, 113;  In 
dia  Rubber,  113,  114;  Meteorological  Instruments, 
114,  115;  Anaesthetics  and  Artificial  Limbs,  115; 
Aquaria  and  Lucifer-matches,  115,  116;  Musical  In 
struments,  116,  117;  Printing,  117-120;  Type,  120- 
124;  Stereotyping,  124-126;  Electrotyping,  120-128; 
Printing-press,  128,  135;  Folding -machines,  135; 


INDEX. 


501 


Addressing -machines,  135,  136;  Printing  for  the 
Blind,  136 ;  EngraYing,  136,  137 ;  Lithography,  137- 
140 ;  Photography,  140-142  ;  Photolithography,  142- 
144;  Miscellaneous  Photo -processes,  144,145;  Pho 
to-micrography,  145, 146. 

Mechanics'  Lien  Laws,  449,  450. 

Medal,  Lalande,  presented  to  Mr.  A.  Clark,  299. 

Medical  and  Sanitary  Progress,  416^33:— Colleges  and 
Education,  417;  Societies,  417,  418;  Literature  and 
Journalism,  418-420;  Writings  of  Benjamin  Rush, 
418  ;  Edward  Jenner  and  Vaccination,  420,  421 ;  Pro 
fessor  Benjamin  Waterhouse  and  Dr.  Valentine 
Seaman,  421 ;  R.  T.  H.  Laennec's  Discovery  of  Aus 
cultation,  421 ;  Wunderlich's  Improvements  in  the 
Thermometer,  421,  422;  Operation  in  Ovariotomy, 
performed  by  Ephraim  M'Dowell  and  others,  422; 
Important  Surgical  Operations  by  John  Hunter, 
Stevens  in  Santa  Cruz,  Atkinson  iu  England,  S. 
Pomeroy  White,  Valentine  Mott,  Sir  Astley  Cooper, 
Reuben  Dimond  Mnssey,  Wright  Post,  A.  W.  Smyth, 
and  William  Beaumont,  423,  424 ;  Application  of 
Anaesthesia  by  Sir  James  Young  Simpson,  Horace 
Wells,  C.  T.  Jackson,  and  John  C.  Morton,  425,  42C  ; 
Improvements  in  Surgery  by  Nathan  Smith,  W.  W. 
Reid,  Gurdon  Buck,  H.  I.  Bowditch,  Daniel  Brain- 
ard,  John  C.  Warren,  George  Hay  ward,  Henry  I. 
Bigelow,  James  R.  Wood,  J.  Marion  Sims,  James  P. 
White,  T.  G.  Thomas,  James  Jackson,  John  Ware, 
George  B.  Wood,  J.  R.  Mitchell,  Elisha  Bartlett, 
Alonzo  Clark,  Daniel  Drake,  and  Jacob  Bigelow, 
427,  428;  The  Lobelia,  or  Indian  Tobacco,  introduced 
by  Rev.  Dr.  Cutter,  and  Outline's  Discovery  of  Chlo 
roform,  428 ;  Important  Contributions  to  Materia 
Medico,  by  Dr.  Stearns,  John  C.  Dalton,  S.  Weir 
Mitchell,  Brown-Sequard,  Guthrie,  and  Austin  Flint, 
Jnn.,  428,  429;  Changes  in  Practice,  Anticipations, 
Progress  of  Medicine,  and  Prevention  of  Disease, 
429-433. 

Medical  Colleges  and  Education,  416 ;  Societies,  417, 
418;  Literature,  418-420. 

Meikle's,  Andrew,  Threshing-machine,  *49,  52. 

Meuzies's  Threshing-machine,  52. 

Meteorological  Instruments,  114, 115. 

Meteorology,  314-316. 

Meteors,  311-314. 

Methodism,  477,  482. 

Michaelius,  Rev.  Jonas,  481. 

Micrometer  Gauge,  The,  79. 

Micro-photographic  Apparatus,  Woodward's,  *145. 

Microscope,  The,  323,  324. 

Migration,  Interstate,  236 ;  Map  Illustrating,  235. 

Miller,  Joaquiu,  389. 

Mineralogy,  341,  342. 

Mineral  Resources,  Development  of,  185-199  :— Deposits 
of  Coal,  185 -189;  Petroleum,  Mineral  Oil,  189-192; 
Iron,  192-195;  Copper,  and  Copper  Mines,  195-197  ; 
Gold  and  Silver,  197-199. 

Minerals,  Discovery  of,  28. 

Mitchell,  Donald  G.,393. 

Mitchell,  J.  R.,  428. 

Mitchell,  Maria,  299,  300. 

Mitchell,  Samuel  P.,  184. 

Mitchell,  S.  Weir,  428,  429. 

Monetary  Development,  238  -  260 :—  Barter  Currency, 
Coinage  and  Paper  Bills,  238,  239 ;  Bills  of  Exchange, 
240  ;  Taxation  imposed,  The  Treasury  Department, 
National  Bank  established,  and  Coinage,  241;  Bank 
ruptcy  Law  passed,  242  ;  War  Debt  of  1812,  243 ;  Liq 
uidation  under  Difficulties,  1S19-1S23,  245;  Reform 
of  the  Government  under  Andrew  Jackson,  246 ; 
Bank  rechartered,  247,  248  ;  Financial  Crisis  in  1836, 


249;  "Bills  Receivable,"  250;  Suspension  of  the 
Banks  in  1839,  251 ;  Comparative  Bank  Statements, 
252;  Indiana  Currency,  Discovery  of  Gold  in  Cali 
fornia,  253 ;  Panic  in  1857,  254 ;  Morrill  Tariff  and 
the  Situation  in  1861,  255;  Stamps  used  as  Currency, 
Fractional  Currency,  and  National  Bank  Act  of  Feb 
ruary  25,  1863,  256 ;  Congressional  Restrictions  on 
the  Currency,  and  Tea  and  Coffee  Duties  Repealed, 
257 ;  Hepworth  v.  Griswold  case  decided,  "  Black 
Friday"  and  Failure  of  Jay  Cooke,  &  Co.,  268; 
Panic  of  1873,  258,  259 ;  Suspension  of  the  Union 
Trust  Company,  Of  Paper  Payments  by  the  Banks, 
and  the  Outlook,  259. 

Moody  and  Sankey  Revival,  488. 

Moran,  Peter,  414. 

Moran,  Thomas,  414. 

Moravians,  The,  232. 

Morrill  Tariff,  255. 

Morris,  George  P.,  395. 

Morse,  S.  F.  B.,  Telegraphic  Inventions  by,  *102  ;  Por 
trait,  408  ;  Sketch  of,  300,  409. 

Morton,  John  C.,  426. 

Motley,  John  Lothrop,  383. 

Mott,  Valentine,  423. 

Moulding-machine,  *90. 

Moulton,  Mrs.  L.  C.,  396. 

Mount,  S.,  413. 

Mountains,  Rocky,  185. 

Mule-spinner,  *65. 

Musical  Instruments,  116, 117. 

Mussey,  Reubeii  Dimoud,  423. 


Nasby,  Petroleum  V.  (D.  R.  Locke),  390. 

Nasmyth's  Steam-hamrner,  *72. 

Nast,  Thomas,  414. 

National  Growth,  226,  227. 

Natural  Sciences,  The,  First  Steps  in,  337,  338 ;  Socie 
ties  and  Local  Development,  338,  339  ;  General  Ex 
plorations,  339,  340 ;  Mineralogy,  341,  342 ;  Botany, 
342,  343;  Zoology,  343-346;  Paleontology,  346,  347; 
Geology,  347,  348. 

Nautical  Chronometers,  Transportation  of,  301. 

"  Navigation  Act  "  of  1650, 157. 

Neale,  Thomas,  229. 

Neptune,  Theory  of,  by  Kowalski,  304;  by  Newcomb, 
305. 

New  Amsterdam,  Settlement  formed,  called,  215. 

Newbold's  Plow,  45. 

Newcomb's  Ephemerides  and  Theory  of  Neptune,  304, 
305. 

Newcomen,  Steam-engine  of,  *40,  51. 

New  England,  Democracy  in,  20 ;  Dutch  in  Albany,  20, 
21  ;  Character  of  the  Clergy  of,  31 ;  Schools  in,  281 ; 
Revival  of  Spiritual  Sentiment,  366. 

New  Hampshire,  Settlement  in,  215. 

New  Haven,  Settlement  in,  215. 

New  Jersey,  Princeton  College,  23  ;  Formation  of  the 
Colony  of,  216. 

New  Mexico,  Annexation  of,  213. 

Newspapers  first  printed  in  America  in  1704,  36. 

Newton,  Gilbert  Stuart,  409. 

Newton's  Scientific  Researches,  311-314. 

New  York,  East  River  Bridge,  Caisson  at,  *81. 

New  York,  Imperfect  Agriculture  in,  18  ;  Aristocratic 
and  Religious  Tendencies  of,  Condition  of,  iu  1774, 
33  ;  Schools  of,  281 ;  Common-school  System  in,  282- 
284  ;  Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  402 ;  National  Academy 
of  Design,  403 ;  Fulton  Street  Prayer-meeting,  488. 

Niles,  H.,  244,  245. 

Nobert,  F.  A.,  319-321. 


502 


INDEX. 


Normal  Schools,  Establishment  of,  285. 
Norton,  Andrews,  36T,  368. 
Norton,  Charles  E.,  397. 
Norton,  John  P.,  184. 
Novelists,  Early,  357,  358. 
Nullification,  Doctrine  of,  267. 

O. 

Ogle's  Reaping-machine,  47,  48. 
Oil,  Mineral,  189-192. 
Olmsted,  Professor,  311-314. 
Optics,  Science  of,  31S,  319. 
Ordnance  and  Fire-arms,  97-100. 
Organic  Chemistry,  331,  332. 
Organs,  116, 117. 

Osborne's  Copying  Camera,  *143. 
Osgood,  Prances  S.,395. 
Ossoli,  Margaret  Fuller,  398, 
Otis,  James,  33. 
Ovariotomy,  422. 

P. 

Pacific  Coast  Settlements,  228,  229. 

Page,  William,  410. 

Paine,  R.T.,Juu. ,356,  357. 

Paine,  Thomas,  on  Separation  from  England,  23 ;  As 
sailant  of  the  Orthodox  Faith,  359. 

Painting  and  Painters :— Portrait,  406, 407  ;  Genre,  410, 
411 ;  Historical,  411 ;  Landscape,  412. 

Paleontology,  346,  347. 

Palfrey,  John  G.,  382. 

Palmer,  Erastus  Dow,  414. 

Panic  of  1857,  254 ;  of  1873,  258,  259. 

Papacy,  Dangers  from  the  Increase  of,  275. 

Paper  and  Paper-making  Machinery,  112, 113;  Manu 
facture,  153;  Making,  169;  Currency,  238,  239;  Pay 
ments  suspended  by  the  Banks,  259. 

Park,  Edward  A.,  397. 

Parker,  Theodore,  371,  372. 

Parkman,  Francis,  382. 

Parsons,  T.  W.,  395. 

Patent-office,  Washington,  *39. 

Patents  since  16SO,  42,  443,  444. 

Paulding,  James  K.,  365,  366. 

Payne,  John  Howard,  395. 

Peacock's  Plow,  45. 

Peale,  Charles  Wilson,  408. 

Peale,  Rembrandt,  Portrait  of,  405 ;  Sketch  of,  409. 

Peck,  Jedediah,  282,  283. 

Peirce,  Benjamin,  297. 

Penalties,  Severity  of,  460,  461. 

Penn,  William,  36. 

Pennsylvania,  Conservative  Government  in,  23;  Col 
onization  of,  217. 

Percival,  James  G.,  378,  379. 

Perkins's,  Jacob,  Nail-cutting  Machine,  and  Coin-die, 
40. 

Perkins's  Transferring  Plant,  *77. 

Perronet's  Chapelets  (Chain -pumps),  at  Orleans, 
France,  84. 

Perry,  E.  W.,  413. 

Peters's  Scientific  Discoveries,  300. 

Petroleum,  189-192. 

Phelps,  E.  S.,  394. 

Philadelphia,  Academy  of  Art,  403,  404. 

Phlogiston,  Doctrine  of,  331. 

Phoenician  and  Egyptian  Writing,  *119. 

Phoenix,  John  (George  II.  Derby),  390. 

Photographic  Apparatus,  by  L.  M.  Rutherford,  302, 
303. 

Photography,  140-142.  321-323. 


Photo-lithography,  142-144. 

Photo-micrography,  145, 146 ;  Woodward's  Apparatus, 
•145. 

Photo  Processes  and  Discoveries,  144, 145. 

Physiological  Chemistry,  334. 

Pianos,  116, 117. 

Pickering's,  Timothy,  Plow,  45. 

Pictures,  Forgeries  of,  402. 

Pile-driving,  80. 

Pine,  Robert  E.,  408. 

"  Pine-tree  "  Coinage,  70. 

Planets,  Discovery  of  Minute,  300. 

Planing-machine,  75. 

Plow  aud  Hoe,  Origin  of,  *43. 

Plows,  Rude  Modern,*  American,  of  1776,  *44 ;  of  1785- 
1874,*  Howard  Wheel,  *45 ;  Fowler's  Steam,  *46. 

Plymouth  Colony,  Formation  of,  214. 

Poe,  Edgar  Allan,  379. 

Poems,  Individual,  395,  396. 

Poets,  Early,  355-357. 

Political  Growth,  Historic  Causes  of,  260,  261;  Re 
form,  Need  of,  277,  278. 

Population,  Growth  and  Distribution  of  (with  five 
Maps),  211-237:  — Acquisition  of  Territory  (with 
Map),  212 ;  Louisiana,  213  ;  Florida,  Texas,  and  New 
Mexico,  213;  Settlement  in  1607-1660,  and  Forma 
tion  of  Virginia,  Maryland,  Plymouth,  and  Salem, 
214 ;  New  Hampshire,  Maine,  Rhode  Island,  Con 
necticut,  New  Haven,  New  Amsterdam,  and  Long 
Island,  215 ;  Settlement  in  1660-16S8,  and  Forma 
tion  of  Delaware,  New  Jersey,  and  the  Carolinas, 
216 ;  Settlement  in  1688-1754,  217,  218-221 ;  Forma 
tion  of  Pennsylvania,  Georgia,  Tennessee,  Ken 
tucky,  and  Michigan,  219 ;  Progress  of  Settlement 
in  the  United  States,  East  of  100th  Meridian  (with 
Map),  221 ;  Settlement  in  1754-1790,  Westward  Emi 
gration,  220,  221 ;  Settlement  in  1790-1S70,  and  the 
First  Census  taken,  221,  222;  Extension  of  Settle 
ment  since  1790 ;  Segregation  of  the  Colonies,  222, 
223 ;  Centre  of  Population  and  Growth  of  Cities, 
224,  225 ;  The  Arithmetical  and  Geographical  Prog 
ress  of  the  National  Growth  (with  Map),  226,  227 ; 
Pacific  Coast  Settlement,  228 ;  The  Post-oflice,  229, 
230 ;  Constituents  of  our  Population,  231 ;  Our  For 
eign  Elements,  231-236  ;  Interstate  Migration  (with 
Map),  235,  236 ;  Density  of  Population  in  1870  (with 
Map),  236,  237. 

Population  of  the  States  at  the  Formation  of  the  Re 
public,  19;  Increase  of  the,  160;  Constituents  of  our, 
231-236 ;  Religious,  484. 

Porcelain,  110. 

Portrait-painting,  406-412. 

Portsmouth,  215. 

Post-office,  The,  229,  230. 

Post,  Wright,  423. 

Postage  and  Revenue  Stamps,  77. 

Powers,  Hiram,  Portrait  of,  411 ;  The  "Greek  Slave," 
402 ;  Sketch  of,  413,  414. 

Prairie  Produce,  206. 

Prayer-meeting,  Fulton  Street,  New  York,  488. 

Presbyterians,  The,  482. 

Prescott,  William  H.,  382,  383. 

Press,  Power  of  the,  290. 

Preston,  Mrs.  M.  J.,  396. 

Priestley,  Robert,  294,  295. 

Princeton  College,  23,  37. 

Printing  first  introduced  in  America,  36;  Types  and 
Presses,  117-135  ;*  for  the  Blind,  136 ;  Chronograph, 
300,  301. 

Prisons,  Management  of  Criminals  in,  454,  455  ;  Over 
crowded,  45G-458  ;  County,  461 ;  Reform  in,  401-463  ; 


INDEX. 


503 


Religions  Instruction  in,  4G3  ;  Secular  Teaching  and 
Libraries  in,  464,  465 ;  Treatment  of  Unfortunate 
Children  in,  464,  465 ;  Review  of  the,  471,  472. 

Product*,  Exchanges  of,  Causing  the  National 
Strength,  205. 

Prose-writers  displaying  more  Talent  than  Poets,  357. 

Prosperity,  Legal  Obstructions  to  our,  210. 

Protection  of  Animals,  450. 

Protestant  Denominations,  480-483. 

Puddling-machine,  *70. 

Pulping-engine,  *112. 

Pumpiug-engines,  83, 84 ;  Cornish,  •SI. 

Q- 

Quaker  Settlements,  The,  262. 
Quetelet's  Scientific  Researches,  311-314. 

Quincy,  Edmund,  334. 

R. 

Races  in  the  South,  Conflict  of,  269. 

Railways,  Introduction  of,  in  England,  1829,  68;  in 
America,  1S26,  59. 

Kmisome's  Plows,  45. 

Read,  T.  Buchanan,  395. 

Reaping  in  Gaul,  *47. 

Reaping-machines,  46-49;  Gladstone's,*  Bell's,  *48; 
The  "Champion,"  *49. 

Rebellion,  The,  and  its  Results,  268,  269. 

Redfleld,  W.  C.,  314-316. 

Reform  needed  in  Journalism,  276 ;  in  Politics,  276- 
278. 

Reformed  Procedure,  450, 451. 

Reid,  W.  W.,  427. 

Reidesel,  Baroness,  33. 

Reinhart,  Charles  S.,  415. 

Religion  —  Calvinism,  359;  Unitarian,  366-368.  See 
Denominations. 

Religious  Development,  473-492  : — Early  Religious  Sen 
timent,  Peter  Faneuil,  John  Laurens,  and  John  Wiii- 
throp,  474,475;  The  Revolutionary  Struggle,  Revo 
lution,  and  Politics,  476,  477  ;  Paul  Revere  and  Bish 
op  Madison,  477 ;  The  Methodists  and  Bishop  As- 
bury,  477 ;  Intemperance  and  the  large  Consumption 
of  Spirits,  478;  Ecclesiastical  Independence  com 
menced  in  Virginia  and  extended  to  the  other  Col 
onies,  478,  479 ;  Founding  of  various  Protestant  De 
nominations,  4SO-4S3  ;  Episcopal  Church  —  Captain 
John  Smith,  Rev.  John  Hunt,  and  Bishops  Seabnry, 
White,  and  Provoost,  480,  481 ;  Congregationalism- 
John  Robinson,  481 ;  Reformed  Dutch  Church — Rev. 
Jonas  Michaelius  and  Rev.  Dr.  J.  H.  Livingston, 
481 ;  The  Baptists  —  Roger  Williams,  481,  482 ;  The 
Lutherans— Rev.  Jacob  Fabricius,  482 ;  The  Presby 
terians — John  Rodgers,  482;  The  German  Reformed 
Church,  482  ;  The  Methodists— Bishop  Asbnry,  482  ; 
Roman  Catholicism  first  commenced  in  Maryland 
under  Lord  Baltimore  (Cfecilins  Calvert),  the  First 
Cardinal  being  Archbishop  M'Closkey,  483,  484 ;  De 
nominational  Statistics,  484,  485;  The  Freedmen's 
Bureau,  486;  Great  Revivals— Jonathan  Edwards, 
George  Whitefleld,  Samuel  Finley,  Dr.  Griffin,  Ful 
ton  Street  Prayer-meeting,  New  York,  and  Moody 
and  Sankey,  486-488;  Religions  Fraternization  in 
the  War,  488,  489 ;  Sanitary  Commission  under  the 
Supervision  of  the  Rev.  H.  W.  Bellows,  489 ;  Practi 
cal  Character  of  our  Religions  Development,  489, 
490 ;  Meeting  of  the  Evangelical  Alliance  in  New 
York  in  1873,  4S9 ;  Election  of  Dr.  Ware  to  a  Pro 
fessorship  in  Harvard  University,  489  ;  Unitarian 
Controversy,  489,  490 ;  Reactionary  Elements,  The 
Roman  Catholics,  Temperance  Reform,  and  the  In 
terchange  of  Evangelistic  Efforts,  490-492. 


Religions  Sects  in  North  and  South,  20 ;  Feeling  of 
Jonathan  Edwards,  349,  350 ;  Statistics,  484,  485. 

"  Resolutions  of  '98,"  354,  355. 

Revere,  Paul,  Portrait  of,  399  ;  Sketch  of,  414,  47T. 

Revivals,  Great,  486-488. 

Revolution,  True  Cause  of  the,  156-159;  Progress 
since,  159-171 ;  Results  of  the,  266. 

Revolutionary  Struggle,  476,  477. 

Rhode  Island  in  1775,  Democracy  in,  22 ;  Colony  of, 
215. 

Rice,  Production  of,  24 ;  as  a  Barter  Medium,  239. 

Rittenhouse,  David,  294. 

Rives,  William  C.,  384. 

Robinson,  John,  481. 

Rocky  Mountains,  185. 

Rodgers,  John,  482. 

Rogers,  John,  414. 

Rogers,  Randolph.  414. 

Rogers,  W.  B.,  316-318. 

Rolling-mill  for  Iron  Bars,  71. 

Roman  Catholics,  Statistics  of,  490,  491. 

Rood,  O.  N.,  Professor,  319-321. 

"Rotherham"  Plow,  The,  44. 

Rowson,  Susanna,  357,  353. 

Ruling-machine,  137. 

Rush,  Benjamin,  418. 

S. 

Salem,  Massachusetts  Bay,  Colony  of,  214. 

Sargent,  Epes,  395. 

Saturn,  Satellites  of,  298;  Rings  of,  299;  Memoir  on, 
by  Professor  B.  Peirce  and  J.  C.  Maxwell,  307. 

Saws,  Circular,  *89  ;  Baud,  *90. 

Saxe,  John  G.,  396. 

Saxtou's  Scientific  Instruments,  300  ;  Researches,  324- 
331. 

Schiaparelli's  Scientific  Researches,  311-314. 

Schools  of  New  England  and  New  York,  281 ;  Estab 
lishment  of  Normal,  285. 

Sciences,  The  Natural,  First  Steps  in,  337,  338 ;  Socie 
ties  and  Local  Development,  338,  339  ;  General  Ex 
plorations,  339,  340 ;  Mineralogy,  341,  342  ;  Botany, 
342,  343  ;  Zoology,  343-346  ;  Paleontology,  346,  347  ; 
Geology,  347,  348. 

Scientific  Progress,  294-348 : — The  Exact  Sciences  and 
Activity  of  David  Rittenhouse,  294 ;  Robert  Priestley 
and  Benjamin  Thompson,  294, 295 ;  Transit  of  Venus 
Expedition,  295  ;  Encouragement  of  Science  by  the 
Government  and  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  295, 
296 ;  Wilkes's  Exploring  Expedition,  The  Lynch 
Dead  Sea  Exploration,  Gillis's  Solar  Parallax  Ex 
pedition,  295,  296 ;  Nathaniel  Bowditch's  Comment 
ary  on  the  Mecanique  Celeste  of  Laplace,  Professor 
Benjamin  Peirce's  Publications,  The  Algebra  of 
Professor  Theodore  Strong,  The  Memoir  on  "  Music 
al  Temperament,"  by  Professor  A.  M.  Fisher,  The 
Essay  of  Professor  Fisher  on  the  "  Calculus  of  Vari 
ations,"  Professor  Patterson's  "Calculus  of  Opera 
tions,"  Professor  Newton's  Memoirs  on  Questions 
of  High  Geometry,  General  Alvord's  "Tangencies 
of  Circles  and  Spheres,''  Professor  Ferrel's  "Con 
verging  Series,"  General  Barnard's  "Theory  of  the 
Gyroscope "  and  "  Problems  in  Rotary  Motion," 
297;  Astronomical  Science,  297-314— Sir  William 
Herschel's  and  Mr.  Lassell's  Astronomical  Discov 
eries,  298  ;  Telescope  of  the  Cambridge  Observatory 
Mounted,  and  Discovery  of  the  Eighth  Satellite  of 
Saturn  by  the  Messrs.  Bond,  which  received  the 
name  of  Hyperion,  298 ;  Saturn's  Rings  noticed  by 
Messrs.  Bond,  Dawes,  Lassell,  Galle,  Father  Secchi, 
Otto  Strnve,  J.  Capini,  and  Halley,  and  the  Discoy- 
ery  of  Sirins,  299 ;  Completion  of  Alvan  Clark's 


504 


INDEX. 


Great  Telescope,  and  Award  of  the  Lalande  Medal, 
299;  Discovery  of  Comets  by  W.  C.  Bond,  Maria 
Mitchell,  and  Mr.  Tuttle,  299,  300  ;  Discovery  of  Mi 
nute  Planets  by  American  Observers  and  Detection 
of  Asteroids  by  Messrs.  James  Ferguson,  Searle, 
Tuttle,  Watson,  and  Peters,  300;  Practical  Astrono 
my,  The  Automatic  Registration  of  Time  Observa 
tions  by  Electro-magnetism  Discovered  by  Profess 
or  J.  Locke,  to  whom  were  awarded  Ten  Thousand 
Dollars,  300  ;  Telegraph  Instruments  by  Morse, 
Mitchell,  Saxton,  and  the  Messrs.  Bond,  300;  Print 
ing  Chronograph,  by  Professor  George  W.  Hough, 
300,  301 ;  Longitudinal  Determinations  and  Im 
provement  of  Instruments,  301 ;  Grinding  a  Metal 
Speculum,  Optical  Experiments,  by  Alvan  Clark, 
and  Appreciation  of  the  Same  by  W.  B.  Dawes,  300 
-302;  Rutherford's  Photographic  Apparatus,  302, 
303;  Scientific  Experiments,  by  Dr.  Henry  Draper, 
303,  304 ;  Detection  of  a  Planet  in  August,  1846,  Pro 
fessor  S.  C.  Walker's  Planetary  Theory  in  Febru 
ary,  1847,  Herschel's  Discovery  of  the  Planet  Ura 
nus,  Lacaille's  Histoire  Celeste,  and  a  Theory  of  Nep 
tune,  by  Kowalski,  304 ;  Newcomb  on  the  Epheme- 
rides,  304, 305 ;  Application  of  the  Principles  of  Grav 
itation  in  Astronomy  with  Reference  to  Inequali 
ties,  306,  307  ;  The  Saturniau  System  the  Subject  of 
Memoirs  by  Professors  B.  Peirce  and  J.  C.  Maxwell, 
and  the  Exposition  of  Certain  Harmonies  of  the 
Solar  System,  by  Professors  S.  Alexander  and  D. 
Kirkwood,  307,  308 ;  Solar  Physics,  Observations  by 
George,  Wilson,  Sir  W.  Herschel,  T.  De  la  Rue,  B. 
Stewart,  Messrs.  Loewy  and  Faye,  Father  Secchi, 
Professors  Loomis,  Hunt,  Laugley  Young,  and  A. 
M.  Mayer,  308,  309 ;  The  Chromosphere  discovered 
by  Professor  C.  A.  Young,  309  ;  Professor  A.  M.  May 
er's  Device  for  the  Study  of  the  Laws  of  the  Distri 
bution  of  Heat,  309;  Comets — Treated  by  Professors 
Alexander,  Loomis,  Norton,  Peirce,  and  Mr.  George 
P.  Bond,  309,  310  ;  Auroras  —  Studied  by  E.  C.  Her- 
rick,  Professors  Loomis  and  Lovering,  310  ;  Meteor 
ic  Astronomy  and  Comets  demonstrated  to  be  iden 
tical  by  Diogenes  of  Apollmria,  Professors  Olmsted, 
Newton,  Schiaparelli,  Hubbard,  Klinkerfues,  Weiss, 
W.  Wright,  and  Young,  and  Messrs.  E.  C.  Herrick, 
Quetelet,  Winnecke,  Bradley,  H.  B.  Tuttle,  and 
Adams,  311-314;  Meteorology— Opinions  held  by 
Drs.  Franklin,  Wells,  W.  C.  Redneld,  J.  P.  Espy, 
Professors  Loomis,  C.  Abbe,  and  Henry,  314- 
310;  Signal -office  Weather  Maps,  316;  Profess 
or  Tyndall's  Singing -tubes,  316;  Acoustics  —  In 
vestigations  by  Professors  Helmholtz,  W.  B.  Rog 
ers,  Henry  and  A.  M.  Mayer,  316-318;  Science  of 
Optics,  318,  319;  The  Spectrum —Observations  by 
Dr.  Wollaston,  Dr.  Draper,  Messrs.  L.  M.  Ruther- 
furd,  Lockyer,  F.  A.  Nobert,  Professor  O.  N.  Rood, 
and  Dr.  W.  Gibbs,  319-321;  Important  Discovery 
in  the  Distribution  of  Real  in  the  Spectrum  made 
by  Dr.  Draper,  321  ;  Photography  —  Discoveries 
by  Daguerre,  Draper,  Rutherfurd,  and  Professor 
Wheatstone,  321-323  ;  The  Stereoscope,  323  ;  Forms 
of  Apparatus  for  the  Artificial  Production  of  Cold, 
323  ;  The  Microscope  —  Discoveries  by  J.  J.  Lister, 
C.  S.  Spencer,  R.  B.  Tolles,  W.  Wales,  and  Profess 
ors  Bailey  and  H.  L.  Smith,  323,  324 ;  Electricity- 
Discoveries  in  Magnetism,  Voltaic  Induction,  Mag 
neto-electricity,  Induction  Coils,  Static  and  Thermo 
electricity,  by  Franklin,  Hare,  Daniell,  Arago,  Davy, 
Sturgeon,  Henry,  Morse,  Faraday,  Saxton,  Ritchie, 
Page,  Ruhmkorff,  Farmer,  and  Professor  Rood,  324- 
331;  Completion  of  the  Atlantic  Telegraph  under  the 
Presidency  of  Cyrus  W.  Field,  326;  Electro-magnet 


ism  as  a  Motive-power,  327  ;  Fire-alarms  and  Elec 
tro-magnetic  Clock  by  E.  S.  Ritchie,  327;  Magneto- 
electric  Machine  by  Joseph  Saxton  and  Dr.  Page, 
328 ;  Induction  Coils  by  Dr.  Page  and  Messrs.  Ruhm 
korff,  329,  330;  Chemistry  — Discoveries  by  Stahl, 
Lavoisier,  Black,  Cavendish,  Priestley,  Scheele, 
Wenzel,  Higgins,  Proust,  Richter,  Deville,  Shiel, 
Hare,  Clarke,  Silliman,  Guthrie,  Soubeiran,  Draper, 
Jackson,  Blake,  Gibbs,  Cooke,  and  Dr.  Smith,  331- 
336  ;  Organic  Chemistry,  331,  332 ;  Compound  Blow 
pipe,  332,  333;  Discovery  of  Chloroform  by  Soubei 
ran,  a  French  Chemist,  and  Dr.  Samuel  Guthrie, 
333  ;  Method  for  Determining  Carbon  in  Graphite, 
333  ;  Physiological  and  Applied  Chemistry,  334-336  ; 
Scientific  Investigations,  336,  337 :  The  Natural  Sci 
ences  and  their  First  Steps,  337,  338 ;  Scientific  So 
cieties  and  Local  Development,  338,  339 ;  General 
Explorations,  339,  340  ;  Mineralogy,  341,  342 ;  Bot 
any,  342,  343  ;  Zoology,  343-346  ;  Paleontology,  346, 
347;  Geology,  347, 348. 

Scotch-Irish  populating  Virginia,  21. 

Screw-propeller,  Invention  of  the,  54. 

Sculpture  and  Sculptors,  413,  414. 

Seaman,  Valentine,  421. 

Searles's  Scientific  Discoveries,  300. 

Sears,  E.  H.,  395. 

Secchi,  Father,  299,  308,  309. 

Sectarian  Contest  in  Public  Schools,  284. 

Sectarianism  discarded  by  the  Founders  of  the  Ameri 
can  Republic,  17. 

Sects.    See  Denominations. 

Sedgwick,  Catharine  M.,  393. 

Settlement  East  of  the  100th  Meridian,  Map  showing 
the  Progress  of,  221. 

Sewing-machines,  93-96  ;  Singer's,  *95. 

Shaw,  H.  W.  (Josh  Billings),  390. 

Sherman,  General  W.  T.,  384,  385. 

Shillaber,  B.  P.,  390. 

Ship-building,  Introduction  of,  25,  39. 

Shooting-stars,  311-314. 

Short,  William,  221. 

Signal-office  Weather  Maps,  316. 

Silk,  Culture  of,  150. 

Silver  and  its  Processes,  108, 197-199. 

Simms,  William  G.,  394. 

Simpson,  Sir  James  Young,  425. 

Sims,  J.  Marion,  427. 

Singer's  Sewing-machine,  *95. 

Slater,  Samuel,  and  his  Manufactures,  164, 105. 

Slavery,  Introduction  of,  21,  264  ;  Traffic  in,  26 ;  Aboli 
tion  of,  268. 

Small's  Plow,  *45. 

Smith,  Captain  John,  219,  480,  481. 

Smith,  Nathan,  427. 

Smith,  Pearsall,  492. 

Smith,  William,  32. 

Smith's,  Aaron,  Plow,  45. 

Smith's,  Adam,  Treatise  on  the  Wealth  of  Nations,  200. 

Smithsonian  Institution,  Organization  of,  295,  296. 

Smybert,  John,  400. 

Smyth,  A.  W.,  424. 

Snyder,  Governor,  243. 

Solar  Camera,  *141,  142;  System,  Exposition  of  cer 
tain  Harmonies  of  the,  307,  30S,-  Physics,  308,  309. 

Soubeiran's  Scientific  Researches,  333. 

South,  Education  in  the,  288. 

Spading-machines,  46. 

Spalding,  Archbishop,  483. 

Sparks,  Jared,  381. 

Spectrum,  The,  319-321. 

Speculum,  Grinding  a  Metal,  301. 


INDEX. 


505 


Spencer,  Herbert,  393. 

Spinning-machinery,  61-66  ;  Wheel,  *62. 

Spofford,  Harriet  Prescott,  394. 

Spottiswoode,  Lieutenant-goveruor,  219. 

Sprague,  Charles,  376, 3TT. 

Sprengel,  Kurt,  179. 

Staigg,  Richard  M.,  410. 

Stamps  used  as  Currency,  256. 

"  Stanhope  "  Printing-press,  *12S. 

Stars,  Shooting,  311-314. 

States,  Commerce  between  the,  203;  Migration  be 
tween,  236. 

Statutes,  Revised,  and  Code?,  451. 

Steam-engine  and  its  Applications,  Newcomen's  En 
gine,  *40, 51;  Watt's  Engine,  *41 ;  Cornish  Pumping- 
engine,  *51,  52. 

Steam-hammers,  *72. 

Steam -navigation,  Steamboats,  52-54;  Steamships, 
*54,  55 ;  Locomotives,  *55-60. 

Steam-plows,  *46. 

Steam-pumps,  83. 

Steamship  City  of  Peking,  *154. 

Stearns,  Dr.,  428. 

Stebbins,  Emma,  414. 

Stedman,  Edmund  Clarence,  396. 

Steel,  Cast,  Invention  of,  74, 169. 

Stephenson's  Locomotive,  *58. 

Stereoscope,  The-,  323. 

Stereotyping,  *124-126. 

Stetefcldt's  Roasting  Furnace,  108. 

Stethoscope,  421. 

Stevens,  Mr.,  256. 

Stewart,  B.,  308,309. 

Stiles,  Dr.,  484. 

Stirling's  Threshing-machine,  52. 

Stock,  Importation  of  Live,  181-183. 

Stoddard,  Richard  Henry,  395. 

Stone,  Oliver,  410. 

Story,  W.  W.,  395,  414. 

Stowe,  Harriet  Beecher,  393. 

Street,  A.  B.,  395. 

Strong,  Theodore,  297. 

Struve,  Otto,  299. 

Stuart,  Gilbert  Charles,  Portrait,  401;  Biographical 
Sketch  of,  409. 

Stuyvesant,  P.,  35. 

Suffolk  Bank  System  Organized,  246. 

Suffrage,  Universal,  273,  274. 

Sugar,  109, 110  ;  Modern  Process  of  Making,  »110. 

Sully,  Thomas,  Portrait  of,  407  ;  Sketch  of,  410. 

Sumner,  Charles,  387,  388. 

Surgery,  Improvements  in,  427,  428. 

Swedish  Settlements  along  the  Delaware,  20. 

Symington's,  Charlotte  Dundas,  Steamboat,  *53. 

T. 

Taney,  R.  B.,  247,  248. 
Tariff  Compromise  effected,  267. 
Taylor,  Bayard,  379,  380. 
Taylor's  Machine  Gun,  *99. 
Tea  and  Coffee  Duties  Repealed,  257. 
Telegraphs,  *100-102 ;  Atlantic  Telegraph  Completed, 

326. 

Telescopes,  78 ;  Alvan  Clark's,  299. 
Temperance  Reform,  492. 
Tennessee   Attacked    by  Indians,  19 ;   Founded   by 

James  Robertson,  219. 
Terhnne,  Mrs.  (Marian  Ilarlnnd),  394. 
Territory,  Acquisition  of  (with  Map),  212. 
"Thanatopsis,"  a  Poem,  by  W.  C.  Bryant,  361. 


Thaxter,  Celia,  396. 

Theological  Writers,  Early,  358-359  ;  Literature,  397. 

Theology,  Calvinistic,  359. 

Thermo-electricity,  331. 

Thermometer,  421,  422. 

"Thirteen," The  Immortal,  218. 

Thomas,  T.  G.,  427. 

Thompson,  Benjamin,  294,  295. 

Thompson,  1. aunt.  111. 

Thorean,  Henry  D.,  389. 

Threshing-machines,  *49,  50. 

Ticknor,  George,  385. 

Timrod,  Henry,  396. 

Tobacco,  Growth  of,  24  ;  Cultivation  of,  180. 

Transportation,  205;  of  Nautical  Chronometers,  301. 

Treasury  Department  Established,  241. 

Trevethick  and  Vivian's  Locomotives,  *55. 

Trowbridge,  J.  T.,  395. 

Trumbull,  Colonel  John,  Portrait  of,  403 ;  Biograph 
ical  Sketch  of,  356,  410. 

Tuckerman,  Henry  T.,  396. 

Tull's,  Wheat  Drill,  176. 

Tunneling,  Mont  Cenis  and  Hoosac,  85. 

Turning-lathes,  75. 

Tattle's  Scientific  Discoveries,  299,  300. 

Twain,  Mark  (S.  L.  Clemens),  390. 

Tyndall's  Singing-tubes  and  Sensitive  Flames,  31C. 

Type  and  Type-founding,  etc.,  120,  *123;  Setting  and 
Distributing  Machine,  123, 124. 

U. 

Underwood,  F.  II.,  396. 

Union,  Colonial  Preparation  for  the,  264,  265. 

Union,  Experiment  of  the,  ivith  its  Preparation*,  260- 
278 :— Historic  Causes  of  Political  Growth,  260,  261 ; 
Quaker  Settlements,  Catholics  of  Maryland,  Dutch 
of  New  Netherlands,  and  the  Fortunate  Conditions 
of  the  Colonists,  262,  263  ;  Introduction  of  Slavery, 
and  Colonial  Preparations  for  the  Union,  264,  265; 
The  Revolution  and  its  Results,  and  Rev.  E.  A.  Free 
man  on  Federal  Governments,  266 ;  The  Doctrine  of 
Nullification  and  Tariff  Compromise,  267 ;  The  Re 
bellion  and  its  Results,  268,  269;  Abolition  of  Slav 
ery,  268 ;  Conflict  of  Races  in  the  South,  2C9 ;  The 
Strength  of  the  Executive,  270-272;  The  Danger  of 
Consolidation,  and  Universal  Suffrage,  273,  274; 
Danger  from  the  Influx  of  Catholics,  and  Financial 
Perils,  275,  276 ;  Greater  Personal  Integrity  needed 
in  Congress,  and  Reform  in  Journalism,  276;  Need 
of  Political  Reform,  276,  277  ;  Expectations  for  the 
Future,  278. 

Union  Trust  Company,  Suspension  of,  259. 

Unitariauism,  Controversy  on,  489,  490. 

V. 

Vaccination,  Discovery  of,  420,  421. 

Vanderlyn,  John,  410. 

Vansittart,  Mr.,  257. 

Varley,  Henry,  492. 

Vedder,  Elihu,  413. 

Verrugas  Viaduct,  in  the  Andes  of  Pern,  86. 

Very,  Jones,  3!)6. 

"Victory,"  Hoe's  great  Printing-press,  *135. 

Virginia,  Class  Feeling  in,  17  ;  A  Great  Wilderness,  19  ; 
Loyalty  to  the  Stuarts,  20;  Illiteracy  in  the  Colony, 
20;  Slavery  first  introduced  in,  and  the  Opposition 
to,  21 ;  Establishment  of  Episcopacy,  21 ;  Settlement 
at  Jamestown,  150,  214.' 

Vivian's  Locomotive,  *55. 

Voltaic  Induction,  328,  329. 


506 


INDEX. 


W. 

Walker,  8.  C.,  304. 

Walsh,  Robert,  483. 

Walter's  Perfecting  Press,  *132, 143. 

Wampum  used  as  Money,  29,  238. 

War  of  1812,  and  its  Results,  166, 167  ;  Debt,  243. 

War  of  the  Rebellion,  Christian  Religious  Fraternity 
during  the,  488,  489. 

Ward,  Artemus  (C.  F.  Browne),  390. 

Ward,  J.  Q.A.,414. 

Ware,  Dr.,  489. 

Ware,  John,  423. 

Ware,  William,  393. 

Warner,  Charles  Dudley,  391. 

Warren,  John  C.,  42T. 

Washing-machines,  97. 

Washington,  George,  35 ;  First  Message  to  Congress, 
161. 

"Washington,"  No.  1,  Steam  Fire-engine,  *105. 

Washington,  Patent  Office  at,  *39. 

"  Washington  "  Printing  Press,  The,  *129. 

Watch-making,  77,  78. 

Water-color  Society,  405,  406. 

Waterhouse,  Benjamin,  421. 

Water  Supply  in  London,  52;  Current-wheel  at  Lon 
don  Bridge,  1731,  *S4. 

Watson,  John,  399. 

Watson's  Scientific  Discoveries,  300. 

Watt's  Mechanical  Inventions  to  the  Steam-engine, 
*41. 

Wayland,  Francis,  397. 

Wealth  of  Nations,  Adam  Smith's  Treatise  on  the,  200. 

Weaving  Machinery,  66,  67. 

Webster,  Daniel,  256,  386,  387. 

Weighing-machines,  107. 

Weiss,  Professor,  311-314. 

Wells,  86. 

Wells,  Dr.,  314-316. 

Wells,  Horace,  426. 

West,  Benjamin,  Portrait  of,  401 ;  Biography  of,  406, 
407. 

Westward  Emigration,  219,  220. 

Whale-fishery  established,  25. 

Wheatstone,  Professor,  321-323. 

White,  Edwin,  413. 

White,  James  P.,  427. 


White,  Richard  Grant,  396. 

White,  S.  Pomeroy,  4'23. 

Whiteneld,  George,  487. 

Whitman,  Walt,  389. 

Whitney,  A.  D.  T.,  394. 

Whitney's  Cotton-gin,  40,  *60. 

Whittemore's  Card-sticking  Machine,  40. 

Whittier,  John  Greeuleaf,  373,  374. 

Whittredge,  Worthiugtou,  412. 

Wilde,  R.  H.,  395. 

Wilkes's  Exploring  Expedition  of  1838,  295. 

Willard  Asylum,  The,  470. 

William  and  Mary's  College,  37. 

Williams,  Roger,  215,  481,  482. 

Willis,  Nathaniel  Parker,  377,  378. 

Wilson,  Augusta  Evans,  394. 

Wilson,  Forceythe,  395. 

Wilson,  G.,  308,  309. 

Winuecke's  Scientific  Researches,  311-314. 

Winthrop,  John,  474,  475. 

Winthrop,  Theodore,  394. 

Witherspoon,  Dr.,  37. 

Wolcott,  Oliver,  233. 

Wollastou,  Dr.,  319-321. 

Wollaston's  Portrait-painting,  407. 

Women,  Rights  of  Married,  448,  449. 

Wood,  George  B.,  428. 

Wood,  J.,  413,  427. 

Wood's,  Jethro,  Plow,  *45. 

Woodman,  John,  267. 

Woodville,  R.  C.,  413. 

Woodward's  Photo-micrographic  Apparatus,  *145. 

Wood-working,  8S-*92. 

Woodworth,  Samuel,  395. 

Woolen  Manufactures,  170. 

Woolf,  Michael,  415. 

Worth,  Thomas,  415. 

Wright,  W.,  311-314. 

Wust,  T.,  415. 

Y. 

Yale  College,  37. 

Young's  Scientific  Researches,  308-314. 


Zoology,  343-346. 


T11E  END. 


STANDARD  HISTORICAL  WORKS, 

PUBLISHED  BY  HARPER  &  BROTHERS,  NEW  YORK. 


HARPER  &  BROTHERS  will  send  any  of  the  following  books  by  mail  or  express 
postage  or  freight  prepaid,  to  any  part  of  the  United  States  or  Canada,  on  receipt 
of  the  price. 

For  a  full  list  of  works  of  a  historical  character,  published  by  HARPER  &  BROTH 
ERS,  see  HARPER'S  NEW  AND  ENLARGED  CATALOGUE,  300  pp.  8vo,  with  a  COMPLETE 
ANALYTICAL  INDEX,  sent  by  mail  on  receipt  of  Ten  Cents. 


ALISON'S  HISTORY  OP  EUROPE.  History  of  Europe.  FIRST  SERIES:  from  the 
Commencement  of  the  French  Revolution,  in  178!),  to  the  Restoration  of  the 
Bourbons  in  1S15.  In  addition  to  the  Notes  on  Chapter  LXXVL,  which  correct 
the  errors  of  the  original  work  concerning  the  United  States,  a  copious  Analyt 
ical  Index  has  been  appended  to  this  American  Edition.  SF.OOND  SERIES:  from 
the  Fall  of  Napoleon,  m  1815,  to  the  Accession  of  Louis  Napoleon,  in  ISM.  By 
Sir  ARCHIBALD  ALISON.  8  vols.,  Svo,  Cloth,  $16  00 ;  Sheep,  $20  00 ;  Half  Calf, 
$34  00. 

ALISON'S  LIFE  OF  MARLBOROUGH.  Military  Life  of  John,  Duke  of  Marlbor- 
ough.  With  Maps.  By  Sir  ARCHIBALD  ALISON.  12mo,  Cloth,  $1  75. 

ABBOTT'S  FREDERICK  THE  GREAT.  The  History  of  Frederick  the  Second, 
called  Frederick  the  Great.  By  JOHN  S.  C.  ABBOTT.  Elegantly  Illustrated. 
Svo,  Cloth,  $5  00  ;  Half  Calf,  $7  25. 

ABBOTT'S  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  The  French  Revolution  of  1789,  as  viewed 
in  the  Ligb'.  of  Republican  Institutions.  By  JOHN  S.  C.  ABBOTT.  100  Illustra 
tions.  Svo,  Cloth,  $5  00 ;  Sheep,  $5  50 ;  Half  Calf,  $7  25. 

ABBOTT'S  NAPOLEON  BONAPARTE.  The  History  of  Napoleon  Bonaparte. 
By  JOHN  S.  C.  ABBOTT.  With  Maps,  Illustrations,  and  Portraits  on  Steel.  2  vols., 
Svo,  Cloth,  $10  00 ;  Sheep,  $11  00 ;  Half  Calf,  $14  50. 

ABBOTT'S  NAPOLEON  AT  ST.  HELENA.  Napoleon  at  St.  Helena;  or,  Interest 
ing  Anecdotes  and  Remarkable  Conversations  of  the  Emperor  during  the  Five 
and  a  Half  Years  of  his  Captivity.  Collected  from  the  Memorials  of  Las  Casas, 
O'Meara,  Montholon,  Antommarchi,  and  others.  By  JOHN  S.C.  ABBOTT.  Illus 
trations.  Svo,  Cloth,  $5  00 ;  Sheep,  $5  50 ;  Half  Calf,  $7  25. 

BACON'S  GENESIS  OF  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  CHURCHES.  The  Genesis  of 
the  New  England  Churches.  By  the  Rev.  LEONARD  BACON,  D.D.  With  Illus 
trations.  Crown  Svo,  Cloth,  $2  50. 

BRODHEAD'S  HISTORY  OF  NEW  YORK.     History  of  the  State  of  New  York. 
By  JOHN  ROMEYN  BRODHBAD.     2  vols.  published.     Vol.  I.,  1609-1664:  Vol.  II 
1664-1691.    Svo,  Cloth,  $3  00  each. 

CARLYLE'S  OLIVER  CROMWELL.  Letters  and  Speeches  of  Oliver  Cromwell, 
including  the  Supplement  to  the  First  Edition.  With  Elucidations'.  By  THOMAS 
CAHI.YLK.  2  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth,  $3  SO ;  Sheep,  $4  30 ;  Half  Calf,  $7  00.  ' 

CARLYLE'S  FREDERICK  THE  GREAT.  History  of  Friedrich  II.,  called  Fred 
erick  the  Great.  By  THOMAS  CARLYI.E.  Portraits,  Maps,  Plans,  <fcc.  6  vols., 
12mo,  Cloth,  $12  00 ;  Sheep,  $14  40 ;  Half  Calf,  $22  50. 

CARLYLE'S  FRENCH  REVOLUTION.  History  of  the  French  Revolution.  By 
THOMAS  CARI.YLK.  2  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth,  $3  50  ;  Sheep,  $4  30;  Half  Calf,  $7  00.  ' 

DRAPER'S  INTELLECTUAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  EUROPE.    A  History  of  the 
Intellectual  Development  of  Europe.    By  JOHN  W.  DRAPKK,  M.D.,  LL.D.    2  vols 
12m o,  Cloth,  $3  00;  Half  Calf,  $6  50. 

DRAPER'S  AMERICAN  CIVIL  WAR.  History  of  the  American  Civil  War.  By 
JOHN  W.  DRAPER,  M.D.,  LL.D.  In  Three  Vols.  Cloth,  Beveled  Edges,  $10  50; 
Sheep,  $12  00  :  Half  Calf,  $17  25. 

GIBBON'S  ROME.  History  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire.  By 
EDWARI>  GIBBON.  With  Notes,  by  Rev.  H.  H.  MII.MAN  and  M.  GUIZOT.  To  which 
is  added  a  complete  Index  of  the  whole  Work.  6  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth,  $6  00-  'jheep, 
$840;  Half  Calf,  $16  50. 


2  Harper  6°  Brothers'  Standard  Historical  Works. 

GIESELKR'S  ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY.  A  Text-Book  of  Church  History.  By 
Dr.  JOHN  C.  L.  GIF.SELER.  Translated  from  the  Fourth  Revised  German  Edition. 
By  SAMUEL  DAVIDSON,  LL.D.,  and  Rev.  JOHN  WINSTANI.F.Y  HCLI.,  M.A.  A  new 
American  Edition,  Revised  and  Edited  by  Rev.  HENRY  B.  SMITH,  D.D.,  Professor 
in  the  Union  Theological  Seminary,  New  York.  Four  Volumes,  Svo,  Ready.  (Vol. 
V.  in  Preparation.)  Price  per  volume,  Cloth,  $2  25 ;  Sheep,  $2  75 ;  Half  Calf,  $4  50. 

GREEN'S  SHORT  HISTORY  OF  THE  ENGLISH  PEOPLE.  A  Short  History  of 
the  English  People.  By  J.  R.  GHF.KN,  M.A.,  Examiner  in  the  School  of  Modem 
History,  Oxford.  With  Tables  and  Colored  Maps.  Svo,  Cloth,  $1  75. 

GROTE'S  HISTORY  OF  GREECE.  A  History  of  Greece,  from  the  Earliest  Period 
to  the  Close  of  the  Generation  Contemporary  with  Alexander  the  Great.  By 
GEOROE  GROTK.  12  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth,  $18  00  ;  Sheep,  $22  SO  ;  Half  Calf,  $39  00. 

HALLAM'S  WORKS: 

THE  MIDDLE  AGES.  View  of  the  State  of  Europe  during  the  Middle  Ages. 
By  HKNRY  HALLAM,  LL.D.,  F.R.A.S.  Svo,  Cloth,  $2  00  ;  Sheep,  $2  50. 

CONSTITUTIONAL  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  The  Constitutional  History 
of  England,  from  the  Accession  of  Henry  VII.  to  the  Death  of  George  II.  By 
HENRY  HAI.LAM,  LL.D.,  F.R.A.S.  Svo,  Cloth,  $2  00;  Sheep,  $2  50. 

LITERATURE  OF  EUROPE.  Introduction  to  the  Literature  of  Europe,  in 
the  Fifteenth,  Sixteenth,  and  Seventeenth  Centuries.  By  HENRY  HALLAM, 
LL.D.,  F.R.A.S.  2  vols.,  Svo,  Cloth,  $4  00;  Sheep,  $5  00. 

STUDENT'S  MIDDLE  AGES.  View  of  the  State  of  Europe  during  the  Middle 
Ages.  By  HKNUY  HAI.T.AM,  LL.D.,  F.R.A.S.  Incorporating  in  the  Text  the 
Author's  Latest  Researches,  with  Additions  from  Recent  Writers,  and  Adapt 
ed  to  the  Use  of  Students.  Edited  by  WILLIAM  SMITU,  D.C.L.,LL.D.  12mo, 
Cloth,  $2  00. 

STUDENT'S  CONSTITUTIONAL  HISTORY.  The  Constitutional  History  of 
England,  from  the  Accession  of  Henry  VII.  to  the  Death  of  George  II.  By 
HENRY  HAI.LAM,  LL.D.,  F.R.A.S.  Incorporating  the  Author's  Latest  Addi 
tions  and  Corrections,  and  Adapted  to  the  Use  of  Students.  Edited  by  WIL 
LIAM  SMITH,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.  12mo,  Cloth,  $2  00. 

HAYDN'S  DICTIONARY  OF  DATES.  Haydn's  Dictionary  of  Dates,  relating  to 
all  Ages  and  Nations.  For  Universal  Reference.  Kdited  by  BENJAMIN  VIN 
CENT,  Assistant  Secretary  and  Keeper  of  the  Library  of  the  Royal  Institution  of 
Great  Britain  ;  and  Revised  for  the  Use  of  American  Readers.  Svo,  Cloth,  $5  00  • 
Sheep,  $0  00 ;  Half  Calf,  $7  25. 

HELPS'S  SPANISH  CONQUEST.  The  Spanish  Conquest  in  America,  and  its  Rela 
tion  to  the  History  of  Slavery,  and  to  the  Government  of  Colonies.  By  ARTHUR 
HEI.I-S.  4  vols.,  large  12mo,  Cloth,  $1  50  each  ;  Half  Calf,  $3  25  each. 

IIILDRETH'S  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES.  The  History  of  the  United 
States.  FIRST  SERIES:  From  the  First  Settlement  Of  the  Country  to  the  Adop 
tion  of  the  Federal  Constitution.  SECOND  SERIKS:  From  the  Adoption  of  the 
Federal  Constitution  to  the  End  of  the  Sixteenth  Congress.  By  RICHAKD 
HILDRETH.  6  vols.,  Svo,  Cloth,  $18  00 ;  Sheep,  $'21  00 ;  Half  Calf,  $31  50. 

HUME'S  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  History  of  England,  from  the  Invasion  of 
Julius  Cassar  to  the  Abdication  of  James  II.,16SS.  By  DAVID  HUME.  With  the 
Author's  Last  Corrections  and  Improvements.  To  which  is  prefixed  a  short 
Account,  of  his  Life,  written  by  himself.  0  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth,  $6  00;  Sheep, 
$8  40;  Half  Calf,  $16  50. 

KINGLAKE'S  CRIMEAN  WAR.  The  Invasion  of  the  Crimea:  its  Origin,  and  an 
Account  of  its  Progress  down  to  the  Death  of  Lord  Raglan.  By  ALEXANDER 
WILLIAM  KINOLAKE.  With  Maps  and  Plans.  Three  Volumes  now  read3'.  12mo, 
Cloth,  $2  00  per  vol. ;  Half  Calf,  $3  75  per  vol. 

LEWIS'S  HISTORY  OF  GERMANY.  A  History  of  Germany,  from  the  Earliest 
Times.  Founded  on  Dr.  DAVID  MULLEK'S  "History  of  the  German  People." 
By  CHARLTON  T.  LEWIS.  With  Illustrations.  Crown  8vo,  Cloth,  $2  50. 

MACAULAY'S  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  The  History  of  England  from  the  Acces 
sion  of  James  II.  By  Lord  MAOAUI.AY.  In  Five  Volumes.— A  handsome  Octavo 
Library  Edition,  complete.  With  elaborate  Index,  of  indispensable  value  to  a 
Library  Edition.  Cloth,  $10  00;  Sheep,  $12  50;  Half  Calf,  $21  25.— A  popular 
Duodecimo  Edition,  complete.  With  elaborate  Index.  Cloth,  $500;  Sheep. 
$7  00 ;  Half  Calf,  $13  75. 


Harper  &•  Brothers'  Standard  Historical  Works.  3 

LOSSING'S  FIELD-BOOK  OF  THE  REVOLUTION.  Pictorial  Field-Book  of  the 
Revolution  ;  or,  Illustrations  by  Pen  and  Pencil  of  the  History,  Biography,  Scen 
ery,  Relics,  and  Traditions  of  the  War  for  Independence.  By  BENSON  J.  LOSSINO. 
2  vols.,Svo,  Cloth,  $1400;  Sheep,  $15  00;  Half  Calf,  $18  00. 


iOSSING'S  FIELD-BOOK  OF  THE  WAR  OF  1812.     Pictorial  Field-Book  of  the 


pages,  large  8vo.     Price,  in  Cloth,  $7  00;  Sheep,  $S  50;  Full  Roan,  $9  00;  Half 
Calf  or  Half  Morocco  extra,  $10  00. 

MACKINTOSH'S  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND.  A  History  of  England  to  the  Seven 
teenth  Century.  By  Sir  JAMES  MACKINTOSH.  3  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth,  $3  00. 

MOSHEIM'S  ECCLESIASTICAL  HISTORY.  Ancient  and  Modern  Ecclesiastical 
History,  in  which  the  Rise,  Progress,  and  Variation  of  Church  Power  are  con 
sidered  in  their  Connection  with  the  State  of  Learning  and  Philosophy,  and  the 
Political  History  of  Europe  during  that  Period.  Translated,  with  Notes,  &c.,  by 
A.  MAOLAINK,  D.D.  A  new  Edition,  continued  to  1S26,  by  C.  COOTK,  LL  D.  2 
vols.,  Svo,  Cloth,  $4  00 ;  Sheep,  $5  00. 

MOTLEY'S  DUTCH  REPUBLIC.  The  Rise  of  the  Dutch  Republic.  A  History. 
By  JOHN  LOTIIBOP  MOTLEY,  LL.D.,  D.C.L.  With  a  Portrait  of  William  of  Orange. 
3  vols.,  Svo,  Cloth,  $10  50  ;  Sheep,  $12  00  ;  Half  Calf,  Extra,  $IT  25. 

MOTLEY'S  UNITED  NETHERLANDS.  History  of  the  United  Netherlands:  from 
the  Death  of  William  the  Silent  to  the  Twelve  Years'  Truce.  With  a  full  View 
of  the  English-Dutch  Struggle  against  Spain,  and  of  the  Origin  and  Destruction 
of  the  Spanish  Armada.  By  JOHN  LOTIIKOP  MOTLEY,  LL.D.,  D.C.L.  Portraits  4 
vols.,  Svo,  Cloth,  $14  00;  Sheep,  $16  00;  Half  Calf,  Extra,  $23  00. 

MOTLEY'S  LIFE  AND  DEATH  OF  JOHN  OF  BARNEVELD.  Life  and  Death  of 
John  of  Barneveld,  Advocate  of  Holland.  With  a  View  of  the  Primary  Causes 
and  Movements  of  "  The  Thirty- Years'  War."  By  JOHN  LOTIIKOP  MoTi.Kv,D.C.L. 
With  Illustrations.  2  vols.,  Svo,  Cloth,  $7  00 ;  Sheep,  $8  00 ;  Half  Calf,  $11  50. 

NEAL'S  HISTORY  OF  THE  PURITANS.  History  of  the  Puritans,  or  Protestant 
Non-conformists;  from  the  Reformation  in  1518  to  the  Revolution  in  16SS;  com 
prising  an  Account  of  their  Principles,  Sufferings,  and  the  Lives  and  Characters 
of  their  most  considerable  Divines.  By  DANIKL  NKAT.,  M.A.  With  Notes  by 
J.  O.  CIIOULES,  D.D.  2  vols.,  Svo,  Cloth,  $4  00 ;  Sheep,  $5  00 ;  Half  Calf,  $8  25. 

RAWLINSON'S  MANUAL  OF  ANCIENT  HISTORY.  A  Manual  of  Ancient  His 
tory,  from  the  Earliest  Times  to  the  Fall  of  the  Western  Empire.  Comprising 
the  History  of  Chaldaea,  Assyria,  Media,  Babylonia,  Lydia,  Phoenicia,  Syria,  Judaea, 
Egypt,  Carthage,  Persia,  Greece,  Macedonia,  Parthin,  and  Rome.  "By  GEORGE 
RAWMNSON,  M.A.,  Camden  Professor  of  Ancient  History  in  the  University  of 
Oxford.  12mo,  Cloth,  $2  50. 

ROBERTSON'S  WORKS: 

AMERICA.  History  of  the  Discovery  of  America.  By  WILLIAM  ROBERTSON, 
LL.D.  With  an  Account  of  his  Life  and  Writings.  With  Questions  for  the 
Examination  of  Students,  by  JOHN  FUOST,  A.M.  Illustrations.  Svo,  Cloth, 
$2  25 ;  Sheep,  $2  75 ;  Half  Caff,  $4  50. 

CHARLES  V.  History  of  the  Emperor  Charles  V. ;  with  n  View  of  the  Progress 
of  Society  in  Europe  to  the  Beginning  of  the  Sixteenth  Century.  By  WILLIAM 
ROBERTSON,  LL.D.  With  Questions  for  the  Examination  of  Students,  by  JOHN 
FROST,  A.M.  Illustrations.  Svo,  Cloth,  $2  25  ;  Sheep,  $2  75 ;  Half  Calf,  $4  50. 

SCOTLAND  AND  ANCIENT  INDIA.  A  History  of  Scotland  during  the  Reigns 
of  Queen  Mary  and  James  VI.,  till  his  Accession  to  the  Crown  of  England. 
Writh  a  Review  of  the  Scottish  History  previous  to  that  Period.  Included  in 
the  same  Volume  is  a  Dissertation  concerning  Ancient  India.  By  WILLIAM 
ROHKRTSON,  LL.D.  Svo,  Cloth,  $2  25 ;  Sheep,  $2  75 ;  Half  Calf,  $4  50. 

SMILES'S  HISTORY  OF  THE  HUGUENOTS.  The  Huguenots;  their  Settlements, 
Churches,  and  Industries  in  England  and  Ireland.  By  SAMITKL  Sun. KB,  Author 
of  "Self-Help,"  "Character,"  "Thrift,"  "Life  of  the  "Stephensons,"  &c.  With 
an  Appendix  relating  to  the  Huguenots  in  America.  Crown  Svo,  Cloth,  $2  00. 

SMILES'S  HUGUENOTS  AFTER  THE  REVOCATION.  The  Hu<ruenots  in  France 
after  the  Revocation  of  the  Edict  of  Nantes :  with  a  Visit  to  the  Country  of  the 
Vaudois.  By  SAMUEL  SMILES.  Crowu  Svo,  Cloth,  $2  00. 


4          Harper  6"  Brothers'  Standard  Historical  Works. 

STEPHEN'S  HISTORY  OF  FRANCE.    Lectures  on  the  History  of  France.    By  Sir 

JAMES  STEPHEN,  K.C.B.    Svo,  Cloth,  $3  00 ;  Half  Calf,  $5  25. 
STRICKLAND'S  QUEENS  OF  SCOTLAND.    Lives  of  the  Queens  of  Scotland  and 

English  Princesses  connected  with  the  Regal  Succession  of  Great  Britain.     By 

ASNKB  STRICKLAND.    Complete  in  8  vols.,  12mo,  Cloth,  $12  00 ;  Half  Calf,  $26  00. 
THE  STUDENT'S  SERIES.    With  Maps  and  Woodcuts. 

THE  STUDENT'S  OLD  TESTAMENT  HISTORY;  from  the  Creation  to  the 
Return  of  the  Jews  from  Captivity.  Edited  by  WILLIAM  SMITH,  LL.D.  12ruo, 
715  pages,  Cloth,  $2  00. 

THE  STUDENT'S  NEW  TESTAMENT  HISTORY.  With  an  Introduction, 
connecting  the  History  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments.  Edited  by  WILLIAM 
SMITH,  LL.D.  12mo,  780  pages,  Cloth,  $2  00. 

THE  STUDENT'S  ANCIENT  HISTORY  OF  THE  EAST;  from  the  Earliest 
Times  to  the  Conquest  of  Alexander  the  Great.  Including  Egypt,  Assyria, 
Babylonia,  Media,  Persia,  Asia  Minor,  and  Phoenicia.  By  PHILIP  SMITH,  B.A., 
Author  of  the  "  History  of  the  World."  12mo,  649  pages,  Cloth,  $2  00. 

THE  STUDENT'S  GREECE.  A  History  of  Greece,  from  the  Earliest  Time?  to 
the  Roman  Conquest.  With  Supplementary  Chapters  on  the  History  of  Lit 
erature  and 'Art.  By  WILLIAM  SMITH,  LL.D.  Revised,  with  an  Appendix,  by 
GKOBGB  W.  GREENE,  A.M.  12mo,  738  pages,  Cloth,  $2  00. 

THE  STUDENT'S  COX'S  GREECE.  A  General  History  of  Greece,  from  the 
Earliest  Period  to  the  Death  of  Alexander  the  Great.  \Vith  a  Sketch  of  the 
Subsequent  History  to  the  Present  Time.  By  GKOROE  W.  Cox,  M.A.  12mo, 
73T  pages,  Cloth,  $2  00. 

THE  STUDENT'S  ROME.  A  History  of  Rome,  from  the  Earliest  Times  to  the 
Establishment  of  the  Empire.  With  Chapters  on  the  History  of  Literature  and 
Art.  By  H.  G.  LIDDELL,  D.D.,  Dean,  of  Christ  Church,  Oxford.  12mo,  77S  pages, 
Cloth,  $2  00. 

THE  STUDENT'S  MERIVALE'S  ROME.  A  General  History  of  Rome,  from 
the  Foundation  of  the  City  to  the  Fall  of  Augustulus.  B.C.  753— A. D.  476.  By 
CHARLES  MERIVALE.  D.D.,  Dean  of  Ely.  12mo,  700  pages,  Cloth,  $2  00. 

THE  STUDENT'S  GIBBON.  The  History  of  the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman 
Empire.  By  EDWARD  GIBBON.  Abridged.  Incorporating  the  Researches  (if  Re 
cent  Commentators.  By  WILLIAM  SMITH,  LL.D.  12mo,  705  pages,  Cloth,  $2  00. 

THE  STUDENT'S  FRANCE.  A  History  of  France,  from  the  Earliest  Times  to 
the  Establishment  of  the  Second  Empire  in  1S52.  By  Rev.  W.  H.  JERVIS,  M.A. 
12mo,  742  pages,  Cloth,  $2  00. 

THE  STUDENT'S  HUME.  A  History  of  England,  from  the  Earliest  Times  to 
the  Revolution  in  16SS.  By  DAVID  HUME.  Abridged.  Incorporating  the  Cor 
rections  and  Researches  of  Recent  Historians,  and  continued  down  to  the 
Year  1858.  12mo,  805  pages,  Cloth,  $2  00. 

THE  STUDENT'S  STRICKLAND.  Lives  of  the  Queens  of  England,  from  the 
Norman  Conquest.  By  AONKS  STRICKLAND.  Author  of  "Lives  of  the  Queens 
of  Scotland."  Abridged  by  the  Author.  Revised  and  Edited  by  CAROLINE  G. 
PABKEB.  12mo,  681  pages,  Cloth,  $2  00. 

THE  STUDENT'S  HALLAM'S  CONSTITUTIONAL  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 
The  Constitutional  History  of  England,  from  the  Accession  of  Henry  VII.  to 
the  Death  of  George  IT.  By  HENUY  HALLAM,  LL.D.,  F.R.A.S.  Incorporating 
the  Author's  Latest  Additions  and  Corrections,  and  adapted  to  the  Use  of  Stu 
dents.  By  WILLIAM  SMITH,  D.C.L.,  LL.D.  12tno,  747  pages,  Cloth,  $2  00. 

THE  STUDENT'S  HALLAM'S  MIDDLE  AGES.  View  of  the  State  of  Europe 
during  the  Middle  Ages.  Bv  HENRY  HALLAM,  LL.D.,  F.R.A.S.  Incorpora 
ting  in  the  Text  the  Author's  Latest  Researches,  with  Additions  from  Recent 
Writers,  and  adapted  to  the  Use  of  Students.  Edited  by  WILLIAM  SMITH, 
D.C.L.,  LL.D.  12mo,  708  pages,  Cloth,  $2  00. 
THIRLWALL'S  GREECE.  History  of  Greece.  By  Rev.  CONNOP  TUIKLWALL,  D.D. 

2  vols.,  Svo,  Cloth,  $4  00  ;  Sheep,  $5  00  ;  Half  Calf,  $8  50. 

TICKNOR'S  HISTORY  OF  SPANISH  LITERATURE.    History  of  Spanish  Litera 
ture.    With  Criticisms  on  the  particular  Works,  and  Biographical  Notices  of 

Prominent  Writers.    By  GEORGE  TICKNOR.    3  vols.,  8w>,  Cloth,  $5  00;  Half  Calf, 

$11  75. 

WHITE'S  MASSACRE  OF  ST.  BARTHOLOMEW.     The  Massacre  of  St.  Bartholo 
mew:  Preceded  by  a  History  of  the  Religious  Wars  in  the  Reign  of  Charles  IX. 

By  HENRY  WHITE,  M.A.    With  Illustrations.    Svo,  Cloth,  $1  75. 


UNIVERsm  %sr IA 

from  which 


This  book 


REC'D  LD 


JUL19J966     0 


REC'D  LD 

JIJL 1 2 1960 
?« 


lo"6/si        AUG20 1937 
^•'-"°*v«(AWMifai/.i>  0  J937      . 


BOOMfcJiSn 


M104380      E 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


